‘Amy’, the documentary film about Amy Winehouse, has won a Grammy.
Eight years after the late singer swept the board at the ceremony, the documentary about her life and death, made by Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees, was awarded the Best Music Film prize at the ceremony in Los Angeles on Monday night (15.02.16).
It beat off stiff competition from other films ‘Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown’, Foo Fighters’ ‘Sonic Highways’, ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?’ and Roger Waters’ ‘The Wall’.
What’s more, it’s the second posthumous Grammy for Amy; her song ‘Body and Soul’, which she recorded with Tony Bennett for his ‘Duets II’ album, won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance prize in 2012.
Amy passed away in 2011 at the age of 27, following a much publicised battle with drug and alcohol addiction , but previously won five awards at the prestigious music ceremony in 2008 for Best New Artist, Song of The Year, Best Female Pop Vocal performance, Best Pop Vocal Album and Record of the Year for her 2006 album, Back to Black album ‘Back to Black’.The Grammy win comes after Asif picked up the Best Documentary gong at the BAFTA Awards in London on Sunday (14.02.16).
Though he was not in LA to collect the Grammy, speaking during his BAFTAs acceptance speech, he attributed the documentary’s success to the fact that the filmmakers fell in love with their fellow Londoner and her spirit.
He 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.”
The documentary used archival footage and personal testimonials from Amy’s friends and collaborators, and presented her music in chronological order throughout her life and career.
It received rave reviews however Amy’s father Mitch Winehouse hit out at the makers of the film and described the documentary as “very hurtful” because he believed it focused too much on her battle with drugs and alleged she didn’t receive enough support from her family to beat her addictions.
‘Amy’ is also up for this year’s Best Feature Documentary at the Oscars later this month.
