Sheffield DocFest announced June 19 that the 2023 Audience Award has gone to Your Fat Friend, directed and produced by Jeanie Finlay (USA and UK, 2023) and producer Suzanne Alizart. Executive producers are Charlotte Cook (Field Of Vision), Sandra Whipham (Doc Society), and Shanida Scotland (Doc Society).
The rise of Aubrey Gordon from anonymous blogger (with the sobriquet Your Fat Friend) to NYTimes best seller was startling. Her aim? A paradigm shift in the way that we view fat people and the fat on our bodies. The most meaningful change is when her family start listening to her message.
“To bring a film home to Sheff DocFest, a festival that I have been coming to and showing films at for 20 years, has been incredibly emotional and meaningful,” director/producer Finlay commented on receiving the award. “Our international premiere at the Crucible Theatre was an experience I will remember and treasure for the rest of my life. This is my ninth feature film, my most personal yet. I thought I had made a film for myself, so to receive the audience award is so wonderful. Thank you to the brilliant Sheffield DocFest audience for showing up and sharing this amazing experience with us. Thank you also to our visionary funders Field of Vision, BFI Doc Society and Broadway Cinema for making this independent documentary possible. We can’t wait to take the film out into the world.”
More than 4000 festival-goers cast their vote for their favourite films across the six-day festival. Each feature film premiering in the programme was eligible for the award.
Creative Director Raul Niño Zambrano and Managing Director Annabel Grundy jointly commented: “It has been overwhelming watching how films have resonated with our audiences at Sheffield DocFest and in particular Your Fat Friend, Jeanie Finlay’s heartwarming portrait of writer and activist Aubrey Gordon, made it clear that documentary really empowers discussion, empathy and connection. People travelled from across the UK to see this film, and connect with its maker and subject, a real testament to the power of non-fiction narratives to represent real life experience of those can so often be overlooked.”
