Heart Valley

Last updated
Heart Valley
Heart Valley (Official Poster).jpg
Official Poster for Heart Valley
Directed byChristian Cargill
Written by
  • Christian Cargill
  • Kiran Sidhu
Produced by
  • Christian Cargill
  • Lily Wakeley
  • Kiran Sidhu
StarringEvan Wilf Davies
CinematographyChristian Cargill
Edited byChristian Cargill
Music byErland Cooper
Production
company
Dalmatian Films
Distributed byThe New Yorker
Release dates
  • June 2022 (2022-06)(Tribeca)
  • July 2022 (2022-07)(Wales, UK)
Running time
19 minutes
CountriesWales, United Kingdom
LanguagesEnglish, Welsh

Heart Valley is a 2022 short documentary film about Welsh shepherd Wilf Davies. Directed and produced by filmmaker Christian Cargill, the film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June 9, 2022 [1] where it won the award for Best Documentary Short. It first broadcast in the UK on BBC Two Wales and BBC iPlayer on July 26, 2022 [2] and released online with The New Yorker on December 2, 2022. The documentary won the BAFTA Cymru Award 2023 for Short Film and was nominated for The Grierson Award 2023 for Best Documentary Short. [3] The Hollywood Reporter named Heart Valley as one of their Top 23 Short Documentaries of 2022 [4] and it was one of 98 films to qualify for the 95th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Short. [5]

Contents

Synopsis

Heart Valley follows a day in the life of Evan Wilf Davies, a shepherd from Ceredigion in West Wales. The film looks at the world through Wilf's eyes, asking questions about what it is we should value as a society. The documentary was composed by Scottish multi-instrumentalist Erland Cooper and was originally inspired by an article written by Kiran Sidhu in The Guardian newspaper. [6]

Reception

The film won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Short Film and multiple more awards including Best Documentary Short at Tribeca Film Festival. The jury, which included Amy Ryan, Shane Smith and A.J. Jacobs, described, "This quiet short sneaks in profound lessons about the importance of simplicity, doing the work we love, and what the meaning of life is." [7] Director Christian Cargill was also nominated for a BAFTA Cymru Award and at Camerimage Film Festival for his cinematography on the film. [8] The documentary received a variety of positive press, featuring on BBC World's Talking Movies with Tom Brook, [9] The Guardian , [10] BBC News, [11] [12] BBC Radio Wales, The i and S4C's Prynhawn Da programme. The author David Nicholls described the film as "an absolute gem of a documentary; sensitively made, touching and tender." [13]

Awards & Festivals

YearFestival/Awards CeremonyAward/CategoryStatus
2022 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary ShortWinner [14]
2023 BAFTA Cymru Award Short FilmWinner [15]
2023 The Grierson Award Best Documentary ShortNominated [16]
2023 BAFTA Cymru Award Factual PhotographyNominated [17]
2023 Young Director Award Best Documentary (Silver Screen Award)Winner [18]
2023British Shorts BerlinAudience AwardWinner [19]
2022Bolton Film FestivalBest DocumentaryWinner [20]
2023Kinsale Shark AwardBest Documentary ShortWinner [21]
2022 Shorts México Best International DocumentaryWinner [22]
2022 Wales International Film Festival Jury's Award for Best Short DocumentaryWinner [23]
2022 Camerimage Best Short Documentary (Cinematography)Nominated [24]
2022 PÖFF Shorts Best Live Action Short FilmNominated [25]
2022Regina International Film Festival & Awards (RIFFA)Best International Documentary ShortNominated
2022 IDA Documentary Award Best Short DocumentaryShortlisted [26]
2022The British Short Film AwardsBest Documentary ShortFinalist [27]
2022The Music+Sound AwardsBest Sync In a FilmFinalist [28]
2022The South London Film FestivalBest Short DocumentaryFinalist

Related Research Articles

Roger Arthur Graef OBE was an American-born British documentary filmmaker and theatre director. Born in New York City, he moved to Britain in 1962, where he began a career producing documentary films investigating previously closed institutions, including Government ministries and court buildings.

Kevin Edward Allen is a British actor, director, producer and writer. Allen came to prominence with the 1991 BBC film On the March with Bobby's Army, and for writing and directing his debut feature film, Twin Town, in 1997. He directed and co-wrote the movie adaptation of Dylan Thomas' "Under Milk Wood", submitted for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2015 Oscars ceremony but not nominated, the Hollywood feature films, The Big Tease and Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London, and the first series of ITV's Benidorm, along with numerous other films and documentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Wales</span>

The cinema of Wales comprises the art of film and creative movies made in Wales or by Welsh filmmakers either locally or abroad. Welsh cinema began in the late-19th century, led by Welsh-based director William Haggar. Wales continued to produce film of varying quality throughout the 20th century, in both the Welsh and English languages, though indigenous production was curtailed through a lack of infrastructure and finance, which prevented the growth of the industry nationally. Despite this, Wales has been represented in all fields of the film making process, producing actors and directors of note.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keri Collins</span>

Keri Collins is a BAFTA winning director and writer for film and television. He has written and directed for the BBC, Sky TV, Netflix, The Sunday Times and PBS.

The Tiscali Short Film Award is a major short film award, sponsored by Tiscali and presented at the Raindance Film Festival each year since 2005 to the "best UK short under 10 minutes by a debut filmmaker".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camerimage</span> An international film festival for cinematography

The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography Camerimage is a festival that celebrates and awards cinematography and cinematographers. The festival is held in Toruń, Poland at the end of November every year. It spans the course of one week, with multiple events at one time.

Grierson: The British Documentary Awards or more informally, The Grierson Awards as they are known, are awards bestowed by The Grierson Trust to recognise innovative and exciting documentary films, in honour of the pioneering Scottish documentary filmmaker John Grierson.

Aneel Ahmad is a British filmmaker, writer, film director, and producer

Sally El-Hosaini is a Welsh-Egyptian BAFTA nominated film director and screenwriter.

Anthony Wonke is a film director. He is an Emmy and triple BAFTA winning director and an Oscar nominated and Emmy winning executive producer. He has also won, amongst other awards, the Prix Italia, Peabody, Grierson and RTS for his films. Wonke is known for his original feature documentaries Ronaldo, Being AP, Fire in the Night and The Battle for Marjah as well as his documentary series The Tower: A Tale of Two Cities. Wonke's work ranges across a variety of genres always highlighted by intelligence, visual flair and emotional insight. His work has been shown at film festivals in the US, Canada, the Far East and the UK, as well as being televised on BBC 1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and HBO.

<i>Incident in New Baghdad</i> American film

Incident in New Baghdad is a 2011 short documentary film about the July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike, directed by James Spione.

Lindsey Dryden is a British film director, producer and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Walsh (filmmaker)</span> English filmmaker

John Walsh is an English filmmaker and author. He is the founder of the film company Walsh Bros. Ltd. His film work on subjects such as social mobility and social justice has received two BAFTA nominations.

<i>Starting Point</i> (film) Polish film

Starting Point is a 2015 Polish short-documentary film, directed by Michal Szczesniak, who also co-authored the script with Katarzyna Bonda. Cinematography was by Przemysław Niczyporuk, and was co-produced by Munk Studio- SFP and Studio Filmowe N. Michał Szczęśniak. The film was shortlisted with ten other documentaries, from 74 entries, submitted to the 88th Academy Awards in Documentary Short Subject category. The final five nominations were scheduled to be announced on January 14, 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Cohen (filmmaker)</span> American film producer

Andrew "Andy" Cohen is a three-time Emmy nominated independent filmmaker and journalist whose film To Kill a Tiger was nominated for a 2024 Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary.

Joseph Bullman is an English documentary and drama director, known for his political films, including factual dramas Killed By My Debt (2018), The Left Behind (2019) and Life and Death in the Warehouse (2022), and documentaries The Man Who Bought Mustique (2000), The Seven Sins of England (2007) and The Secret History of Our Streets (2012–14). Bullman's films have received six BAFTA nominations.

Elvira Lind is a Danish film director based in New York City.

<i>499</i> (film) 2020 film directed by Rodrigo Reyes

499 is a 2020 Mexican-American docudrama film straddling documentary and fiction, directed by Rodrigo Reyes. The film is a creative exploration of the legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico, 500 years after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. The film had its international premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the best cinematography award in the documentary competition, as well as winning the Special Jury Award at Hot Docs the same year. It also won the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Golden Frog Prize for Best Docudrama.

<i>Freedom Swimmer</i> 2021 Australian film

Freedom Swimmer is a 2021 Australian animated short film directed by Olivia Martin McGuire. The short is a fifteen minute documentary telling the story of a man and his daughter who swam from China to Hong Kong during the Cultural Revolution. Following its premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, the short has been featured in several film festivals including Slamdance Film Festival, Palm Springs International ShortsFest and the Calgary International Film Festival, where it was awarded for Best Documentary Short.

References

  1. "Heart Valley | 2022 Tribeca Festival". Tribeca. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  2. "BBC Two – Heart Valley". BBC. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  3. "The Grierson Trust". griersontrust.org. Retrieved 2023-08-01.
  4. Dresden, Hilton (2022-12-07). "Sports, Politics and Equality Among Top Subjects of Documentary Short Contenders". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2022-12-12.
  5. "2023 Oscars: What to Expect from the Short Films Shortlist". Awardsdaily. 2022-12-21. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  6. Davies, Wilf (2021-04-16). "Experience: I've had the same supper for 10 years". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  7. Tribeca [@Tribeca] (2022-06-16). "This quiet short sneaks in profound lessons about the importance of simplicity, doing the work we love, and what the meaning of life is. The winner for Best Documentary Short is Heart Valley https://t.co/1gbOftjl8E https://t.co/TmiVKUDnm0" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2022-10-13. Retrieved 2023-02-23 via Twitter.
  8. Williams, Tom (2022-10-24). "EnergaCAMERIMAGE announce Documentary Shorts Competition & Contemporary World Cinema Line-ups". British Cinematographer. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
  9. "BBC World News – Talking Movies, Welsh farmer Wilf Davies wins hearts in new short documentary". BBC. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  10. "Film inspired by Guardian piece on Welsh shepherd to debut in New York". the Guardian. 2022-05-03. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  11. "Tribeca Film Festival 2022: Sheep farmer documentary earns nod". BBC News. 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  12. "Tribeca Film Festival 2022: Sheep farmer film wins best short documentary award". BBC News. 2022-06-17. Retrieved 2022-10-04.
  13. Cargill, Christian [@christiancarg] (2022-12-14). "The @NewYorker presents HEART VALLEY for @TheAcademy Best Documentary Short consideration. A warm thank you to @DavidNWriter for the very kind words. FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT HEART VALLEY Watch now on The New Yorker's YouTube: https://t.co/y4hm3l5QE0 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 https://t.co/lfFnQq3F9n" (Tweet). Retrieved 2023-02-23 via Twitter.
  14. "TRIBECA FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2022 COMPETITION WINNERS". Tribeca. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
  15. "2023 BAFTA Cymru Awards: The Winners". www.bafta.org. 2023-10-15. Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  16. "The Grierson Trust". griersontrust.org. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  17. "2023 BAFTA Cymru Awards: The Nominations". www.bafta.org. 2023-09-06. Retrieved 2023-09-07.
  18. "2023 - Shortlist". Young Director Award. Retrieved 2023-06-09.
  19. British Shorts [@BritishShorts] (2023-01-25). "The biggest jury (YOU, the audience!) has voted and the British Shorts Audience Award goes to ... Heart Valley by Christian Cargill. Congratulations! The top 10 of the voting will be published in a few days on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. #AudienceAward #BritishShortsBerlin https://t.co/B8XNDTblTH" (Tweet). Retrieved 2023-02-23 via Twitter.
  20. Nikkhah Azad, Navid (2022-10-10). "Bolton Film Festival unveils 2022 winners". www.deed.news. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
  21. "Shark Search". The Shark Awards. Retrieved 2023-02-24.
  22. "Shorts Mexico (2022)". IMDb. Retrieved 2022-10-17.
  23. Tanabi (2022-09-15), Wales International Film Festival Awards 2022 / Gwobrau #GFRCymru 2022 , retrieved 2023-01-27
  24. Williams, Tom (2022-10-24). "EnergaCAMERIMAGE announce Documentary Shorts Competition & Contemporary World Cinema Line-ups". British Cinematographer. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  25. "Shorts Live-Action Competition 5". shorts.poff.ee. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  26. "IDA Documentary Awards 2022 Shortlist". International Documentary Association. 2022-10-26. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  27. "Finalists 2022". The British Short Film Awards. Retrieved 2022-11-27.
  28. "2022 Sync Finalists". Music+Sound Awards. Retrieved 2023-01-19.