STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN

The Audience Award winner for the 21st edition of Sheffield Doc/Fest is STILL THE ENEMY WITHIN directed by Owen Gower and produced by Sinead Kirwan and Mark Lacey. This archive-rich film looks back to Margaret Thatcher’s battle with the unions and specifically the 1984 miners strike. Told primarily from the retrospective of the mining communities the Doc/Fest screenings received a standing-ovation from Sheffield audiences and delegates. This World Premiere screening at Doc/Fest was one of a number of films at the festival that marked the 30th anniversary on 18th June of the so-called Battle of Orgreave.

 OUR CURSE

The Short Film audience award goes to OUR CURSE directed by Tomasz Sliwinski, produced by Maciej Slesicki, an intimate and moving self-portrait about a young couple whose newborn child has been diagnosed with Ondine’s curse meaning he must be attached to a ventilator when he sleeps. Our Curse also won the Student Doc Award.

The Interactive audience award goes ASSENT directed and produced by Oscar Raby which enables the user to witness the execution of a group of prisoners by the military regime in Chile in 1973, as witnessed by the filmmaker’s father.

This year’s first ever In The Dark Sheffield Audio Award, which recognises a new golden age of radio and audio documentary storytelling both in podcasting and traditional radio, was awarded to Pejk Malinovski’s EVERYTHING, NOTHING, HARVEY KEITEL about a man who struggles to meditate when he realises he’s sitting next to the actor Harvey Keitel.