Considered a “mini-major,” Raindance, the U.K.’s largest independent festival (Sept. 20 to Oct. 1), has nominated “Bluefin” for its Best Feature Documentary Award during its European Premiere in London.
Raindance received 7,500 submissions for all categories this year.
With a red-carpet U.S. premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (Social Justice and Reel Nature), an Asian premiere in Busan, South Korea, and winning both the Wildlife Award at the San Francisco International Ocean Festival and Best Atlantic Filmmaker at Lunenburg DocFest, Hopkins says his doc is having “a broad and emotional impact” with Canadian, U.S. and international audiences.
“Through creating a captivating mystery story,” Hopkins says, “my doc merges a truly Old Man and the Sea worthy tale profiling passionate tuna fishermen, with some of the planet’s best minds in science and ocean ecology.”
“Bluefin” brings together a balance of opposing views to explore the reasons for the sudden abundance of giant bluefin after years of disappearance from overfishing. But now normally wary tuna no longer fear humans and are being vulnerably hand-fed by fishermen.
“This also allowed unprecedented and breathtaking cinematographic opportunities.”
Hopkins call “Bluefin” a “social issue film framed with ocean ecological insights”, which is why it was in competition in Santa Barbara under social justice.
“My film builds a new empathy for these beleaguered creatures - humans are socialized to only consider bluefin as “food,” and not wildlife. We are socialized to catch the biggest fish, and grew up cuddling stuffed panda bears and dolphins, but never a tuna.”
Hopkins confirms he successfully pitched and inked a deal with U.S. distributor Gravitas Ventures at Hot Docs this spring. Gravitas reaches over 1 billion digital subscribers and is one of the most powerful digital distributors on the planet.
Following “Bluefin’s” festival run, with the exception of broadcast windows, Gravitas will internationally launch iton a hundred digital platforms, including Netflix, worldwide.
Upcoming festivals and screenings for “Bluefin” this fall at film festivals include Friday Harbour (Washington State) and the New York City Wildlife Festival. Hopkins is hopeful Bluefin will premiere in Toronto later this fall at Planet in Focus. Hopkins has won or been nominated for over 20 national and international awards for both dramatic and documentary filmmaking, including recognition for his cinematography, writing and editing.
