BBC DOCUMENTARY WINS PRIZE : BBC DOCUMENTARY WINS SWISS PRIZE
A BBC documentary on Northern Ireland has won first prize for the best television production at an international film festival. Second prize went to a U.S. film seen on Home Box Office.
The winning film, “Contact,” directed by Alan Clarke and produced by the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC), was awarded the Golden Leopard’s Eye from among 17 entries from 11 countries.
Second prize at the annual Locarno festival, in southern Switzerland, was awarded to “Finnegan Begin Again,” an Anglo-American production directed by Joan Micklin Silver of the United States and aired on HBO. The bronze medal went to a Swiss film.
A five-member jury praised the first-place winner for the “intelligence and precision with which the camera describes the story of a British patrol in Northern Ireland while leaving the spectator free to judge.”
A BBC decision earlier this month to withdraw a scheduled film about extremists in the troubled British-ruled province sparked a national protest blackout on radio and television, with reporters accusing the government of interference.
The dispute exposed the gaping difference of views on how the situation in Northern Ireland should be reported.
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