True Vision’s Sky Documentaries series Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park scored a double win at this year’s Grierson Awards.
Judges handed the best documentary series and best crime and justice documentary awards to the three-parter, which explored the murders of sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in 2020, and the police misconduct that followed.
Hailing its “restraint, balance, and emotional restraint”, its victim-led approach and intimate interviews, judges described the series as “a powerful, compassionate, and impeccably executed exploration of a devastating case of police incompetence and racial justice”.
The award comes as Sky promotes the commissioner of the doc, Hayley Reynolds, to the newly-created role of head of documentary commissioning,
Another Sky commission, Story Films’ Chernobyl: My Promised Land, scooped the best documentary short award.
BBC Eye/BBC Storyville co-pro Life and Death in Gaza was named best current affairs documentary for its “raw, unfiltered portrayal of war and the human stories within it” and “extraordinary use of user-generated content”.
Other winners included 72 Films/Open University BBC2 series The Zelensky Story (best history documentary), Hardcash Productions’ BBC doc Britain’s Nuclear Bomb Scandal: Our Story (best science and natural history documentary) and BBC Studios’ BBC3 staple Life and Death Row (best returning documentary series).
One of last year’s British Independent Film Awards winners, Grand Theft Hamlet, added to its awards tally with a win for best culture documentary.
For full details of this year’s Grierson Awards winners, click here
