Double BAFTA win for “Senna”

February 12, 2012 by Adam Benzine

SENNA

Asif Kapadia’s Senna (pictured) scored a double triumph at the 2012 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Film Awards, picking up the documentary prize and the editing prize.

In the documentary category, the F1 doc beat two other nominees, James Marsh’s Project Nim and Martin Scorsese’s George Harrison: Living in the Material World, to scoop the gong.

In the editing category, meanwhile, the film was the surprise winner against narrative features The Artist, Drive, Hugo and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The award went to the film’s editors Gregers Sall and Chris King.

Senna was also nominated in the Outstanding British Film category – the first time a documentary had been nominated in the category since Marsh’s Man On Wire, which won the prize in 2009 – but lost out to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Elsewhere, Wim Wender’s documentary/dance hybrid Pina had been nominated in the foreign language category, but lost out to Pedro Almodóvar’s The Skin I Live In. The evening also saw Scorsese awarded a BAFTA Fellowship – the organization’s highest accolade.

Senna‘s documentary award is Kapadia’s second major BAFTA prize – in 2003 his narrative feature The Warrior won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film.

This year marked a return for the BAFTAs – the UK’s answer to the Oscars – to the non-fiction realm, with the reintroduction of a documentary category. A theatrical documentary award was presented by BAFTA between 1948 and 1990, but dropped thereafter, with docs only recognized in the major film categories.

Tags: Asif Kapadia, BAFTA, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Chris King, George Harrison: Living In The Material World, Gregers Sall, James Marsh, Martin Scorsese, Pina, Project Nim, Senna