Special Award Documentary Jury 2021

Filmed secretly and smuggled out on USB’s few shots at a time over three years from inside the Australian immigration detention centre, on the remote Islands of Nauru and Manus, where no visitors or media were allowed. Stop the Boats tells the story of how Australia sent asylum seekers coming to Australian shores by boat, to indefinite offshore detention and torture in prison camps on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and the remote Island nation Nauru. The stories are told by asylum seekers including children and the award winning Kurdish journalist, author and detainee Behrouz Boochani from within detention centres. The harrowing stories of child abuse, human rights violation and criminal neglect are exposed through this film.