Mint Pictures has picked up an international award for its latest documentary, ‘Hitler’s Jewish Soldier?’.
It won best documentary (history and biography) at the BANFF Rockie Awards in Canada on Monday evening, seeing off competition from the United Kingdom (‘Britain’s Nuclear Scandal: Our Story’), France/UK (‘Pompeii: The New Dig’), USA/UK (‘The Space Shuttle That Fell to Earth’) and USA (‘Tsunami: Race Against Time’).
‘Hitler’s Jewish Soldier?’ premiered on SBS in 2024, and was the highest-rating of the network’s premium ‘Australia Uncovered’ strand. It tells the incredible story of a Melbourne man who claimed he survived the Holocaust as a child by joining a Latvian battalion, which was absorbed into Hitler’s SS.
It has picked up a slew of awards and nominations including: Gold Remi at WorldFest, Houston; Best Feature Documentary, Cannes World Film Festival; Best Documentary (Australia), Asian Academy Creative Awards; Best Documentary (Asia), Asian Academy Creative Awards; Best Editing, Montreal Film Festival; longlisted, Walkley Awards; finalist, Asian TV Awards; finalist, Tel Aviv International film Festival; finalist, Seattle Film Festival; finalist, Screen Producers Australia.
It was commissioned as a five-part podcast series by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and launched as ‘Toy Soldier’ in February 2025.
Founded in 1979, this year’s Rockie Awards – held in Banff in the Canadian Rockies – included 152 nominees from 22 countries across 30 categories. The awards are decided by an international industry jury of 150 TV professionals.
‘Hitler’s Jewish Soldier?’ – and the feature documentary, titled ‘The Jewish Nazi?’ – was directed by Dan Goldberg, shot by Nathan Barlow, edited by Mark Middis, post-produced by Jaya Balendra and executive produced by Craig Graham.
It was funded by SBS, Screen Australia and Screen NSW. Abacus Media Rights is the international distributor.
