Banksy accepted an award for his documentary, Exit Through The Gift Shop, via a tongue-in-cheek taped acceptance speech at the British Documentary Awards presented by the Grierson Trust last night.
At the ceremony, held at the BFI Southbank in London, Exit Through The Gift Shop won most entertaining documentary award. The jury called Banksy’s film “original and insightful”.
Bristol based graffiti artist Banksy, who has managed to remain anonymous despite huge media attention, accepted the award an a taped speech, saying:
“This is a very proud moment for me. I’ve always dreamt of winning a Grierson Award ever since I first heard about them two weeks ago.”
“I do like to think that in this world of graffiti art – which is essentially mindless, messy and stupid – we finally gave it the kind of documentary it deserves.
“I’ve always been considered a bit of an anomaly in the graffiti community – probably because I use words like anomaly. So I’d like to dedicate this award to all the real graffiti writers out there, the ones risking life and limb every night who never get any kind of recognition. Well, other than having their name written in huge letters on every available surface all over town.”
Banksy had already managed to get his hands on, and spray-paint, his trophy.
Watch the Exit Through The Gift Shop trailer here.
