Entries are now open for the 2021 Grierson Awards, which celebrate excellence across the documentary genres. Entries are invited within 15 categories ahead of the May 28 closing date.
Other key dates for the 2021 Grierson Awards are:
Shortlist announcement: Thursday, 22 July
Nominations announcement: Monday, 20 September
Awards: Wednesday, 10 November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Three new categories introduced in 2021 are include Best Music Documentary, Best Sports Documentary and Grierson Hero of the Year. The Best Cinema Documentary category ids suspended for 2021. The Natural History category has been expanded to include documentaries on the environment.
Lorraine Heggessey, Chair of The Grierson Trust said: “We are always keen to reflect the breadth of documentary genre so we have made a number of changes to the awards for 2021 including the introduction of three new categories. There have been an increasing number of outstanding sport related documentaries on our screens recently, so we have brought in a Sport category for the first time. We also felt that Music deserved a category of its own, so we have separated it from Arts. Natural History has been expanded to specifically recognise the increasing number of documentaries that focus on environmental issues.
“The challenges of the past year have highlighted the invaluable role played by many people behind the scenes who often don’t get the recognition they deserve. We hope to address this through our new special award, the Grierson Hero of the Year. This will be presented to an individual judged by our Trustees to have made a positive impact within the industry during the previous 12 months. This person may be working in any area and be at any level of their career. The award will be given someone who has gone the extra mile and made an outstanding difference.”
In addition to the new categories, as the impact of the pandemic rolls on, there will be no Best Cinema category this year as there has been little opportunity to show documentaries on the big screen. However, feature documentaries are accepted in all the single documentary categories.
Entrants will again be asked to identify steps that were taken to ensure diversity and inclusion in the making of their film or series. Juries will take into consideration the efforts that have been made to include under-represented groups both on and off screen, as well as any themes and narratives that address diversity and inclusion.
Lorraine Heggessey continued: “By asking entrants to identify these specific elements of their production, we continue to emphasise that diversity and inclusion are intrinsic to the overall excellence of any production.”
For the 2021 awards, all entries must have had their first UK screening between 1 June 2020 and 31 May 2021. This includes scheduled screenings within recognised film, television and documentary festivals. Entries are accepted for both analogue and digital platforms – such as Netflix, iPlayer, Amazon – as long as the screening was accessible by a UK-based audience.
