Grierson accolade for Kevin Macdonald

THE Scots filmmaker, Kevin Macdonald, has been recognised by the UK’s foremost documentary filmmaking competition, the Grierson Awards.

The winner of an Oscar for his ‘One Day in September’ – about the murder of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics – Macdonald has been named the recipient of the Coutts Grierson Trustees’ Award.

Say the organisers of the British Documentary Awards: “The Trustees’ Award recognises outstanding contribution to the art or craft of documentary making. Previous winners include luminaries John Pilger, Penny Woolcock, Norma Percy, Paul Watson, Mike Salisbury, Nick Fraser, Jonathan Gili, Molly Dineen and Sir David Attenborough.”

Macdonald’s CV includes State of Play, The Last King of Scotland, Touching the Void and Marley.

Add the organisers, in a media release: “Kevin Macdonald won an Oscar in 2000 for Best Documentary for his first feature, One Day in September. Touching the Void won Kevin his second BAFTA and an Evening Standard Film Award for Best British Film. His subsequent feature documentaries include Life in a Day and the highly acclaimed Marley.

“He was also executive producer of Britain in a Day and Senna – which became the biggest box office hit for a documentary in the UK. Kevin is the co-editor of Imagining Reality: The Faber Book of Documentaries and is currently working on the film adaptation of Meg Rosoff’s novel, How I Live Now, for release in 2013.”

The 40th British Documentary Awards are being staged in London on the sixth of next month.

They are known as the Griersons to commemorate the ‘father of documentary filmmaking': Scot, John Grierson.