The documentary on the late Ayrton Senna won two awards at the BAFTAs in London last night.
The film took the 'Best Documentary' title, seeing off competition from Project Nim and George Harrison: Living in the Material World, as well as the prize for 'Best Editing'.
“This film was made by all of us with love, and all we got back from it was love, and that deeply cynical word commerciality - which I never utter - was never even considered in this situation,” said producer Eric Fellner. “We made this because we loved Ayrton, and you showed the love back.
“We need to thank Ayrton Senna for sadly living a too short life, but a life where his fact was even more amazing than fiction.”
Screenwriter Manish Pandey added: “We'd just really wanted to thank the Senna family for trusting us with his legacy.
“When your son dies in circumstances like that, and you get a bunch of guys who turn up and say, listen, we want to tell the story, we think we're very sensitive, we think we will absolutely tell it right. It takes a lot of guts to support people like that, and I'd like to thank them for doing that.”
BAFTA host Stephen Fry was also impressed with the film: “Even if you know nothing about F1 racing and are not even vaguely interested in motor sport you will find Senna one of the greatest documentaries you've ever watched,” he commented.
Senna was also nominated in the 'Outstanding British Film' category, but lost out to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The gongs at the British Academy Film Awards are just the latest for the movie, which also picked up awards at the Sundance Film Festival and the Los Angeles Film Festival.
