Simon Lereng Wilmont's film The Distant Barking of Dogs has won the McBaine Documentary Feature Award at San Francisco's SFFILM Festival, along with a $10,000 prize. This is the fourth international award for the film.
The McBaine Feature Award is the festival's top documentary award, recognizing acclaimed documentaries from across the globe for more than 60 years. This year’s Documentary Feature jury was comprised of filmmaker and journalist Carrie Lozano, journalist Noel Murray, and nonfiction filmmaker, visual artist, and writer AJ Schnack.
The jury described the Feature Award winner as “Remarkable, exquisite, and unforgettable.”
The Distant Barking of Dogs, produced by Monica Hellström, follows the life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year, witnessing the gradual erosion of his innocence beneath the pressures of war. The film has taken home top honours at Gothenburg, Amsterdam and Thessaloniki.