British-Indian director, Asif Kapadia, has become the recipient of his third BAFTA award for the highly acclaimed documentary, Amy, about the late talented singer, Amy Winehouse. He was bestowed with the Best Documentary award at the glamorous award ceremony held at London's Royal Opera House.
The documentary beat Cartel Land, He Named Me Malala, Listen to Me Marlon, and Sherpa.
Asif Kapadia previously won a BAFTA for Best Documentary for Senna, in 2012, as well as won the Best British Film for The Warrior, in 2003, which starred the extremely talented Indian actor, Irrfan Khan.
To further add to his joy, the film also won the Best Music Film Grammy, a day after the BAFTA event.
The documentary by Kapadia, who is a Westminster alumnus, had debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, in the summer of 2015.
Deemed as a “tragic masterpiece” by critics, the film depicted the life of the extraordinary musical talent, her rise to fail, her battle with alcohol and drugs, to her early death at the age of 27, in 2011.
Some of Amy Winehouse's musical hits include, Love Is A Losing Game, Back To Black, You Know I'm No Good, In My Bed, and Rehab.
The Westminster alumni, Kapadia used archive footage in the film, including home movies and audio interviews. Although many of Amy's friends took part in the film, her father, Mitch Winehouse was very vocal about his abhorrence for the final product, as he does not feel the film does justice to the true essence of Amy.
In 2015, Mitch Winehouse said that the film concentrated more on Amy's battle with drugs, and neglected her 'sense of fun'. He said, “We are very disappointed, it missed a trick and it was very hurtful for the family. That's what people just don't understand, they saw that film that came out a few months ago- which to me is abhorrent anyway- there is no sense of the fun of Amy. That was how she got through her problems- by laughing. That film. They think Amy died in July 2011 which is true. But it might sound like a cliché, but she comes to work with us ever day. That's what we have got to concentrate.”
Winehouse even plans to make his own film about the life of his daughter. He shared, “It is not going to be a revenge attack on Asif Kapadia, we are looking to do something positive and to talk about some of the positive things in Amy's life- like the foundation, all of Amy's wonderful friends who were ignored in the film, and the other creative work Amy did. There are so many great things in Amy's life that were missed in that film. It was a great opportunity that Asif Kapadia had and he didn't grab it. Everyone had heard that rubbish. Let's hear something new about Amy, and this is what this is about- creativity and positivity.”
Despite Mitch Winehouse's disapproval of this film, it went on to beat the box office records for a British documentary, and looks like a very likely winner at the upcoming Oscar Academy awards.
While receiving the award at the ceremony, Asif Kapadia said, “In the end, it was all about Amy. We really fell in love with her when making the film. And our aim and mission was really to try and tell the truth about her. To show the world what an amazing person she was, how intelligent, how witty, how beautiful she was, before it all kind of got out of control and went a bit crazy.”
