The Cave producers win Emmy Award

Producers Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær received an Emmy for ‘Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking' for their war documentary from Syria, 'The Cave'. The 72nd Emmy Awards was held on Saturday as a mostly virtual ceremony hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

This marks the second Emmy for 'The Cave'. The three cinematographers behind the Danish-Syrian production, Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Suleiman and Mohammed Eyad, were awarded for Outstanding Cinematography For A Nonfiction Program, as the first round of winners was announced last week. 

Sigrid Dyekjær and Kirstine Barfod said upon receiving their producing award:

"We have been on a long journey with the film, which was made under difficult conditions. With this Emmy we stand at a significant milestone, and we are happy we had the chance to tell this important story to the world. Dr. Amani and her staff of strong women and men show us there is hope for the future. We share this award with them, while dedicating it to all those who have the courage to stand up for the weak and fight against the atrocities that take place every single day in Syria."

'The Cave', directed by Feras Fayyad, centres on Dr. Amani Ballour who has been instrumental in creating an underground hospital, known as The Cave, in Al Ghouta, where airstrikes have claimed thousands of lives since 2012. Fayyad's team has followed Ballour from 2016 to 2018, documenting the hectic daily life at the hospital and shining a light on both the quiet details and the gruesome costs of war, as well as the young doctor's fight against the prevailing view of women's rights. 

Read more:

The Cave: Dr. Amani challenging the stereotypes

'The Cave' won the Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award at its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival and was also awarded at the Cinema Eye Honors. The film was nominated for the 2020 Oscars.

Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær produced for Danish Documentary with support from the Danish Film Institute, TV 2 Denmark, National Geographic, IMS International Media Support, Doha Film Institute, SWR, Yun Sat Yen Foundation, Docs Up Fund and Normandie for Peace.

Fayyad's previous film, 'Last Men in Aleppo', picked up the award for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary at the News and Documentary Emmy Awards in 2018. The film also received an Oscar nomination.

See more at emmys.com.

Kirstine Barfod

Producer. Born 1979. Graduated from the alternative film school Super16 in 2016 with the film 'Honey, Dont Quit Your Day Job'.

Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjær

Producer. Born 28/9 1969. Studied Dramaturgy at Aarhus University and was a part of the advertising agency Young & Rubicam before entering the film industry.

The Cave

Feras Fayyad, 2019

For the besieged Syrian civilians, hope and safety lie underground, inside the subterranean hospital known as the Cave, where pediatrician and managing physician Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues Samaher and Dr. Alaa have claimed their right to work as equals alongside their male counterparts, doing their jobs in a way that would be unthinkable in the oppressively patriarchal culture that exists above.