The Black Cop, a short film commissioned by Guardian Documentaries and supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund (awarding National Lottery funding), has been nominated for a BAFTA Film Award.
Announced today (Thursday 3 February), The Black Cop has been revealed as one of the five films nominated in the British Short Film category at the 75th British Academy Film Awards. The winners of the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards will be announced on Sunday 13 March.
This is the first time a Guardian-commissioned documentary has been nominated for a BAFTA Film Award. The nomination from BAFTA follows on from the success of several other Guardian documentaries, including Colette that won the best short documentary Oscar last year and Black Sheep, which made the Oscar shortlist in 2019.
The Black Cop, which is free to watch on the Guardian website, is an intimate portrait of Gamal ‘G’ Turawa, an ex-Metropolitan police officer, who explores his memories of racially profiling and harassing Black people and homophobia in his early career. Now an openly gay man, Turawa’s story is a multi-layered one and sits in the centre of three pivotal moments in recent British history, from the Black communities’ resistance of oppressive policing, to the push for LGBTQIA equality and the aftermath of the west African ‘farming’ phenomenon, where white families took care of Black children outside the remit of local authorities.
Cherish Oteka, director and producer of The Black Cop, says:
“It is a huge honour to have this important and nuanced story recognised by BAFTA. My work aims to provide a platform for often-marginalised communities to tell their stories on their terms. I have made documentaries that explore identity, discrimination, and institutional bias, but never through the lens of someone who sits on all sides of the conversation. In one person and one story we present a villain, victim and hero and begin to understand the potential that we all have in being any one of these, even all three. It has been heart-warming to see The Black Cop connecting with audiences in this way.”
Katharine Viner, editor-in-chief, Guardian News & Media says:
“It’s wonderful to see this complex and important story resonate with audiences and for the Guardian’s documentary to be recognised by BAFTA. The nomination is a real honour and a testament to the talented team behind this powerful film.”
Lindsay Poulton, head of documentaries, Guardian News & Media, says:
“At the Guardian, we are always looking for surprising routes into important, contemporary stories. We are delighted to have had the opportunity to support this story of identity and acceptance, and are proud of the creative and thoughtful documentary that Cherish and the filmmakers have created. It has been a pleasure to witness this film spark insightful conversations at film festivals all over the world and receive this recognition from BAFTA. The Black Cop is a reflection of the Guardian’s documentary strand, helping to bring different perspectives and new ways of thinking to compelling and vital journalism”.
Lisa Marie Russo. executive producer for the BFI Doc Society Fund, says:
“The BFI Doc Society Fund champions diverse voices and creative approaches to documentary storytelling. The Fund is delighted that this dynamic and deeply original film continues to strike a chord with audiences and now, Bafta voters. Congrats to director/producer Cherish Oteka and producer Emma Cooper for the nomination in this super competitive category, which includes both documentary and fiction films.”
Guardian documentaries have won critical acclaim around the world, including an Oscar in 2021 for Colette. Guardian Documentaries play at film festivals around the world and have been recognised with numerous awards, including a Grierson, as well as award wins at the Cannes film festival, Sheffield Doc/Fest and the Aesthetica Short Film Festival.
The Black Cop has been screened at Raindance Film Festival, British Shorts Film Festival, Aesthetic Short Film Festival, Out On Film, Atlanta’s International LGBTQ Film Festival, The Pan African Film & Arts Festival, American Black Film Festival, and Leeds International Film Festival.
The Black Cop is directed by Cherish Oteka and produced by Emma Cooper. Executive producers for the Guardian are Ekaterina Ochagavia and Jess Gormley, and for the BFI Doc Society Fund is Lisa Marie Russo. The commissioning editor is Lindsay Poulton.
A full list of the 2022 BAFTA Film Award nominations can be found here.
Notes to editors
About Guardian News & Media
Guardian News & Media (GNM) publishes theguardian.com, one of the world’s leading English-language news websites. Traffic from outside of the UK now represents around two-thirds of the Guardian’s total digital audience. In the UK, GNM publishes the Guardian newspaper six days a week, first published in 1821, and the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper, The Observer.
BFI Doc Society Fund
Since 2018, Doc Society has been the BFI’s delegate partner administering National Lottery funding for independent British documentary filmmaking and has distributed over £4.2 million to British independent documentary films. The BFI Doc Society Fund supports creative and hybrid feature documentaries with bold cultural and social ambitions, and short films by diverse, emerging voices from all over the UK.
The fund has supported 44 independent documentary features to date, including Maya, African Apocalypse, Locked In, Bank Job, Men Who Sing, PolyStyrene: I Am A Cliche. The films have screened internationally and been nominated for and won The Grierson Awards, BIFA Awards, BAFTA and RTS.
Key partners include BBC Films, Doc Society’s Climate Story Fund, Creative Scotland, Ffilm Cymru, Field of Vision and Northern Ireland Screen.
41 short films, including Grierson and Emmy award winners, have been funded through the Made of Truth film fund, supported by the BFI Lottery Fund and BFI Network. They have screened at international festivals including Sundance, London, IDFA, Sheffield, TIFF amongst others and been distributed & exhibited by Guardian Docs, Nat Geo, POV & the V&A.
The BFI Doc Society Fund also facilitates a dedicated support programme aimed at building connections with documentary filmmakers across all corners of the UK and provides professional development opportunities for grantee filmmakers.
For more information, contact khadija@docsociety.org / Twitter: @TheDocSociety / www.facebook.com/TheDocSociety / Instagram: @thedocsociety
