Awards

Discover the films in competition for each of Sheffield DocFest's prestigious annual awards categories, from the Official Selection to the Audience Award.

International Competition - Jury

Ike Nnaebue
A highly celebrated Nigerian Filmmaker. Ike’s new film No U-Turn received a Special Mention Award at Berlin International Festival - Berlinale 2022.

Raymond Phathanavirangoon
A producer who co-founded SEAFIC and was programmer/consultant for festivals such as Cannes Critics’ Week, Hong Kong and Toronto International Film Festivals.

Emma Davie
Emma Davie’s feature documentaries include The Oil Machine, Becoming Animal and I am Breathing. She is a lecturer at ECA and member of the Academy.

From left to right: Ike Nnaebue, Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Emma Davie

International First Feature Competition - Jury

Natasha Gadd
Natasha Gadd is the CEO/Creative Director of the Australian International Documentary Conference, the premier nonfiction event in the Southern Hemisphere supporting documentary and factual storytelling.

Nainita Desai
Desai is a multi-award winning composer who has scored hundreds of acclaimed documentaries including recently For Sama, The Reason I Jump and Netflix hit 14.

Roman Bondarchuk
Roman is a award-winning film director who has produced films for festivals and television throughout the world. Among his best-known films are Ukrainian Sheriffs, Euromaidan: Rough Cut and Volcano.

From left to right: Natasha Gadd, Nainita Desai, Roman Bondarchuk.

International Short Competition - Jury

Zeynep Güzel
Filmmaker (Come Rain or Shine, 2019), consultant, producer and the former Head of the Yeni Film Fund, Turkey’s first private documentary fund, established in 2015.

Cherish Oteka
Cherish Oteka is a BAFTA Award winning filmmaker who is passionate about telling universal stories through the lens of underrepresented communities.

Saskia Wilson FHEA
Saskia Wilson is course leader in Film and TV Production at Sheffield Hallam University, exec producer at Diaspora Media Hub and has worked extensively as a producer in Factual for broadcast TV.

From left to right: Zeynep Güzel, Cherish Oteka, Saskia Wilson FHEA

Time Hetherington Award - Jury

Akuol De Mabior
Akuol de Mabior is a South Sudanese filmmaker based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has directed one feature-length film and four shorts.

Philippe Sands
Philippe Sands QC is Professor of Law at UCL and Harvard, an author and barrister. He appears as counsel before the ICJ and is an international arbitrator.

Elena Cosentino
Elena worked in the world's hotspots as a journalist and filmmaker for 20 years. Now she runs INSI, helping the news media keep journalists safe.

From left to right: Akuol De Mabior, Philippe Sands, Elena Cosentino.

Alternate Realities Competition - Jury

Dr Rob Eagle
A digital artist, Research Fellow at the BFI and XR Stories and an Associate Lecturer in immersive media at UWE Bristol.

Shehani Fernando.
An award-winning immersive producer whose work includes ‘The Waiting Room VR’ which won IDFA’s Digital Storytelling award, and director of the roomscale experience, ‘Extraordinary People, Extraordinary Places’ for ScanLAB Project, she also leads workshops at StoryFutures Academy and presents their podcast.

Irini Papadimitirou
Creative Director at FutureEverything, who was previously Digital Programmes Manager at V&A and is co-founder of Maker Assembly, co-curator for the Arts & Culture experience at Mozilla Festival, and an Advisory Board member for ONX Studio.

Youth Jury

This award is presented by five of the UK’s most passionate young documentary lovers to celebrate non-fiction cinema and is supported by Warner Bros. Discovery. The Youth Jury was previously announced as Emma Morgan-Bennett, Esme Haddrill Selman, Hannah Jackson, Mie Murasa and Xaymaca Awoyungbo who have curated a selection of seven films that will be considered in a mentored deliberation.

Find out more about the Youth Jurors

From left to right: Emma Morgan-Bennett, Esme Haddrill Selman, Hannah Jackson, Mie Murasa, Xaymaca Awoyungbo.