|
London, UK - 3 May 2013 - The tenth annual FOCAL International Awards in association with AP Archive took place last night at The Lancaster London Hotel, honouring producers, filmmakers and other creative professionals who have used library footage in a documentary, feature film or any other form of production. Television history presenter Dan Snow, recently returned from covering the conflict in Syria, hosted the tenth gala ceremony.
Achievement was recognized across 18 production categories, with subject matter spanning decades and criss-crossing the globe. The winning filmmakers unearthed a stunning array of footage to illustrate their unique visions, and wove the archival material into their films with great skill and to often surprising effect.
 "Pictures are at the heart of what we do, not an adjunct, a necessary evil that shouldn't interfere too much with the brilliance of the producers pen," said Dan Snow. "By using archive we are saluting our predecessors, keeping their work alive, recycling excellence."
Opening the sparkling ceremony, Sue Malden, Chair, FOCAL International, applauded the FOCAL organising team and awards jurors for dealing with a record-setting 224 submissions from 18 countries for this year's awards, and gave special mention to the supporting sponsors and all who took part in the competition.
"Of course our thanks must go to FOCAL's Julie Lewis, Anne Johnson and Amanda Dantas who work tirelessly on the Awards throughout the year," said Malden in her opening remarks. "Plus Susan Huxley who researched the titles to get in a record-setting 224 submissions from 18 countries. We were thrilled with both the quantity and quality of this year's award submissions but it has made the task for our growing army of volunteer jurors both agonising and unenviable, so a big thank-you for your time and resilience."
"All the winning films deserve individual mention," said FOCAL's Julie Lewis. "That said, some of the standout projects at this year's awards included Crossfire Hurricane from Tremolo Productions, which truly captured the Rolling Stones unparalleled rock and roll journey; Julien Temple's London - The Modern Babylon; and Booker's Place, A Mississippi Story from Eyepatch Productions."
David Attenborough's remarkable impact on natural history television was evident with two awards bearing his name. There was an award for the BBC Studios and Post Production restoration of the landmark series Life on Earth and Trials of Life, whilst Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild picked up the award for "Best Use of Wildlife and Natural History Footage." Lord Attenborough wasn't able to attend the ceremony, but he sent along recorded messages congratulating the teams involved.
The "Best Researcher" award went to Miriam Walsh for her amazing work on London - The Modern Babylon. Ronny Temme was awarded for her work as an archivist at the EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Getty Images won the "Footage Library of the Year Award."
Paul Sargent, former Head Curator of the Imperial War Museum, received FOCAL International's Lifetime Achievement Award. For more than 30 years, Sargent has played a significant role in the British content industry, leading the commercial access team of the Imperial War Museums Film Archive. Paul also served on the FOCAL International Executive for many years and initiated several significant training programmes.
In addition to awards recognizing achievement in production, awards for restoration of the world's film and video archive heritage were presented. Earlier in the day at the What Is Restoration? Conference, supported by the British Film Institute (BFI), awards were given to The World Cinema Foundation for their support of global film restoration; to the film laboratory L'Immagine Ritrovata for their outstanding preservation work; and to those who worked on the sound restoration of Queen: Hungarian Rhapsody.  The highlight of the awards in this area of the industry was the special award made at the evening ceremony to Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures EVP for 'Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Film Restoration and Preservation'. He also picked up an award for the stunning restoration of David Lean's classic Lawrence of Arabia.
The full list of winners in each category are shown below and photos of the night will be here as soon as we can load them!
Best Use of Footage in a History Production
Sponsored by BBC Motion Gallery
- The Secret Life of Rubbish - Lambent Films (UK)
Best Use of Footage in a Current Affairs Production
Sponsored by ITN Source
- Ukraine - From Democracy to Chaos - Les Films Grain de Sable (France)
Best Use of Footage in a Factual Production
Sponsored by FremantleMedia Archive
- Booker's Place, A Mississippi Story - Eyepatch Productions (USA)
Best Use of Footage in an Entertainment Production
Sponsored by Broadcast Tech
- The Great British Workout - BBC (UK)
Best Use of Footage in an Arts Production
Sponsored by The Bridgeman Art Library
- Finding the Footprints - A Look Back at Mise Eire - Colm Bairead Ltd / Midas Productions (Ireland)
Best Use of Footage in a Production featuring Music
Sponsored by Getty Images
- Crossfire Hurricane - Tremolo Productions (USA)
Best Use of Sports Footage
Sponsored by ITV Sport Archive
- Faster Higher Stronger, Stories of the Olympic Games - BBC Productions Bristol (UK)
Best Use of Footage in an Advert or Short Production
Sponsored by IMG Media Ltd
- Witness 20th Anniversary Video - Stalkr (UK/USA)
Best Use of Wildlife and Natural History Footage
Sponsored by Shutterstock
- Attenborough: 60 Years in the Wild - BBC Bristol (UK)
Best Use of Footage on Digital or non-Television Platforms
Sponsored by Clips & Footage
- From The Sea To The Land Beyond website - Crossover in association with BFI and Sheffield Doc/Fest, with British Sea Power and Illumina Digital, for The Space (UK)
Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release
Sponsored by Creative Skillset
- From Headlines to 'Tight-Lines' - The Story of ATV Today - ATVLAND.productions (UK)
Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release
Sponsored by British Pathé
- London - The Modern Babylon - Nitrate Films (UK)
Best Archive Restoration / Preservation Project
Sponsored by Phoenix by Digital Vision
- David Attenborough's Life on Earth and Trials of Life Series - BBC Worldwide/BBC Studios and Post Production (UK)
Best Archive Restoration / Preservation Title
Sponsored by BBC Studios and Post Production
- Lawrence of Arabia - Sony Pictures Entertainment (USA)
The Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award
Sponsored by AP Archive
- Miriam Walsh (UK) for London - The Modern Babylon
Footage Library Employee of the Year
Sponsored by Deluxe
- Ronny Temme (EYE Film Institute Netherlands)
Footage Library of the Year
Sponsored by Bonded Services Ltd
- Getty Images
Award for Lifetime Achievement
A gift of the FOCAL International Executive
- Paul Sargent
Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Film Restoration and Preservation
- Grover Crisp
For the Support of Global Film Restoration
- The World Cinema Foundation
Preservation Film Laboratory of the Year
- L'Immagine Ritrovata
Outstanding Sound Restoration Work
- Queen: Hungarian Rhapsody
A full list of all 224 submissions, synopses, and credits can be viewed on the FOCAL website www.focalint.org. Photos of the winners and the gala evening will be on the website soon.
__________________________________________________________
- ENDS -
ABOUT FOCAL INTERNATIONAL
The Federation of Commercial Audiovisual Libraries International is a professional not-for-profit trade association formed in 1985. It is fully established as one of the leading voices in the industry, with a membership of over 300 international companies and individuals.
Its purpose is to facilitate the use of library footage, images, stills and audio in all forms of media production; promote its members - libraries selling content plus those whose serve the industry; provide a platform for members to promote themselves and their interests; encourage good practise in the research, licensing, copyright clearance and use of footage; support, promote and educate on the need to preserve and restore footage and content; act as an information resource for the footage and content industry; offer training in key skills and in the broader appreciation of the footage and content industry.
www.focalint.org
|
Chatelin Bruno 
