The winner of BEST SINGLE DOCUMENTARY at the 2025 Digital Video Awards is Once In A Lifetime: Argentina from COPA90.
Presented during a ceremony at The Londoner, Leicester Square, hosted by Max Fosh, judges were looking for a social video documentary that excelled in storytelling and production values. Just as in traditional documentary-making, a premium was placed on accuracy and excellent investigative research.
The winner, Once In A Lifetime: Argentina, is a four-part documentary that takes an anthropological dive into a country and fanbase on the brink of ending its 36-year wait, for the biggest prize in sport – the FIFA World Cup.
As all eyes fixed on Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, film-maker Eli Mengem flew 8,000 miles in the opposite direction to Argentina, to give the all-angle account of Argentina’s success.
With contributions from Jonathan Wilson, Martin Mazur, Santi Bauza and Joel Richards, the documentary delves into the fabric of the country, its culture and identity. It explores Argentina’s complicated political past (and present) and its economic rise and fall. Shot in real-time from the quarter final, Eli takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride.
Judges said: “This is a worldie in terms of football docs. Strategically it was very smart to target such a huge footballing community that hasn’t been represented in docs well enough. So much positive engagement in the comments as a result.”
