"Apollo 11" and "American Factory" are big at the Cinema Eye Honors

by Nathaniel R

Cinema Eye is the only international documentary honor that surveys the whole craft of documentary filmmaking (like the Oscars, they look at cinematography, editing, and the like). They are now in their 12th year and have announced their latest batch of nominees. The nominations are determined by "top documentary programmers" from various festivals all over the world. The awards take place over an entire weekend, January 4th-6th, 2020, which serves as the finale of what is basically a multi-city travelling festival. 

This year Apollo 11 (Neon) and American Factory (Netflix) led the nominations (5 categories each) while Homecoming: A Film By Beyonce leads the Broadcast portion of the nominations with 3 nods. This year's "Legacy Award" will go to the trippy classic Koyaanisqatsi. Unfortunately Cinema Eye is one of those awards that appears to have no consistency of the number of nominees ranging anywhere from 4 to 8 nominations depending on the category.

The nominations are after the jump...

THEATRICAL

Outstanding Achievement in Non Fiction
(The top award, the directors are the nominees)

• American Factory (Netflix)
• Apollo 11 (Neon)
• For Sama (PBS)
• Honeyland (Neon)
• One Child Nation (Amazon)
• Midnight Family (1091 Media)

the rest of the nominations...

Direction

• American Factory, Steven Bognar & Julia Reichert
• The Cave, Feras Fayyad
• Cold Case Hammarskjold, Mads Brugger
• Honeyland, Ljubo Stefanov & Tamara Kotevska
• The Hottest August, Brett Story
• One Child Nation, Nanfu Wang & Jialing Zhang

Production
(This award is for the producers)

• Aquarela
• Apollo 11
• For Sama
• Midnight Family
• Midnight Traveler 

Cinematography

• Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
• Aquarela
• Honeyland
• Midnight Family
• What Do You Do When The World Is On Fire

Editing

• 17 Blocks
• American Factory
• Apollo 11
• The Cave
• Letter to the Editor
• Mike Wallace is Here

Original Score

• Anthropocene: The Human Epoch
• Apollo 11
• Aquarela
• Black Mother
• Symphony for the Ursus Factory

Graphic Design or Animation

• Gay Chorus Deep South
• The Great Hack
• The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
• Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements
• Our Time Machine

Debut Feature

• The Disappearance of My Mother, Beniamino Barrese
• Jawline, Liza Mandelup
• Searching Eva
• Scheme Birds, Ellen Fiske & Elinor Halin
• Swarm Season, Sarah Christman
• Symphony for the Ursus Factory, Jasmina Wojcik

Spotlight Award

• Always in Season
• Bellingcat- Truth in a  Post-Truth World
• Present. Perfect.
• The Raft

Heterodox Award
(This award is for narrative features with documentary like elements we believe...)

• Atlantics, Mati Diop
• Honey Boy, Alma Har'el
• The Infiltrators, Cristina Ibarra & Alex Rivera
• The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg
• Vitalina Varela, Pedro Costa

Audience Choice
(We're not quite sure what this award is about since it appears to have no relation to box office success -- are they just guessing which docs audiences will like?)

• 17 Blocks
• The Amazing Jonathan Documentary
• American Factor
• Ask Dr Ruth
• The Biggest Little Farm
• The Cave
• For Sama
• Knock Down the House

BROADCAST

NonFiction Film for Broadcast

• Apollo: Missions to the Moon
• Breslin & Hamill: Deadline Artists
• Homecoming
• Leaving Neverland
• The Sentence

Series for Broadcast

• The Case Against Adnan Sayed
• The Family
• Jonestown Terror in the Jungle
• Last Chance U: Season 4
• Salt Fat Acid Heat
• Tricky Dick

Cinematography

• Homecoming
• Into the Okavango
• Salt Fat Acid Heat
• Tigerland

Editing

• Apollo: Mission to the Moon
• Homecoming
• Leaving Neverland
• Tricky Dick

SHORT FILMS

Short Filmmaking

• Crannog
• Fast Horse
• Ghosts of Sugarland
• Lowland Kids
• Stay Close
• Subject to Review

Comments

[James]

I am disappointed to see that my favorite documentary of the year so far, Maiden, was snubbed. Alex Holmes crafted a compelling tale of the first female crew to complete in the Whitbread Round the World sailing race.

[Glenn Dunks]

Most of the titles I would expect to play into Oscar are there. I still think EDGE OF DEMOCRACY can come on strong - especially because the film's subject is in the news right this second.

Thinking HONEYLAND could genuinely find its way into either documentary or foreign language. People love it.