Female directors have scored a record 35 nominations in this year’s Grierson Trust Documentary Awards shortlist – including all four nominees in the best domestic documentary category.
This year’s shortlist is the most gender-balanced on record, with 42 male directors in the running.
The domestic category comprises Anna Hall’s Channel 4 doc Groomed: A National Scandal (Candour Productions), Rachel Lob-Levyt’s BBC film The Search for Nicola Bulley (Rogan Productions - main picture), Havana Marking’s C4 single Undercover: Exposing the Far Right (Tigerlily Films / Marking Films Inc / HiddenLight / Doc Society) and Elizabeth Sankey’s Mubi doc Witches (Ardimages UK / Montgomery Avenue / Mubi / Garden Studio).
"I’m especially pleased to see the growing number of female directors recognised, given how long this has been a challenge for our industry," said Grierson Trust chair Lorraine Heggessey.
"The rise in documentaries directed by women reflects the efforts of commissioners, production companies and others who are working to redress the balance and support female creative talent."
Rogan leads the way among indies, with its BBC doc Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands, New Tricks (BBC) also scoring nominations, for Best Popular Culture Documentary and Presenter.
Vying for the new Best Crime and Justice Documentary award are Sky’s Bibaa and Nicole: Murder in the Park (True Vision), C4’s Shoot to Kill: Terror on the Tube (Curious Films), BBC doc The Wrong Man (Two Step Films) and Zurawski vs Texas (HiddenLight Productions, Story Force, Out Of Nowhere), which streams on Together Films’ website.
The shortlist for another new category, Best Returning Documentary Series, pits C4’s 24 Hours in Police Custody (The Garden) against three BBC shows: Life and Death Row (BBC Studios Documentary Unit), Murder Trial (Firecrest Films) and Surgeons: at the Edge of Life (Dragonfly).
This year’s Grierson Awards take place on 18 November.
For a full list of nominees, click here
