AP Archive picked up the Library of the Year award at last night’s Focal Awards.

AP Archive, along with Prime Focus Technologies, also won the Best Archive Restoration and Preservation Project Award for its work digitising 32,000 hours of footage of 20th century events.

And AP Archive employee Jenny Hammerton picked up the award for Footage Employee of the Year.

Focal’s 70 jurors picked their way through a record 239 submissions from 19 countries to make their selections.

Host and TV presenter Dan Snow praised the work of archivists during last night’s ceremony. 

He said: “I’ve been making lots of programmes about WW1 and giving lots of talks in schools. And I have learnt that archive is what makes WW1 different. Thank you all for making it accessible, protecting it and promoting it.”

Director of international archives for AP Alwyn Lindsey said: “It’s easy to think of the Focal International Awards as that one evening of prize-giving that takes place each Spring.

“The truth is rather different and in fact, the evening itself represents the culmination of a full year of hard work and endeavour.

“The evening is merely the tip of a very large iceberg and it’s really about pulling together people from the industry who share common goals, interests and passions, and ultimately it is this bringing together of people that Focal International does best.”

Focal Awards Winners

Best Use of Footage in a History Production
Silent Balkans - Anemon Productions (Greece)

Best Use of Footage in a Current Affairs Production
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks - Universal Pictures (USA)

Best Use of Footage in a Factual Production
New Life Of Family Album - Evolution Films (Czech Republic)

Best Use of Footage in an Entertainment Production
Goodbye Granadaland - ITV Entertainment / Shiver for ITV (UK)

Best Use of Footage in an Arts Production
Arena: The National Theatre - War and Peace - Lone Star Productions (UK)

Best Use of Music Performance Footage
David Bowie - Five Years - BBC Events Production (UK)

Best Use of Sports Footage
The Trials of Muhammad Ali - Kartemquin Films & Kat White (USA)

Best Use of Footage in an Advert or Short Production
A Film Never Made - Alchemy Films in association with University of Wisconsin (UK/USA)

Best Use of Wildlife and Natural History Footage
Edwardian Insects on Film - Mentorn Media (UK)

Best Use of Footage on Digital or non-Television Platforms
Makers (website & TV initiative) - Kunhardt McGee Productions (USA)

Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release
Britain’s Railways - The Home Front War Years 1939-45 - Strike Force Entertainment Ltd (UK)

Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release
McCullin - Frith Street Films Ltd and British Film Company (UK)

Best Archive Restoration/Preservation Title
Manila in the Claws of Light (1975) - The Film Foundation/World Cinema Project and the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Philippines). Restoration works carried out at: Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory, in association with LVN, Cinema Artists Philippines and Mike de Leon.

Best Archive Restoration / Preservation Project
AP Archive Digitisation - AP Archive, (UK). Restoration / Preservation Work by: Prime Focus Technologies.

The Jane Mercer Footage Researcher of the Year Award
John Smith (UK) - Brushing Up On; Morecambe and Wise: The Whole Story; The Class of 92

Footage Employee of the Year
Jenny Hammerton (AP Archive)

Footage Library of the Year
AP Archive

Lifetime Achievement Award
Vladimir Opela

Click here for the full list of submissions, synopses, and credits.

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