The BAFTA Award for Best Documentary is a film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) at the British Academy Film Awards. It was formerly known as the Robert Flaherty Documentary Award.
In the following lists, the titles and names in bold with a gold background are the winners and recipients respectively; those not in bold are the nominees. The years given are those in which the films under consideration were released, not the year of the ceremony, which always takes place the following year.
History British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a British organisation that hosts annual awards shows for film, television, and video games (and formerly also for children's film and television). A theatrical documentary award was presented by the Academy between 1948 and 1990. Documentaries have continued to be honoured with British Academy Television Awards since then and have been eligible in all relevant categories at the Film Awards. In 2012, the Academy re-introduced this category in recognition of the number of high-quality theatrical documentaries released in cinemas in the UK each year.Documentary category added to Orange British Academy Film Awards , BAFTA.org. Retrieved March 13, 2012.
Winners and nominees
1940s Year Film Director Louisiana Story Robert J. Flaherty Farrebique Georges Rouquier Is Everybody Listening? Jackson Beck Shadow of the Ruhr Sergei Nolbandov Those Blasted Kids Astrid Henning-Jensen and Bjarne Henning-Jensen Three Dawns to Sydney John Eldridge Daybreak in Udi Terry Bishop Circulation The Cornish Engine Bill Mason and Philip Armitage Drug Addict Robert Anderson Island of the Lagoon (Isole Nella Laguna) Luciano Emmer and Enrico Gras The Liver Fluke in Great Britain John Shearman Report on the Refugee Problem
1950s Year Film Director The Undefeated Paul Dickson Inland Waterways R.K. Neilson-Baxter Kon-Tiki Thor Heyerdahl Green is the Mountain (La Montagne est Verte) Jean Lehérissey Seal Island James Algar The Vatican Hans M. Nieter Life Begins Tomorrow (La Vie Commence Demain) Nicole Védrès Beaver Valley James Algar Visit to Picasso (Bezoek aan Picasso) Paul Haesaerts David Paul Dickson A Family Affair Margaret Thomson Family Portrait Humphrey Jennings Oil for the Twentieth Century Peter Bradford Out of True Philip Leacock Royal Journey David Bairstow, Gudrun Parker and Roger Blais Fishermen of Negombo Highlights of Farnborough 1952 Peter De Normanville Journey into History John Taylor Le Mans 1952 Bill Mason Nature's Half Acre James Algar Ocean Terminal J.B. Holmes The Open Window Henri Storck Opera School Gudrun Parker Rig 20 David Villiers and Ronald H. Riley The Streamlined Pig Jørgen Roos The Conquest of Everest George Lowe White Mane (Crin Blanc) Albert Lamorisse Elizabeth is Queen Terry Ashwood Pictures of the Middle Ages (Images Medievales) William Novik Kumak, The Sleepy Hunter Alma Duncan Mille Miglia Bill Mason Operation Hurricane Ronald Stark A Queen Is Crowned Christopher Fry Teeth of the Wind Michael Hankinson Life in the Arctic (Vo l'dakh Okeana) Aleksandr Zguridi Water Birds Ben Sharpsteen World Without End Basil Wright and Paul Rotha The Great Adventure (Det Stora Äventyret) Arne Sucksdorff Back of Beyond John Heyer Lekko! Herman van der Horst 3-2-1-Zero Thursday's Children Guy Brenton and Lindsay Anderson The Vanishing Prairie James Algar Gold Colin Low Miner's Window John Ferno The Rival World Bert Haanstra On the Bowery Lionel Rogosin Foothold in Antarctica Derek Williams Generator 4 F. R. Crawley The Silent World (Le Monde Du Silence) Jacques Cousteau and Louis Malle Under the Same Sky Kurt Weber Journey into Spring Ralph Keene City of Gold Colin Low and Wolf Koenig Every Day Except Christmas Lindsay Anderson Holiday The USA in the Thirties Glass (Glas) Bert Haanstra The Forerunner John Heyer Jabulani Afrika Jamie Uys LS Lowry John Read Secrets of the Reef Murray Lerner, Lloyd Ritter and Robert M. Young Wonders of Chicago Harry Foster The Savage Eye Joseph Strick, Sidney Meyers and Ben Maddow This is the BBC Richard Cawston We Are the Lambeth Boys Karel Reisz White Wilderness James Algar
1960s Year Film Recipient(s) Not awarded Le Rendezvous du diable Haroun Tazieff Not awarded Nobody Waved Good-bye Don Owen The Human Dutch Bert Haanstra The Life of Billy Walker Portrait of Queenie Michael Orrom Tokyo Olympiad Kon Ichikawa Brute Force and Finesse Max Morgan-Witts Deckie Learner Michael Grigsby Stravinsky Roman Kroitor and Wolf Koenig Goal! The World Cup Abidine Dino and Ross Devenish Buster Keaton Rides Again John Spotton I'm Going to Ask You to Get Up Out of Your Seat Richard Cawston Matador Kevin Billington To Die in Madrid Frédéric Rossif Famine Jack Gold The Things I Cannot Change Tanya Ballantyne In Need of Special Care Jonathan Stedall Inside North Vietnam Felix Greene Music! Michael Tuchner A Plague On Your Children Adrian Malone Prologue Robin Spry
1970s Year Film Recipient(s) Sad Song of Yellow Skin Michael Rubbo The Hellstrom Chronicle Walon Green Death of a Legend Bill Mason Not awarded Grierson Roger Blais Cree Hunters of Mistassini Boyce Richardson and Tony Ianzelo Compañero: Victor Jara of Chile Stanley Forman and Martin Smith Leprosy The Early Americans Alan Pendry Seven Green Bottles Eric Marquis Los Canadienses Albert Kish White Rock Tony Maylam Not awarded The Silent Witness David Rolfe The Tree of Wooden Clogs Ermanno Olmi
1980s Year Film Recipient(s) Not awarded Soldier Girls Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill Best Boy Ira Wohl The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter Connie Field Return Journey Ian Potts Burden of Dreams Les Blank The Atomic Café Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty Not a Love Story Bonnie Sherr Klein The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time! Jim Brown Schindler Jon Blair Forty Minutes: Female Circumcision Louise Panton The Visit: Part 3 - The Boy David Alex McCall Wildlife on One: Night Life Dilys Breese 28 Up Michael Apted GI Brides Lavinia Warner South Bank Show: Alan Bennett David Hinton Afghanistan Reports: Allah Against The Gunships Sandy Gall Omnibus: Leonard Berstein's West Side Story Christopher Swann Marilyn Monroe: Say Goodbye to the President Christopher Olgiati David Lean: A Life in Film Nigel Wattis The Frozen Ocean: Part 1 - Kingdom of the Ice Bear Mike Salisbury and Hugh Miles Shoah Claude Lanzmann Viewpoint '86: Afghanistan: The Agony of a Nation Sandy Gall Omnibus: The Mission Robin Lough Forty Minutes: The Fishing Party Paul Watson Equinox: Prisoner of Consciousness John Dollar British Cinema: Personal View - A Turnip Head's Guide to the British Cinema Alan Parker Baka: The People of the Rainforest Phil Agland Man-Eating Tigers/Saving the Tiger Naresh Bedi Fourteen Days in May Paul Hamann Forty Minutes: Home from the Hill Molly Dineen This Week: Death on the Rock Chris Oxley The Duty Men: East Enders Paul Hamann In from the Cold: A Portrait of Richard Burton Tony Palmer Viewpoint Special: The Men Who Killed Kennedy Nigel Turner First Tuesday: Four Hours in My Lai Kevin Sim Viewpoint '89: Cambodia - Year 10: A Special Report by John Pilger David Munro Lost Children of the Empire Joanna Mack and Mike Fox Everyman: Romania - State of Fear John Blake
2010s Year Film Recipient(s) Senna Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, James Gay-Rees, Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey George Harrison: Living in the Material World Olivia Harrison, Martin Scorsese and Nigel Sinclair Project Nim Simon Chinn and James Marsh Searching for Sugar Man Malik Bendjelloul and Simon Chinn The Imposter Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis McCullin David Morris and Jacqui Morris Marley Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing and Charles Steel West of Memphis Amy J. Berg The Act of Killing Joshua Oppenheimer The Armstrong Lie Alex Gibney Blackfish Gabriela Cowperthwaite Tim's Vermeer Teller, Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks Alex Gibney Citizenfour Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky 20 Feet from Stardom Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers and Gil Friesen 20,000 Days on Earth Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard Finding Vivian Maier John Maloof and Charlie Siskel Virunga Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara Amy James Gay-Rees and Asif Kapadia Cartel Land Matthew Heineman and Tom Yellin He Named Me Malala Davis Guggenheim, Laurie MacDonald and Walter Parkes Listen to Me Marlon John Battsek, George Chignell, R. J. Cutler and Stevan Riley Sherpa Bridget Ikin, Jennifer Peedom and John Smithson 13th Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick, Howard Barish The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Scott Pascucci and Nigel Sinclair The Eagle Huntress Otto Bell and Stacey Reiss Notes on Blindness Peter Middleton and James Spinney Weiner Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg I Am Not Your Negro Raoul Peck City of Ghosts Matthew Heineman Icarus Bryan Fogel and Dan Cogan An Inconvenient Sequel Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk Jane Brett Morgen and Bryan Burk Free Solo Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill and Evan Hayes McQueen Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui RBG Julie Cohen and Betsy West They Shall Not Grow Old Peter Jackson and Clare Olssen Three Identical Strangers Tim Wardle, Grace Hughes-Hallett and Becky Read For Sama Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts American Factory Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert Apollo 11 Todd Douglas Miller Diego Maradona Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees and Paul Martin The Great Hack Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim
2020s Year Film Recipient(s) My Octopus Teacher Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes and Keith Scholey Collective Alexander Nanau The Dissident Bryan Fogel, Thor Halvorssen, Mark Monroe and Jake Swantko The Social Dilemma Jeff Orlowski and Larissa Rhodes Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent and Joseph Patel Becoming Cousteau Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan Cow Andrea Arnold and Kat Mansoor Flee Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Monica Hellström The Rescue Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, John Battsek and P. J. van Sandwijk Navalny Daniel Roher, Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller and Odessa Rae All That Breathes Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer and Aman Mann All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov and John Lyons Fire of Love Sara Dosa, Shane Boris and Ina Fichman Moonage Daydream Brett Morgen 20 Days in Mariupol Mstyslav Chernov and Raney Aronson-Rath American Symphony Matthew Heineman, Lauren Domino and Joedan Okun Beyond Utopia Madeleine Gavin, Rachel Cohen and Jana Edelbaum Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie Davis Guggenheim, Jonathan King and Annetta Marion Wham! Chris Smith Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, Lizzie Gillett, and Robert Ford Black Box Diaries Shiori Itō, Eric Nyari, and Hanna Aqvilin Daughters Natalie Rae, Angela Patton, Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, James Cunningham, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, and Laura Choi Raycroft No Other Land Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor Will & Harper Josh Greenbaum, Rafael Marmor, Christopher Leggett, Will Ferrell, and Jessica Elbaum Mr Nobody Against Putin David Borenstein, Helle Faber, Radovan Síbrt, and Alžběta Karásková 2000 Meters to Andriivka Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, and Raney Aronson-Rath Apocalypse in the Tropics Petra Costa and Alessandra Orofino Cover-Up Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, Olivia Streisand, and Yoni Golijev The Perfect Neighbor Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu, and Sam Bisbee
See also Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Cinema Eye Honors Awards IDA Documentary Awards Gotham Award for Best Documentary National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature
References
External links BAFTA official site