Paddy Wivell Gets an RTS Nomination
Paddy Wivell has been nominated for Best Documentary Director for our second series of PRISON shot in 2019 at HMP Foston Hall. A hugely well-deserved nomination for a powerful and important series. Congratulations and fingers crossed for the awards on the 23rd of November.
https://rts.org.uk/article/nominations-rts-craft-design-awards-2020-announced
CJA Media Awards 2020
How to Stay Out of Jail has been nominated for the Criminal Justice Alliance Media Awards for 'Outstanding Documentary'. Huge congratulations to Jemma Gander and Martha Baily and the rest of the team who put together a film that the Guardian described as "...almost miraculously uplifting TV that would irrigate your spirit"
The awards are on the 26th of November. Another nice party we can't go to but we will be logging in and irrigating ourselves with spirits of another kind.
FIREBALL
We are all excited to announce that our new feature length documentary "Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds" directed by Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer is launching on Apple TV on November 13th.
Filmed across 2019 in Australia, America, Mexico, India, France, Germany, Norway and Antarctica.
"From pop-culture shivers to the fine-art imagery of micrometeorites — otherworldly particles gathered from everyday surfaces by a jazz musician in Norway and then magnified thousands of times — Fireball delivers the cosmic goods. Its climactic sequences, one on the ice fields of Antarctica and the other on tiny Mer Island, between Australia and Papua New Guinea, are alive with jaw-dropping, soul-stirring beauty. In the first locale, a hunt for meteorites is underway on the polar plateau. In the other, a ritual dance, long in disuse, is revived for the cameras on a remote sunset beach. In very different ways, both episodes place us firmly on a continuum with outer space, and find a kind of ecstasy in knowing that our place in the universe makes us far smaller and less essential than we imagine. " Hollywood Reporter (Read full review here)
Production companies: Spring Films, Werner Herzog Film, Sandbox Films, Hot Docs Partners
Directors: Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer
Screenwriter-narrator: Werner Herzog
Producers: André Singer, Lucki Stipetic
Executive producers: Richard Melman, Greg Boustead, Jessica Harrop, Anna Godas, Oli Harbottle
Director of photography: Peter Zeitlinger
Editor: Marco Capalbo
Music: Ernst Reijseger
International sales: Dogwoof
#Fireball November 13 on the @AppleTV app with an Apple TV+ subscription
Meeting Gorbachev to screen at UNAFF
Honoured that Meeting Gorbachev has been selected for the 23rd UNAFF (United Nations Association Film Festival). The event will be held online from October 15th-25th. It celebrates THE POWER OF EMPATHY through documentary films that highlight human rights issues, including environmentalism, racism, health, women’s issues, universal education, war and peace. The film will have it's virtual screening on October 20th, 6pm PDT (California only!). More info on the festival can be found at UNAFF.
Singer’s a Winner!
Spring Films is delighted and proud to announce that our founder and CEO André Singer was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to Anthropology and the Documentary Film Industry.
Congratulations from a very proud company for a thoroughly well deserved award and recognition of the amazing work that André has done as director, producer, commissioning editor and as former President of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Werner Herzog and Rudolph Herzog team up on ‘Last Exit: Space’
Werner Herzog and his son, Rudolph Herzog, will partner with Gunpowder & Sky on “Last Exit: Space,” a new documentary examining mankind’s push to colonize space. Rudolph Herzog will direct, with Werner Herzog attached to executive produce the film, as well as narrate the picture in his inimitable German-accented growl.
In addition to Gunpowder & Sky, Spring Films (“The Act of Killing”) and Taglicht Media (“Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies”) are signed on to co-produce the feature, which will begin production this autumn.
ICM Partners negotiated the deal on behalf of Spring Films. Spring Films have produced numerous documentaries with the Herzogs, most recently selling Werner’s “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds,” an examination of meteors and shooting stars, to Apple TV+. It screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Find out more here.
China Screen Palme d’Or
Made in collaboration with Dr Skyfish Films and Jia Films "The Two Lives of Li Ermao" was shown last week in Paris (in an actual cinema!) as part of the Ecrans des Mondes Festival where it was awarded the China Palme d'Or. Congratulations to the producer Dr. Kiki Tianqi Yu and the director Jia Yuchuan. This astonishing film was 18 years in the making and provides a unique insight into China. The executive producer was André Singer.
"The first screening of your wonderful film was a huge success: once I had screened the film, I decided to have it open our 10th anniversary edition, and it was the right decision….the audience was deeply impressed, and offered a standing ovation to all of you !!! The film is at the heart of what I am trying to do with this festival since 10 years ! Thank you so much for the film, and thank you for offering it as an avant-première to the Paris audience."
Sandbox Films
Sandbox Films who were fundamental in getting Spring Films and Werner Herzog Film's latest feature documentary made have just launched their new website.
Sandbox Films is a documentary studio that illuminates the art and beauty of scientific inquiry: humankind's weird, messy, brilliant way of navigating the world.
Indian Space Dreams Still Heading for the Stars
The Association for International Broadcasting has just shortlisted Indian Space Dreams for this year's Science and Technology Awards.
Congratulations to Sue Sudbury and the team. Watch this space for more details.
"We are delighted that despite the global pandemic, broadcasters and producers across the world have responded to this year’s call for entries to the AIBs. This annual competition – now in its 16th year – celebrates journalism and factual productions across TV, radio and digital platforms."
Full information at The AIBs website
Fireball to hit Toronto tonight!
The epic Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds directed by Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer will have its world premiere tonight at 6pm local time at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Tinderbox Makes an Impact
Spring is delighted to announce that Gillian Mosely's powerful and personal examination of the history of the Israeli/Palestine conflict 'Tinderbox' has won the Impact Doc Awards Viewer Impact and the History Award of Excellence along with a Special Mention in Documentary Features.
Tinderbox was directed and produced by Gillian Mosely for Media Lab. The DoP was Richard Blanshard and the EPs were André Singer and Richard Melman for Spring Films
Meeting Gorbachev – UK TV Premiere
We are delighted to let you know that on Thursday the 2nd of July at 10:15 pm Sky Documentaries on Sky Channel 114 will be showing the UK television premiere of Meeting Gorbachev directed by Werner Herzog and André Singer. If you missed it at the cinema now's your chance to see this highly praised and moving account of Gorbachev's extraordinary career.
Produced by Lucki Stepetic and Svetlana Palmer
Executive Producer Richard Melman