16th Annual Cinema Eye Honors nominations

by Nathaniel R

"The Territory" led the Cinema Eye Honors nominations

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article now contains ★ to represent the winners, announced on January 12th. The rest of the text is from the original article.

The Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature didn't use to have so many 'precursors' to consider but interest in and awards for documentaries have grown considerably in the 21st century. The Cinema Eye Honors, which began in 2007, were the first awards organization to recognize documentaries above and beyond "Best Documentary" by honoring them for several craft achievements too in multiple categories. They've just announced their nominees for their 16th annual NonFiction Film Awards. The nomination leaders are the box office hit Fire of Love and critical darling The Territory...

Unfortunately, as with the abundant prizes for narrative features the ever-expanding amount of awards bodies for documentaries have not expanded opinions about "best". As with narrative awards, we see mostly the same movies recognized across every organization. The six nominees for Cinema Eye Honors top category include five films that also snagged honors with Critics Choice Association, IDA Finalist list and the DOC NYC Shortlist. Their only deviation is a top nomination for the  documentary A Night of Knowing Nothing  which is an experimental Indian doc about a university student's love letters to her boyfriend. It premiered at Cannes in 2021 and won the L'Œil d'or prize. Interestingly in the top category, it's up against All That Breathes which won that same exact prize at Cannes this past summer. 

So the interest is mostly in seeing which patterns emerge from organization to organization. And/or what's missing. For example Cinema Eye ignored Goodnight Oppy, The Janes, Aftershock which all scored with CCA. Full list of nominees and and a few more comments below.

Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

"A Night of Knowing Nothing"

• ★ All That Breathes Directed and Produced by Shaunak Sen Produced by Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Directed and Produced by Laura Poitras Produced by Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov
• Fire of Love Directed and Produced by Sara Dosa Produced by Shane Boris and Ina Fichman
• Navalny Directed by Daniel Roher Produced by Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
• A Night of Knowing Nothing Directed by Payal Kapadia Produced by Thomas Hakim, Julien Graff and Ranabir Das
• The Territory Directed and Produced by Alex Pritz Produced by Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller

All of these are already on our top ten of what's in the mix for Oscar's nominations... with the exception of A Night of Knowing Nothing since we're not sure yet on eligibility. 

Outstanding Direction

• All That Breathes Shaunak Sen
• ★ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Laura Poitras
• Beba Rebeca Huntt
• Descendant Margaret Brown
• Fire of Love Sara Dosa
• A Night of Knowing Nothing Payal Kapadia

Majority female lineup in Best Director. (Documentaries have long been a more welcoming avenue for female directors.) Interestingly both here and at the Critics Choice Nominations, Descendant did not make the feature list but did make the directing list. 

Outstanding Editing

• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Amy Foote, Joe Bini and Brian A. Kates
• ★ Fire of Love Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput
• Moonage Daydream Brett Morgen
• Riotsville, USA Nels Bangerter
• Three Minutes: A Lengthening Katharina Wartena

Point of interest: Riotsville USA and Three Minutes only scored editing nominations with this organization. This is also the only category where we've reviewed every single nominee at The Film Experience. 

Outstanding Production
This vaguely titled award is for achievement of the producers themselves. 

"A House Made of Splinters"

• All That Breathes Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen and Teddy Leifer
• A House Made of Splinters Monica Hellström
• In Her Hands Juan Camilo Cruz and Jonathan Schaerf
• ★ Navalny Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris
• The Territory Alex Pritz, Darren Aronofsky, Gabriel Uchida, Sigrid Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett and Will N. Miller

Point of Interest: A House Made of Splinters, about a home for kids awaiting custody decisions in Ukraine, is also up for the European Film Awards but it's otherwise been absent in recent awards announcements. That said it did start it's awards journey in a big way with a Directing win for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance in January. 

Outstanding Cinematography

• ★ All That Breathes Ben Bernhard
• Cow Magda Kowalczyk
• A House Made of Splinters Simon Lereng Wilmont
• A Night of Knowing Nothing Ranabir Das
• The Territoryy Alex Pritz and Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau
• Users Bennett Cerf

Outstanding Original Score

• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Soundwalk Collective
• Descendant Ray Angry and Rhiannon Giddens/Dirk Powell
• ★ Fire of Love Nicolas Godin
• Nothing Compares  Linda Buckley and Irene Buckley
• The Territory Katya Mihailova
• Users Dave Cerf

Point of interest: Here's a big difference of opinion. This category shares only one nominee (Fire of Love) with the parallel category at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards even though all of these films (save Users) were also popular with that group. 

Outstanding Sound Design

• All That Breathes Niladri Shekhar Roy, Sound Designer, and Susmit “Bob” Nath, Sound Design Consultant
• ★ Fire of Love Patrice LeBlanc, Sound Designer, and Gavin Fernandes, Re-recording Mixer
• I Didn’t See You There Tom Paul, Lead Sound Designer & Re-recording Mixer, and Andrés E. Marthe González, Supervising Sound Editor
• ★ Moonage Daydream Samir Foco, John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone, Sound Designers
• The Territory Rune Klausen and Peter Albrechtsen, Sound Designers

Outstanding Visual Design
This involves things like animation, motion graphics, title design and more...

• Dear Mr. Brody Gary Walker, Visual Effects; John Mark Lapham, Collages; Sam Klatt, Graphics & Compositing
• ★ Fire of Love Lucy Munger, Animation; Kara Blake, Graphic Artist; and Rui Ting Ji, Hand-drawn animation & Illustrations
• Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues Hectah Arias, Animation and Graphics
• ★ Moonage Daydream Stefan Nadelman, Animation
• My Old School Rory Lowe, Animation Director, and Scott Morriss, Lead Animator

Outstanding Debut

• Bad Axe Directed by David Siev
• Beba Directed by Rebeca Huntt
• I Didn’t See You There Directed by Reid Davenport
• A Night of Knowing Nothing Directed by Payal Kapadia
• Nothing Compares  Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
• ★ The Territory Directed by Alex Pritz

Outstanding Nonfiction Short

• In Flow of Words Directed by Eliane Esther Bots
• Last Days of August Directed by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian
• Long Line of Ladies Directed by Rayka Zehtabchi and Shaandiin Tome
• The Martha Mitchell Effect Directed by Anne Alvergue and Debra McClutchy
• ★ Nuisance Bear Directed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden
• Shut Up and Paint Directed by Alex Mallis and Titus Kaphar

Audience Choice Prize

• All That Breathes Directed by Shaunak Sen
• The Balcony Movie Directed by Paweł Łoziński
• Fire of Love Directed a by Sara Dosa
• Last Flight Home Directed by Ondi Timoner
• Mija Directed by Isabel Castro
• My Old School  Directed by Jono McLeod
• ★ Navalny Directed by Daniel Roher
• Nothing Compares  Directed by Kathryn Ferguson
• Sr. Directed by Chris Smith
• The Territory Directed by Alex Pritz

Spotlight
This prize is kind of their "watch out for" notes of (mostly) upcoming titles they like. In other words they haven't been widely seen/discussed yet in most cases. 

• After Sherman Directed by Jon-SesrieGoff
• Brotherhood Directed by Francesco Montagner
• Hidden Letters Directed by Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing
• Into the Ice Directed by Lars Henrik Ostenfeld
• ★ Master of Light Directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten

Heterodox
This category is for films that show the porous boundaries between documentary filmmaking and narrative storytellers

• ★ Aftersun Directed by Charlotte Wells
• Dry Ground Burning Directed by Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós
• Dos Estaciones Directed by Juan Pablo González
• Marcel the Shell with Shoes On Directed by Dean Fleischer-Camp
• The Rehearsal (Season One) Directed by Nathan Fielder

Have any of you seen The Rehearsal on HBOMax. It's such a mindf*** 

The Unforgettables (Non-Competitive Honor)
This category honors the relationship between subjects of documentaries and the doc itself... which seems redundant but your mileage may vary.

• All That Breathes Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad
• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Nan Goldin
• Bad Axe Chun Siev
• Beba Rebeca Huntt
• Fire of Love Katia and Maurice Krafft
• Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down Gabby Giffords
• I Didn't See You There Reid Davenport
• In Her Hands Zarifa Ghafari
• Last Flight Home Eli Timoner
• Mija Doris Muñoz
• My Old School Brandon Lee
• Navalny Alexei Navalny
• Nothing Compares  Sinead O'Connor
• Sr. Robert Downey Sr.
• The Territory Bitaté Uru-eu-wau-wau and Neidinha Bandeira

PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED NOMINEES

Broadcast Film Nominees

• ★ Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes Directed by James Jones | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• Downfall: The Case Against Boeing Directed by Rory Kennedy | Netflix
• Four Hours at the Capitol Directed by Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• George Carlin’s American Dream Directed by Judd Apatow and Michael Bonfiglio | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• Playing With Sharks Directed by Sally Aitken | Disney+

Nonfiction Series Nominees

• The Beatles: Get Back Directed by Peter Jackson | Disney+
• ★ Black and Missing Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey Directed by Rachel Dretzin | Netflix
• LuLaRich Directed by Julia Willoughby Nason and Jenner Furst | Amazon Studios
• Mind Over Murder Directed by Nanfu Wang | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• We Need to Talk About Cosby Directed by W. Kamau Bell | Showtime

Anthology Series Nominees

• ★ How To with John Wilson (Season Two) Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking and John Wilson, Executive Producers | HBO
• Origins of Hip Hop Peter Bittenbender, Mark Grande, Slane Hatch; Supervising Producers: Amira Lewally and Phoenix Skye Maulella, Executive Producers | A&E
• Prehistoric Planet Jon Favreau and Michael Gunton, Executive Producers; Tim Walker, Series Producer | Apple TV+
• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two) Tom Barry, Adam Hawkins, Eve Kay and Stanley Tucci, Executive Producers; Robin O'Sullivan, Series Producer | CNN
• Women Who Rock Jessica Hopper, Rachel Brill, John Varvatos, Derik Murray and Jesse James Miller, Executive Producers | EPIX
• The World According to Jeff Goldblum (Season Two) Jeff Goldblum, Jane Root, Sara Brailsford, Keith Addis and Arif Nurmohamed, Executive Producers, Ben Jessop, Series Producer | Disney+

Broadcast Editing Nominees

• 37 Words Jessica Congdon and Dave Marcus | ESPN
• The Beatles: Get Back Jabez Olssen | Disney+
• Four Hours at the Capitol Will Grayburn | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• How to Survive a Pandemic Adam Evans and Tyler H. Walk | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• How To with John Wilson (Season Two) Adam Locke-Norton | HBO
• ★ We Need to Talk About Cosby Meg Ramsay | Showtime

Broadcast Cinematography Nominees

• Four Hours at the Capitol Jamie Roberts | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max
• jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy Coodie Simmons and Danny “DNA” Sorge | Netflix
• ★ Playing With Sharks Michael Taylor, Judd Overton, Nathan Barlow and Toby Ralph | Disney+
• Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy (Season Two) Andrew Muggleton | CNN
• Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Come Off Sam Jones and Jesse Green | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max

Legacy Award

• Crumb Directed by Terry Zwigoff Produced by Lynn O’Donnell and Terry Zwigoff Edited by Victor Livingston Cinematography by Maryse Alberti Music by David Beddinghaus Sound by Scott Breindell

Shorts List Films

• Anastasia Directed by Sarah McCarthy
• The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone Directed by Maya NewelL
• The Joys and Sorrows of Young Yuguo Directed by Ilinca Călugăreanu 
• Keys to the City Directed by Ian Moubayed

Audience Choice Long List Films

• All the Beauty and the Bloodshed Directed by Laura Poitras 
• Good Night Oppy Directed by Ryan White
• Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfire
• In Her Hands Directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen
• Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues Directed by Sacha Jenkins
• Moonage Daydream Directed by Brett Morgen

Comments

[Mr Ripley79]

I don't know what US distribution and publicity is like for small indies but i've never heard of most of these titles but I don't own a mobile phone and am not out there on social media so maybe that's my problem.

[NATHANIEL R]

Mr Ripley -- well, documentaries dont get all that much press so it's not uncommon.

[Score and Cinematography]

I’ve been wanting to see Fire of Love and just noticed it’s now on Disney Plus / NATL Geographic. woo who!