"Senna" Bestowed MPG's Best Of The Year Dean Batchelor Award

John Bisignano, former ESPN motorsport journalist during Senna's timeframe, accepts the Dean Batchelor Award on behalf of Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey for the documentary, "Senna". Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)


"Senna" Bestowed MPG's Best Of The Year Dean Batchelor Award

"Senna" ... the critically acclaimed documentary about the racing spirit and history of F1 driver Ayrton Senna just won the overall "Best Of The Year" Dean Batchelor Award - Excellence in Automotive Journalism for 2011!

Established by the Motor Press Guild in 1995, the Dean Batchelor Award recognizes excellence in automotive journalism as exemplified by the man it is named after – Dean Batchelor.

The Award singles out individuals demonstrating outstanding achievement in the profession of automotive journalism. Each year MPG presents the Dean Batchelor Award to the journalist judged to have produced the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry.

The product of years of archival research, "Senna" traces the life and career of Brazilian racer and three-time Formula One champion Ayrton Senna, and his death at Tamburello corner while leading the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix in Italy. The film was released overseas in 2010 and made its U.S. debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, where it won the Audience Award. It has also taken awards at the Los Angeles Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival, and the Adelaide Film Festival, and won the Motor Press Guild’s Best Audio/Visual Award for the Sept. 2010 to Sept. 2011 qualifying period before being bestowed the 2011 honoree as best out of four Dean Batchelor category award winners.

Catagory winners as follows (honored December 13, 2011):

Best Audio Visual: Senna, by Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey

Image Credit: Working Title


Best Book: "Elva, The Cars, The People, The History" by Janos Wimpffen

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)


Best Article: "Questor Grand Prix" by Tom Stahler

Image Credit: VINTAGE MOTORSPORT


Best Photography: "Everybody's a Photographer" by Reinhard Klein

Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)


Basically, the highest award gearheads could bestow on a work of art and/or communication dedicated to motor culture in these four categories.

All hail "Best Of The Year" Dean Batchelor Award - Excellence in Automotive Journalism for 2011 to the documentary movie ... "Senna"!

... notes from The EDJE


<Article first published as "Senna" Bestowed MPG's Best Of The Year Dean Batchelor Award on Technorati>

First Authorized Film Biography Of Ayrton Senna Due Out Soon

Ayrton Senna as he collects his thoughts before the start of the San Marino Grand Prix on May 1, 1994. Image Credit: ferrariferrariferrari.blogspot.com

First Authorized Film Biography Of Ayrton Senna Due Out Soon

The first authorized film biography of Ayrton Senna due out soon and a trailer, with mixed Japanese subtitles and narration has been leaked on YouTube.

The movie is set for release some time before the end of 2010. It is rumored it will include unseen footage of the racing driver who many feel is the greatest of all time. It will chronicle the three-time Formula 1 champion's career from his start in Grand Prix racing with the Toleman team in 1984 at his home race in Brazil, through his death while leading the San Marino Grand Prix at the Imola circuit in Italy in 1994.

British filmmaker Asif Kapadia is directing the project. His credits include The Warrior, which won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts award for Best British Film in 2001.

Senna is considered by many to be the best driver in Formula One history. The Brazilian won three world championships and was known for his daring and flashy driving style. “I don’t know driving in another way which isn’t risky,” Senna famously said. “Each one has to improve himself. Each driver has its limit. My limit is a little bit further than other’s.”

Senna died in 1994 in an accident at the San Marino Grand Prix, while he was still in the prime of his career. And in the end, it was not a daring passing maneuver that claimed his life, but his car simply (and unexpectedly) went off course at a high-speed corner and hit a concrete wall. The cause of the crash has been fraught with controversy (whether it was equipment failure or human error) and in 2004, National Geographic reconstructed the events that led to the fatal crash as part of its “Seismic Seconds” television series.

The movie has been fully sanctioned by both Senna's family and Bernie Ecclestone, produced by Working Title Films (the company behind the movies “Fargo” and “Notting Hill”) and is said to be set for a worldwide theatrical release with distribution by Universal Pictures.

... notes from The EDJE