Critics Choice Splinter Group Doc Prizes

You can't be both a feature film and a mini-series. Make up your mind! (Hopefully Oscar won't allow for shenanigans.)I don't think I got the memo from the Broadcast Film Critics Association this time. After fusing their TV awards into their movie awards like the Globes last season they're now separating out their doc prizes. I don't remember seeing a ballot. What's more they still haven't solved their loosey-goosey problems with pesky things like "categories." Somehow they've nominated O.J. Made in America for both Documentary Feature AND Documentary Limited Series. How can you be both things? Uff da. 

Nevertheless since Glenn has done such a fine job covering documentaries for us, it would be remiss not to note that we've already reviewed most of the nominees! The nominees in 13 categories (a silly abundance since many of the nominees repeat under different sub-categories) after the jump. Titles with links go to our reviews...

Best Documentary Feature
13th
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Cameraperson
Fire at Sea
Gleason
Life, Animated
Tickled
Tower
Weiner
The Witness

Best Direction of a Documentary Feature
Ezra Edelman (30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America)
Ron Howard (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years)
Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson)
Keith Maitland (Tower)
Clay Tweel (Gleason)
Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated)

Tickled

Best First Documentary
Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress)
David Farrier, Dylan Reeve (Tickled)
Adam Irving (Off the Rails)
Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg (Weiner)
James D. Solomon (The Witness)
Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow)

Best Political Documentary
13th
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Audrie & Daisy
Newtown
Weiner
Zero Days

Best Documentary Feature (TV/Streaming)
13th
30 for 30 – Fantastic Lies
Amanda Knox
Audrie & Daisy
Before the Flood
Holy Hell
Into the Inferno
Jim: The James Foley Story
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Rats

Best Director (TV/Streaming)
Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato (Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures)
Rod Blackhurst, Brian McGinn (Amanda Knox)
Ava DuVernay (13th)
Werner Herzog (Into the Inferno)
Morgan Spurlock (Rats)
Fisher Stevens (Before the Flood)

Southwest of Salem

Best First Feature (TV/Streaming)
Jacob Bernstein, Nick Hooker (Everything Is Copy)
Will Allen (Holy Hell)
Jessica Edwards (Mavis!)
Sophie Robinson, Lotje Sodderland (My Beautiful Broken Brain)
Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four)
Jon Greenhalgh (Team Foxcatcher)

Best Limited Documentary Series
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth
The Eighties
The Hunt
Jackie Robinson
Soundbreaking: Stories From the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music

Best Ongoing Documentary Series
30 for 30
Frontline
Last Chance U
Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man
POV
This is Life with Lisa Ling

Best Song in a Documentary
"Angel by the Wings" by Sia from The Eagle Huntress
"The Empty Chair" by Sting & J Ralph from Jim: The James Foley Story
"Flicker" by Tori Amos from Audrey & Daisy
"Hoping and Healing" by Mike McReady from Gleason
"I’m Still Here" by Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings from Miss Sharon Jones!
"Letter to the Free" by Common from 13th

Best Sports Documentary
30 for 30 – Fantastic Lies
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Dark Horse
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Jackie Robinson
Keepers of the Game

Miss Sharon Jones

Best Music Documentary
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
Gimme Danger
Miss Sharon Jones!
The Music of Strangers
Presenting Princess Shaw
We Are X

Kate Plays Christine

Most Innovative Documentary
Cameraperson
Kate Plays Christine
Life, Animated
Nuts
Tower
Under the Sun

You'll notice that some of these titles were also on the DOC NYC Short List which means they'll probably penetrate Oscar's headspace too.

Comments

[ken s]

Best Song in a Documentary? This group will never give up their show biz aspirations.

[ConMan]

I just watched 13th and it better win in every category it can.

[Craver]

This is very confusing

[Glenn Dunks]

That Ron Howard nomination for directing is as star fucking as ever from the BFCA.

Some of these nominations are odd because the films aren't out yet and so the people with ballots must be a specifically curated lot since I find it heard to believe enough people have seen unreleased movies like Newtown or Fire at Sea or stuff like Mavis! or The Eagle Huntress to have voted in high enough numbers.

Some great sounding titles I still need to see on there, obviously. I need to make time for 13TH most pertinently since I haven't had a moment since it premiered on Netflix.

This MADE IN AMERICA thing is going to be so frustrating all season long, I feel. IT WAS MADE FOR TV AND IT IS LITERALLY A TELEVISION MINI-SERIES DOCUMENTARY. Just because you jammed it into a cinema a couple of times doesn't make it a film.