British factual directors Kim Hopkins and Adrian Sibley are among the film-makers to have made the Bafta Film Awards’ documentary longlist.
Hopkins is recognised for A Bunch of Amateurs, Labor of Love Films’ critically acclaimed feature about Britain’s oldest amateur film-making club.
Part-funded by Screen Yorkshire’s Yorkshire Content Fund, the film is the only fully UK-produced doc on the shortlist and previously won the audience award at Sheffield Doc/Fest and the feature documentary audience award at the Leeds International Film Festival.
It recently aired on BBC4’s Storyville strand and is available on iPlayer.
Also in the running is Adrian Sibley’s doc The Ghost of Richard Harris, which explores the life and legacy of the famous actor through his sons, including Chernobyl star Jared, and peers including Russell Crowe and Vanessa Redgrave.
The film aired on Sky Arts in November and is available on Now TV.
Sibley has previously directed The Road to Palmyra for the BBC and Channel 4 music docs The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill and Prince: Last Year of a Legend.
The longlist includes three docs about musicians - Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song, Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues and David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream, which is also in the running for best editing.
Meanwhile, US film-maker Sara Dosa, whose doc Fire of Love is in contention, is also on the 16-strong longlist for best director alongside the likes of Baz Luhrmann and Martin McDonagh – ahead of Steven Spielberg, who missed the cut despite his latest movie The Fabelmans making the best film longlist.
Fresh from cleaning up at the British Independent Film Awards, Charlotte Welles’ acclaimed debut film Aftersun has scored eight places on the longlists, including best film, best director and outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.
The shortlists for the Bafta Film Awards will be published on 19 January ahead of the ceremony on 19 February.
Bafta Film Awards 2023: Documentary longlist
- All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen)
- All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)
- A Bunch Of Amateurs (Kim Hopkins)
- Fire of Love (Sara Dosa)
- The Ghost of Richard Harris (Adrian Sibley)
- Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (Daniel Geller and Danya Goldfine)
- Louis Armstrong's Black & Blues (Sacha Jenkins)
- McEnroe (Barney Douglas)
- Moonage Daydream (Brett Morgen)
- Navalny (Daniel Roher)
