The award winners are selected from among films in competition at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, held each spring in Durham, North Carolina.
Prizewinners
2021 CDS Filmmaker Award: Jessica Beshir, “Faya Dayi”
Wednesday, June 9, 2021Faya Dayi, directed by Jessica Beshir, has won the 2021 CDS Filmmaker Award, which is presented in conjunction with the Center for Documentary Studies’ annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The $7,500 CDS Filmmaker Award recognizes a documentary film that combines creativity and experience in examining contemporary society, heightens awareness of a compelling issue, and serves as a...
2020 CDS Filmmaker Award: Garrett Bradley, "Time"
Wednesday, April 22, 2020Time, directed by Garrett Bradley, has won the 2020 CDS Filmmaker Award, which is presented in conjunction with the Center for Documentary Studies’ annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The festival announced the 2020 award winners on April 22; the four-day event, originally scheduled to take place April 2–5 in downtown Durham, was canceled amid COVID-19 public health and safety concerns...
2019 CDS Filmmaker Award: Sahra Mani, "A Thousand Girls Like Me"
Sunday, April 7, 2019A Thousand Girls Like Me, directed by Sahra Mani, won the 2019 CDS Filmmaker Award, presented on April 8 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The annual award of $7,500 recognizes a documentary film that combines creativity and experience in examining contemporary society, heightens awareness of a compelling issue, and serves as a potential catalyst for change...
2018 CDS Filmmaker Award: Talal Derki, "Of Fathers and Sons"
Thursday, October 18, 2018Of Fathers and Sons, directed by Talal Derki, is the winner of the 2018 CDS Filmmaker Award, presented on April 8 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The annual award of $7,500 recognizes a documentary film that combines creativity and experience in examining contemporary society, heightens awareness of a compelling issue, and serves as a potential catalyst for...
2017 CDS Filmmaker Award: Yance Ford "Strong Island"
Sunday, April 2, 2017Strong Island Strong Island, directed by Yance Ford, is the winner of the 2017 CDS Filmmaker Award, presented on April 9 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The annual award of $7,500 recognizes a documentary film that combines creativity and experience in examining contemporary society, heightens awareness of a compelling issue, and serves as a potential...
2016 CDS Filmmaker Award: Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami "Sonita"
Sunday, April 10, 2016Sonita Sonita, directed by Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami, is the winner of the 2016 CDS Filmmaker Award, presented on April 10 at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina. The annual award of $7,500 recognizes a documentary film that combines creativity and experience in examining contemporary society, heightens awareness of a compelling issue, and serves as a potential...
2015 CDS Filmmaker Award: Nomi Talisman and Dee Hibbert-Jones "Last Day of Freedom"
Sunday, April 12, 2015Juries and Full Frame audiences selected the Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award, a $7,500 annual prize juried by CDS representatives created to honor and support documentary artists whose works are potential catalysts for education and change, who best connect the power of the documentary tradition with community life, and who best lead viewers to understand and reflect on themselves...
2014 CDS Filmmaker Award: Darius Clarke Monroe "Evolution of a Criminal"
Sunday, April 13, 2014The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced the 2014 festival award recipients on April 6, 2014, the last day of the seventeenth annual event. While a number of films screened out of competition, the forty-eight films in the NEW DOCS program were eligible for this year’s awards—thirty-three features and fifteen shorts selected from over twelve hundred submissions, including ten World and...
2013 CDS Filmmaker Award: Kalyanee Mam "A River Changes Course"
Sunday, April 7, 2013The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival announced the 2013 festival award recipients on April 7, 2013, the last day of the sixteenth annual event. Ten awards and two Honorable Mentions were given. This year's CDS Filmmaker Award went to director Kalyanee Mam for her documentary film A River Changes Course. Mam spent two years in her native country working on the film, which travels from the...
2012 CDS Filmmaker Award: Fernand Melgar "Special Fight"
Sunday, April 15, 2012At the 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival (held April 12–15 in downtown Durham, North Carolina), twelve awards were presented, including a Special Jury Award and two Honorable Mentions, to eleven different titles. The Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award went to Fernand Melgar for Special Flight (Vol Spécial), an intimate, emotional, and provocative film that focuses on the...