Silverdocs
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This article is outdated. (October 2012) |
| AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival | |
|---|---|
| Location | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| Founded | 2003 |
| Awards | Ace Documentary Grant Sterling Award for Short and Feature (US and World) |
| Number of films | 108 (2008) |
| http://www.silverdocs.com/ | |
The AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival is an American international film festival created by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. It is held every year in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, D.C.. Started in 2003, the festival is held for eight days in June at the AFI Silver and Discovery Communications World Headquarters. Silverdocs is dedicated to showcasing the best in documentary films.
Silverdocs also offers the concurrent 5-day International Documentary Conference, the largest professional conference of its kind in the U.S.. It explores the business of documentary film making with 1,200 industry participants and 80 workshops, seminars and networking events. The conference brings together business leaders, film makers, broadcasters, distributors and funders from both established and emerging media markets.
Silverdocs bestows awards valued at over $80,000 in cash and prizes. Awards and grants include:
- Ace Documentary Grant
- Cinematic Vision Award for Short and Feature
- Music Award
- Sterling Award for Short and Feature (US and World)
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Notable participants [edit]
AOL vicecChairman emeritus Ted Leonsis, BET co-founder Sheila Johnson, former Vice President Al Gore, Academy Award-winning film makers Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Barbara Kopple, LeBron James and Alex Gibney.
Participating organizations [edit]
BBC, CPB, Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, The Ford Foundation, HBO, Latino Public Broadcasting, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Miramax, National Black Programming Consortium, National Geographic, PBS, the Sundance Institute, The Weinstein Company.
Response [edit]
Silverdocs has been called the "pre-eminent US documentary festival" (Screen International)[citation needed] and as "non-fiction nirvana" (Variety)[citation needed].
Festivals [edit]
The 2008 Festival presented 108 films selected from 1,702 entries, included 27 significant premieres and welcomed over 21,000 attendees. All six 2009 Academy Award-nominated documentary films were screened at Silverdocs 2008. Of these, The Garden and Smile Pinki were Silverdocs world premieres.
The 2009 festival ran from June 15-22.
The 2010 festival will run June 21-27.
External links [edit]
- Official website
- The 2003 festival at Filmfestivals.com
- Silverdocs Award Winners (via UC Berkeley)
- Lathrios Film Festival Database - the Lathrios listing for the 2007 SilverDocs including a film list and analysis of the event.
