Documentary Edge Festival Celebrates Festival Awards

Documentary Edge Festival Celebrates Illustrious Festival Awards!

As the Auckland Season comes to a close and with the Wellington Season about to kick off, Documentary Edge Festival is pleased to announce and celebrate the successful award winners of this year’s festival at the 2015 Festival Awards. Among the successful winners, the clear stand out in the New Zealand award categories was Christopher Dudman’s The Day That Changed My Life, documenting the Christchurch earthquake.

With its final Auckland screening Saturday 30th May and prior to its screenings in Wellington, where the Festival continues from June 3rd, Dudman not only picked upBest New Zealand Director but also Best New Zealand Feature, and Best New Zealand Editing. The judges noted that although there has been a lot of coverage of the Christchurch earthquakes, saying, “The film surprised us all, revealing fresh truths and painful realisations.”

Best International Feature was awarded to Hannah Polak’s Something Better To Come, a film which follows the lives of Russian teenagers living in the world’s largest garbage dump, as they navigate growing up and their aspirations for the future.Something Better To Come was praised for its insightful and mammoth ten year filming effort. Jurors said, “The film opened an intimate window into a world that we rarely know about. The story does not flinch from exposing the protagonist family in all their human frailty, which is ultimately uplifting.”

Each year the Festival honours an international leader in the documentary industry for his or her work. Chris McDonald, President of Hot Docs Toronto, joins previous honorees including acclaimed filmmaker Steve James and Ally Derks of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam, the largest international documentary festival in the world.

The Documentary Edge International Superhero Award recognises Chris’ work in the Film and Documentary community. Chris was appointed Executive Director of Hot Docs in 1998 after being Development Director for the Canadian Film Centre for five years. Chris has worked tirelessly to create awareness for and promote Documentary all over the globe making and continues to do so from his position as President of Hot Docs. He is an inspiration, growing Hot Docs from humble beginnings into a festival attracting more than 200,000 audiences.

“We are tremendously lucky and grateful to have the support of a visionary leader. Chris McDonald has generously provided us with his sage advice to enable us to grow under his tutelage,” says Alex Lee and Dan Shanan, co-directors of Documentary Edge Festival.

Full winners from the ceremony as below:

Best International Feature – Something Better to Come
Best International Short – Tashi and the Monk
- Special Mention – The Queen
Best International Director – Ben Patterson (Sweet Micky For President)
- Special Mention – Lyric Cabral and David Sutcliffe ((T)error))
Best New Zealand Feature – The Day That Changed My Life
- Special Mention – A Place to Call Home
Best New Zealand Short – Our Hope
- Special Mention – The Secret World of Tim
Best New Zealand Director – Christopher Dudman (The Day That Changed My Life)
Best New Zealand Cinematography – Speechless: A Polar Realm
Best New Zealand Editing – The Day That Changed My Life
Best New Zealand Emerging Filmmaker – Tony Forester (An Accidental Berliner)
Documentary Edge International Superhero Award – Chris McDonald (Hot Docs, Toronto)

For Images of the Winning Films see:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sk745cekxfmtgde/AADBA1p2ENdN67YRvNXRIA-Fa?dl=0

For more information and to keep up to speed with the latest news regarding the 2015 season, visit
www.documentaryedge.org.nz

ENDS

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