Editor

Greg Dyke, Chairman of Hit Entertainment and Brentford Football Club will be presenting FOCAL International’s Awards at the Savoy Hotel, London on 15th May. The presence of the BBC’s former Director-General, is eagerly anticipated helping to focus attention on the archive business as FOCAL celebrates the use of footage archive images in the creative media.

In its third year, the FOCAL International Awards, in association with AP Archive, will honour winners in fourteen categories from the best use of footage in history, entertainment, sports and wildlife documentaries through to feature films, adverts and pop promos. Efforts to restore the international heritage of film classics such as “Beyond the Rocks”, “Black Narcissus” and the Mitchell and Kenyon Collection, will be acknowledged as will be the Library and Researcher of the Year.

The BBC has a record number of nominations in the finals, but also represented are leading UK independents including productions from Brook Lapping, Blakeway, Shine and North One TV. Feature films, documentaries and other productions using archive footage have also been nominated from the USA, Canada, Germany, France, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.


Lord (David) Puttnam CBE, Chair of Patrons, FOCAL International will lead a tribute to the late Chair of FOCAL International, Jane Mercer before inviting her husband to announce the winner of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We are looking forward to welcoming all our sponsors, and special guests such as double Oscar winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff,” commented FOCAL’s Chair, Sue Malden. “Also there will be a host of international archive executives, producers who specialise is using footage, the researchers who find and license the material, together with allied professionals and representatives of facilities supporting the footage industry. With ITN Archive sponsoring the welcome reception, followed by a gala dinner and post-awards party sponsored by the French national archive, INA, it promises to be a good evening.”

For further information and full list of Award nominations: www.focalint.org