‘The Square,’ and ‘Let the Fire Burn’ Among Indie Spirit Nominees in Documentary Categories

THE-SQUARE-Ahmed

The nominees for the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards were announced today, and it’s easy news to report here since only two of their categories feature documentaries. There’s the general Best Documentary group and then the Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award contenders (see the distinction below). One nominee worth noting in the former category is The Act of Killing, which filmmaker and Cinema Eye Honors founder AJ Schnack has pointed out is an international work and so seems to technically not be qualified by their rules (not that he’s against the film being recognized). I wonder if Film Independent will address that little issue (some are already responding that the filmmaker is American-born so it counts).

Here are the documentary nominees:

BEST DOCUMENTARY
(Award given to the director and producer)

20 FEET FROM STARDOM
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Morgan Neville
PRODUCERS: Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers

AFTER TILLER
DIRECTORS/PRODUCERS: Martha Shane and
Lana Wilson

GIDEON’S ARMY
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Dawn Porter
PRODUCER: Julie Goldman

THE ACT OF KILLING
DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: Joshua Oppenheimer
PRODUCERS: Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne
Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo

THE SQUARE
DIRECTOR: Jehane Noujaim
PRODUCER: Karim Amer

19th ANNUAL STELLA ARTOIS TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD
The 19th annual Truer Than Fiction Award, sponsored by Stella Artois, is presented to an emerging
director of non-union features who has not yet received significant recognition. The award includes a
$25,000 unrestricted grant. The finalists are:

KALYANEE MAM director of A RIVER CHANGES COURSE
JASON OSDER director of LET THE FIRE BURN
STEPHANIE SPRAY & PACHO VALEZ directors of MANAKAMANA

(Editor in Chief)

Christopher Campbell is the founding editor of Nonfics.