Here are the best documentary contenders of the year.
Nominees for this year’s Critics Choice Documentary Awards have been announced by a joint partnership of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association (of which Nonfics Editor in Chief Christopher Campbell is a member of both), with one of our favorites, Kedi, leading with four nods plus a special honor. See the rest in the press release below.
LOS ANGELES, CA (OCTOBER 9, 2017) — The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA) have announced the nominees for the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The winners will be presented their awards at a gala event on Thursday, November 2, 2017 at BRIC in Brooklyn, New York.
Kedi leads the nominations this year with four nominations and one honor, including Best Documentary, Best First Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary, Ceyda Torun for Best Director and the Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary honor for The Cats of Istanbul.
Films that are recognized with three nominations are California Typewriter, Chasing Coral, City of Ghosts, Cries From Syria and Dawson City: Frozen Time.
The nominations for California Typewriter are Best Documentary, Best First Documentary and Doug Nichol for Best Director.
The nominations for Chasing Coral are Best Documentary, Jeff Orlowski for Best Director and Kristen Bell for Best Song in a Documentary.
The nominations for City of Ghosts are Best Documentary, Best Political Documentary and Matthew Heineman for Best Director.
The nominations for Cries From Syria Best Documentary, Evgeny Afineevsky for Best Director and Cher for Best Song in a Documentary.
The nominations for Dawson City: Frozen Time are Best Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary and Bill Morrison for Best Director.
The films that are recognized with two nominations and an honor are Abacus: Small Enough to Jail and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.
The nominations for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail are Best Documentary and Best Political Documentary with an honor for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary for The Sung Family.
The nominations for An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power are Best Political Documentary and OneRepublic for Best Song in a Documentary with an honor for the Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary for Al Gore.
At the gala event, Academy Award and seven-time Emmy nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger will also be awarded the Critics’ Choice Impact Award.
Berlinger’s films include Brother’s Keeper, the Paradise Lost Trilogy, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, Crude and Under African Skies. Berlinger’s most recent film, Intent to Destroy, pulls back the curtain on mass murder censorship in Hollywood due to U.S. government pressure to appease a strategic ally. Intent to Destroy uses a historic feature film production as a springboard to explore the violent history of the Armenian Genocide and legacy of Turkish suppression and denial over the past century. Last summer Netflix released Berlinger’s Tony Robbins: I Am Not Your Guru, a vérité film that goes behind the scenes of the mega once-a-year seminar “Date With Destiny.” Killing Richard Glossip, Berlinger’s series for Investigation Discovery that premiered this April, tells the haunting story of a former motel manager sentenced to die for orchestrating a murder that he swears he had nothing to do with. Berlinger’s new eight-part docuseries for Spike TV premiered this summer. Gone: The Forgotten Women of Ohio, focuses on the deaths and disappearances of six young women in southern Ohio, and a system that failed to protect them. Premiering on SundanceTV in November is Berlinger’s four-part true crime documentary series Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders, a reexamination of the crime chronicled in Truman Capote’s landmark book and the Oscar-nominated film. Berlinger will also be shooting later this year the feature film Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, starring Zac Efron.
“The inaugural event last year was such a fantastic night, we cannot wait to celebrate the leading lights in the doc world at our second annual event,” said Broadcast Film Critics Association President Joey Berlin. “This is a golden age for documentary filmmaking and nonfiction television and we’re proud to help audiences find the best of the best.”
There is a change in the awards categories this year, explained by David Freedman, Chairperson, Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Nominating Committees. “As our industry continues to grow and change, the nominating committees of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association came to the decision together that we needed our categories to better reflect the current way documentaries are released as well as how the audience consumes content. Therefore, the BEST DOCUMENTARY category, which last year was separated into Theatrical Releases and TV/Streaming releases, has been merged into a single category, and the same is also true for the BEST DIRECTOR and BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY categories.”
The nominees for the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards are:
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail — Director: Steve James (PBS / Blue Ice Films, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Films Production)
Beware the Slenderman — Director: Irene Taylor Brodsky (HBO, Warner Bros. Television Distribution / HBO Documentary Films, Vermilion Films)
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds — Directors: Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens (HBO / Bloomfish Pictures, HBO Documentary Films, Insurgent Docs, RatPac Documentary Films)
California Typewriter — Director: Doug Nichol (Gravitas Ventures / American Buffalo Pictures)
Chasing Coral — Director: Jeff Orlowski (Netflix / Exposure Labs)
City of Ghosts — Director: Matthew Heineman (Amazon Studios, A&E IndieFilms, IFC Films / Our Time Projects)
Cries From Syria — Director: Evgeny Afineevsky (HBO / Afineevsky — Tolmor Production, Cinepost Barrandov, Levy Entertainment Group, Studio Malibu)
Dawson City: Frozen Time — Director: Bill Morrison (Kino Lorber / Hypnotic Pictures, Picture Palace Pictures)
Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis — Director: Colin Hanks (HBO / Live Nation Productions, Company Name)
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library — Director: Frederick Wiseman (Zipporah Films)
Faces Places — Directors: Agnès Varda & JR (Cohen Media Group / Ciné Tamaris, Social Animals, Rouge International, Arte France Cinéma, Arches Films)
Jane — Director: Brett Morgen (National Geographic Documentary Films / National Geographic Studios, Public Road Productions)
Kedi — Director: Ceyda Torun (Oscilloscope Laboratories, YouTube Red / Termite Films)
One of Us — Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady (Netflix / Loki Films)
Spettacolo — Directors: Jeff Malmberg, Chris Shellen (Grasshopper Film / Open Face)
Strong Island — Director: Yance Ford (Netflix / Yanceville Films, Louverture Films)
BEST DIRECTOR
Evgeny Afineevsky — Cries from Syria (HBO / Afineevsky — Tolmor Production, Cinepost Barrandov, Levy Entertainment Group, Studio Malibu)
Amir Bar-Lev — Long Strange Trip (Amazon / Amazon Studios, Double E Pictures, Sikelia Productions, AOMA Sunshine Films)
Matthew Heineman — City of Ghosts (Amazon Studios, A&E IndieFilms, IFC Films / Our Time Projects)
Bill Morrison — Dawson City: Frozen Time (Kino Lorber / Hypnotic Pictures, Picture Palace Pictures)
Doug Nichol — California Typewriter (Gravitas Ventures / American Buffalo Pictures)
Jeff Orlowski — Chasing Coral (Netflix / Exposure Labs)
Irene Taylor Brodsky — Beware the Slenderman (HBO, Warner Bros. Television Distribution / HBO Documentary Films, Vermilion Films)
Ceyda Torun — Kedi (Oscilloscope Laboratories, YouTube Red / Termite Films)
Agnès Varda & JR — Faces Places (Cohen Media Group / Ciné Tamaris, Social Animals, Rouge International, Arte France Cinéma, Arches Films)
Frederick Wiseman — Ex Libris: The New York Public Library (Zipporah Films)
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY
California Typewriter — Director: Doug Nichol (Gravitas Ventures / American Buffalo Pictures)
Kedi — Director: Ceyda Torun (Oscilloscope Laboratories, YouTube Red / Termite Films)
Nowhere to Hide — Director: Zaradasht Ahmed (East Village Entertainment / Ten Thousand Images)
Step — Director: Amanda Lipitz (Fox Searchlight / Impact Partners, Stick Figure Productions)
Strong Island — Director: Yance Ford (Netflix / Yanceville Films, Louverture Films)
Whose Streets? — Director: Sabaah Folayan, Co-Director: Damon Davis (Magnolia Pictures)
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
11/8/16 — Directors: Duane Andersen, Don Argott & Sheena M. Joyce, Yung Chang, Garth Donovan, Petra Epperlein & Michael Tucker, Vikram Gandhi, Raul Gasteazoro, Jamie Goncalves, Andrew Beck Grace, Alma Har’el, Daniel Junge, Alison Klayman, Ciara Lacy, Martha Shane, Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Bassam Tariq (The Orchard / Cinetic Media)
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail — Director: Steve James (PBS / Blue Ice Films, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Films Production)
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power — Directors: Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk (Paramount / Actual Films, Participant Media)
City of Ghosts — Director: Matthew Heineman (Amazon Studios, A&E IndieFilms, IFC Films / Our Time Projects)
Dolores — Director: Peter Bratt (PBS Distribution / 5 Stick Films)
The Reagan Show — Directors: Sierra Pettengill, Pacho Velez (Gravitas Ventures, CNN Films)
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
AlphaGo — Director: Greg Kohs (Submarine Entertainment / Moxie Pictures, Reel As Dirt)
Disgraced — Director: Pat Kondelis (Showtime Networks / Bat Bridge Entertainment)
Icarus — Director: Bryan Fogel (Netflix / Alex Productions, Diamond Docs, Impact Partners)
Speed Sisters — Director: Amber Fares (First Run Features)
Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton — Director: Rory Kennedy (Sundance Selects / Moxie Firecracker Films)
Trophy — Directors: Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz (CNN Films, The Orchard / Candescent Films, Pulse Films, Reel Peak Films)
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives — Director: Chris Perkel (Apple Music / IM Global, Scott Free Productions)
Contemporary Color — Directors: Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross (Oscilloscope / The Department of Motion Pictures, Public Domain, Todo Mundo)
Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis — Director: Colin Hanks (HBO / Live Nation Productions, Company Name)
I Called Him Morgan — Director: Kasper Collin (FilmRise, Submarine Entertainment / Kasper Collin Produktion, Sveriges Television, Film i Väst)
Long Strange Trip — Director: Amir Bar-Lev (Amazon / Amazon Studios, Double E Pictures, Sikelia Productions, AOMA Sunshine Films)
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World — Director: Catherine Bainbridge, Co-Director: Alfonso Maiorana (Kino Lorber / ARTE G.E.I.E, Rezolution Pictures)
MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECT OF A DOCUMENTARY
The Cats of Istanbul — Kedi (Oscilloscope Laboratories, YouTube Red / Termite Films)
Etty — One of Us (Netflix / Loki Films)
Al Gore — An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (Paramount / Actual Films, Participant Media)
Laird Hamilton — Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton (Sundance Selects / Moxie Firecracker Films)
Dolores Huerta — Dolores (PBS / 5 Stick Films)
Gigi Lazzarato — This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous (YouTube Red / SelectNext, Cabin Creek Films)
The Sung Family — Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (PBS / Blue Ice Films, Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Films Production)
MOST INNOVATIVE DOCUMENTARY
78/52 — Director: Alexandre O. Philippe (IFC Midnight / ARTE, Exhibit A Pictures, Milkhaus, Screen Division, Sensorshot Productions)
Casting JonBenet — Director: Kitty Green (Netflix / Forensic Films, Symbolic Exchange, Meridian Entertainment)
Dawson City: Frozen Time — Director: Bill Morrison (Kino Lorber / Hypnotic Pictures, Picture Palace Pictures)
Karl Marx City — Directors: Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker (Bond/360 / Pepper & Bones)
Kedi — Director: Ceyda Torun (Oscilloscope Laboratories, YouTube Red / Termite Films)
Last Men in Aleppo — Director: Firas Fayyad, Co-Director: Steen Johannessen (Grasshopper Film / Aleppo Media Center, Larm Film)
BEST SONG IN A DOCUMENTARY
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power — “Truth to Power” — OneRepublic (Paramount / Actual Films, Participant Media)
Chasing Coral — “Tell Me How Long” — Kristen Bell (Netflix / Exposure Labs)
Cries From Syria — “Prayers for This World” — Cher (HBO / Afineevsky — Tolmor Production, Cinepost Barrandov, Levy Entertainment Group, Studio Malibu)
Dina — “Best I Can” — Michael Cera featuring Sharon Van Etten (The Orchard / Cinereach, El Peligro, Killer Films)
Served Like a Girl — “Dancing Through the Wreckage” — Pat Benatar (Entertainment Studios, Freestyle Digital Media)
Step — “Jump” — Cynthia Erivo (Fox Searchlight / Impact Partners, Stick Figure Productions)
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES (TV/STREAMING)
The Defiant Ones (HBO)
Five Came Back (Netflix / Amblin Television, IACF Productions, Netflix, Passion Pictures, Rock Paper Scissors Entertainment)
The Keepers (Netflix / Film 45, Tripod Media)
The Nineties (CNN / CNN, Playtone, Herzog & Company)
Planet Earth II (BBC America, AMC, SundanceTV / BBC Natural History Unit, BBC America, ZDF, Tencent, France Télévisions)
The Vietnam War (PBS / Florentine Films, WETA-TV Washington)
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES (TV/STREAMING)
30 for 30 (ESPN / ESPN Films)
American Masters (PBS / WNET New York City)
Frontline (PBS / WGBH-TV Boston)
Independent Lens (PBS / Independent Television Service, Inc.)
POV (PBS / American Documentary, Inc.)
VICE (HBO / VICE Media)
Qualified members of BFCA and BTJA will choose the winners from amongst the nominees in voting October 30 — October 31.
The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards will be produced by Bob Bain Productions.
