''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 The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

on June 9, 2022 where it won the award for Best Documentary Short. It first broadcast in the UK on

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and

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on July 26, 2022 and released online with ''

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'' 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. ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' named ''Heart Valley'' as one of their ''Top 23 Short Documentaries of 2022'' and it was one of 98 films to qualify for the 95th

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for Best Documentary Short.

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 ''

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'' newspaper.

Reception

The film won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Short Film and multiple more awards including Best Documentary Short at

. The jury, which included

Amy Ryan Amy Beth Dziewiontkowski (born May 3, 1968), known professionally as Amy Ryan, is an American actress. She began her professional stage career in 1987 and made her Broadway debut in 1993 as a replacement in the original production of Wendy W ...

, 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." Director Christian Cargill was also nominated for a BAFTA Cymru Award and at Camerimage Film Festival for his cinematography on the film. The documentary received a variety of positive press, featuring on

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's '' Talking Movies'' with

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, ''

'',

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

BBC Radio Wales BBC Radio Wales is a Wales, Welsh national radio station owned and operated by BBC Cymru Wales, a division of the BBC. It began broadcasting on 13 November 1978, replacing the Welsh opt-out service of BBC Radio 4. As of August 2022, the stat ...

, The ''i'' and

S4C S4C (, ''Sianel Pedwar Cymru'', meaning ''Channel Four Wales'') is a Welsh language free-to-air public broadcast television channel. Launched on 1 November 1982, it was the first television channel to be aimed specifically at a Welsh-speakin ...

's ''Prynhawn Da'' programme. The author David Nicholls described the film as "an absolute gem of a documentary; sensitively made, touching and tender."

Awards & Festivals

References

External links

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Heart Valley
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230130153309/https://tribecafilm.com/festival/archive/heart-valley-2023 , date=2023-01-30 at

British short documentary films 2022 films 2022 short documentary films