Biennial – Different prizes and awards from the RAI Film Festival
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Prize
Awarded biennially since 1982, this prize is for `the most outstanding film on social, cultural and biological anthropology or archaeology’. The value of the prize is £500.
Royal Anthropological Institute & Marsh Short Film Prize
Introduced in 2019, this prize is for ‘the most outstanding short film on social, cultural and biological anthropology or archaeology’. This prize recognizes the growing importance of short form film and aims to encourage experimentation within the genre. Films must be no longer than 20 minutes. This prize is sponsored by the Marsh Christian Trust. The value of the prize is £500.
Basil Wright Film Prize
This prize has been awarded biennially since 1986 when it was endowed by the late North American filmmaker, Robert Gardner, in honour of Basil Wright, a leading figure of the British Documentary Movement in the 1930s. As phrased by Gardner himself, it will be awarded for a film ‘in the ethnographic tradition’ that takes advantage of ‘the evocative faculty of film’ as a means of ‘furthering a concern for humanity ‘ and for communicating that concern to others. The value of the prize is £500.
Wiley Blackwell Student Film Prize
This prize was awarded for the first time in 1990, and since 2005 has been sponsored by Wiley Blackwell Publishing, It will be given to the most outstanding film in the ethnographic tradition made by a student enrolled in a recognized educational institution. In assessing the films, in addition to anthropological relevance, the judges will consider the budget constraints, technical resources, and professional input available to the filmmakers. The value of the prize is £250.
Ethnomusicology Film Award
This award is for the most outstanding film about music/sound in the world. Special consideration will be given to innovative audio-visual work that increases knowledge and understanding of musicians, music cultures or soundscapes. The film must be substantial (at least 30 minutes long) and should address issues of concern in ethnomusicology, but need not necessarily belong to any conventional ethnographic genre. The award is sponsored by the British Forum for Ethnomusicology. The value of the prize is £250.
Richard Werbner Award for Visual Ethnography
Funded since 2011 by the distinguished Africanist anthropologist and filmmaker, Richard Werbner, this award will be for a film made by an academic anthropologist, preferably as part of a doctoral or post-doctoral research project. The film must be substantial (at least 40 minutes) and based upon extensive fieldwork by the film-maker among the film’s subjects. Special consideration will be given to works that explore the distinctive capacity of the film to complement and enhance anthropological knowledge communicated through text. The value of the prize is £250
Audience Film Prize
Voted by the audience at the RAI Film Festival. The value of the prize is £250.
Film Committee Lifetime Achievement Award
Since 1990, the RAI Film Committee has periodically made a Lifetime Achievement Award to honour outstanding contributions to ethnographic documentary film-making and/or academic visual anthropology.
President’s Award
First introduced in 2017, the President’s Award is assigned by the Film Festival Committee to a film of truly exceptional merit that addresses issues of great contemporary importance and concern in anthropology or archaeology. This film may take the form of either fiction or fact-based documentary, and need not necessarily belong to any conventional ethnographic genre. The Festival Committee will consult widely in making this Award, but it does not invite submissions and there will be no monetary prize. This film will normally be screened on the opening night of festival, ideally in the presence of the director.
Former Awards
Intangible Culture Film Prize (Music – Dance – Performance)
this award was offered between 2007 and 2019. Named with reference to the UNESCO designation ‘Intangible Culture’, this prize was for ethnographic films dealing with music, dance and performance.
Material Culture and Archaeology Film Prize
This award was offered by the Film Festival Committee between 1990 and 2019 and was for the best film about the social use and cultural significance of material objects, be it at the present time or any previous period in human history.
