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Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 5th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards

Posted Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 - Comments Off on Cinema Eye Honors Announces Nominees for 5th Annual Nonfiction Film Awards
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The Arbor, The Interrupters, Nostalgia for the Light, Position Among the Stars, Project Nim and Senna all nominated for top award, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

The Interrupters’ Steve James leads individuals with 4 Nominations

Errol Morris, Werner Herzog, Tim Hetherington and Wim Wenders Among This Year’s Cinema Eye Nominees

October 26, 2011 – For Immediate Release – London, UK – 33 Films from 12 countries will vie for this year’s Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking as nominees were announced tonight in London at an event hosted by Sheffield Doc/Fest.

For the first time, six films are in the running for Cinema Eye’s top award, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking: Clio Barnard’s The Arbor, Steve James’ The Interrupters, Patricio Guzmán’s Nostalgia for the Light, Leonard Retel Helmrich’ Position Among the Stars, James Marsh’s Project Nim and Asif Kapadia’s Senna.

The nominees for this year’s Cinema Eye Honors reflect the most international as well as the most even dispersement of nominations in Cinema Eye history.  Seven films received four nominations each, the highest tally for this year: The Arbor, Tristan Patterson’s Dragonslayer, Danfung Dennis’ Hell and Back Again, The Interrupters, Nostalgia for the Light, Position Among the Stars and Senna.

Winners of the 5th Annual Cinema Eye Honors will be announced on January 11, 2012 as Cinema Eye returns for a second year to New York City’s Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.

Steve James, who previous helmed the nonfiction classics Hoop Dreams and Stevie, leads all individuals by being included in all four nominations for The Interrupters.  James is among four nominees for Outstanding Achievement in Direction, where he is joined by Clio Barnard, Danfung Dennis, Patricio Guzmán and Leonard Retel Helmrich.

Ten contenders were named for Cinema Eye’s Audience Choice prize, which were, for the first time this year, the result of a direct vote by the Cinema Eye nominations committee.  They include some of the most beloved documentaries of 2011, including Cindy Meehl’s Buck, Richard Press’ Bill Cunningham New York, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Errol Morris’ Tabloid and Jon M. Chu’s Justin Bieber: Never Say Never.

The late Tim Hetherington, who received two nominations in 2011 for co-directing and co-producing Restrepo, was nominated in the Nonfiction Short Filmmaking category for his autobiographical film, Diary.  He is joined in the category by Yuri Ancarani’s Il Capo (Italy), Davina Pardo’s Minka (USA), Jakub Stożek’s Out of Reach (Poland) and Andy Taylor Smith’s This Chair is Not Me (UK).

A full list of nominees with details on each category follows.

About the Cinema Eye Honors and the 2012 Awards

The Cinema Eye Honors were founded in 2007 to recognize excellence in artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking.  It remains the only international nonfiction award to recognize the whole creative team, presenting annual craft awards in directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing and graphic design/animation.

Cinema Eye is headed by a core team that includes Co-Chairs Esther Robinson (director, A Walk Into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Debut, 2008) and AJ Schnack (director, Kurt Cobain About A Son and founder of Cinema Eye), Producer Nathan Truesdell (producer, Convention), Nominations Committee Chair Sean Farnel (Former Head of Programming, Hot Docs Film Festival), Advisory Board Chair Andrea Meditch (executive producer, Buck and Man on Wire) and Filmmaker Advisory Board Chair Laura Poitras (director, The Oath; Cinema Eye winner for Outstanding Direction, 2011).

Nominees for the Cinema Eye Honors feature awards are determined in voting by the top documentary programmers from throughout the world.  This year’s nominations committee included Meira Blaustein (Woodstock Film Festival), Heather Croall (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Sean Farnel (Hot Docs Film Festival), Joanne Feinberg (Ashland Film Festival), Tine Fischer (CPH:DOX), Elena Fortes (Ambulante), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), Tom Hall (Sarasota Film Festival), Doug Jones (Los Angeles Film Festival), Amir Labaki (It’s All True, Brazil), Grit Lemke (DOK Liepzig), Caroline Libresco (Sundance Film Festival), Artur Liebhart (Planete Doc Review), David Nugent (Hamptons Film Festival), Veton Nurkollari (DokuFest Kosovo), Janet Pierson (SXSW), Thom Powers (Toronto International Film Festival, DOC NYC), Rachel Rosen (San Francisco), Charlotte Selb (RIDM Montreal), Sky Sitney (Silverdocs), Sadie Tillery (Full Frame), David Wilson (True/False) and Brit Withey (Denver).

Finalists for the Cinema Eye Honors short film awards were selected by a nominations committee that included Hussain Currimbhoy (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Sarafina DiFelice (Hot Docs Film Festival), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), Ted Mott (Full Frame), Veton Nurkollari (DokuFest Kosovo), Sky Sitney (Silverdocs) and Kim Yutani (Sundance).  Nominees were chosen from a list of 11 finalists by a jury that was composed of Peter Debruge (senior film critic, Variety), Audrey Marrs (producer, No End in Sight and Inside Job; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Feature, 2008 and Outstanding Production, 2011), Christine O’Malley (producer, Wordplay and I.O.U.S.A.), Chris Shellen (producer, Marwencol; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Feature, 2011) and Peter Van Steemburg, Director of Acquisitions, Magnolia Pictures.

The members of the Cinema Eye Filmmaker Advisory Board include RJ Cutler (director, The September Issue, Cinema Eye winner for Audience Choice, 2010), Audrey Marrs (producer, Inside Job; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Production, 2011), James Marsh (director, Man on Wire; Cinema Eye winner for Outstanding Feature, 2009) and Morgan Spurlock (director, POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold).

The members of the Cinema Eye Industry Advisory Board include Sara Bernstein (HBO Documentary Films), Heather Croall (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Matt Dentler (Cinetic Media), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), Ryan Harrington (Tribeca Film Institute), Molly Thompson (A&E IndieFilms) and Debra Zimmerman (Women Make Movies).

Key Partners of Cinema Eye are the Museum of the Moving Image, HBO Documentary Films, A&E IndieFilms, Sheffield Doc/Fest and Hot Docs.  Supporting sponsors include POV, the Camden International Film Festival, the Hudson Hotel, Frontline Club and Abel CineTech.  Additional sponsors will be named in the coming months.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

The Arbor

Directed by Clio Barnard

Produced by Tracy O’Riordan

The Interrupters

Directed by Steve James

Produced by Alex Kotlowitz and Steve James

Nostalgia for the Light

Directed by Patricio Guzmán

Produced by Renate Sachse

Position Among the Stars

Directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich

Produced by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich

Project Nim

Directed by James Marsh

Produced by Simon Chinn

Senna

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Produced by James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner

●      This is the first time that six films have been nominated in the Outstanding Feature category.

●      James Marsh and Simon Chinn were previously nominated and won in this category for Man on Wire (2009).  This marks the first time that anyone has been nominated more than once in this category.

●      Both The Arbor and Nostalgia for the Light were nominated for Cinema Eye’s Spotlight Award in 2011.  The Spotlight Award is for films that have not yet received proper attention in North America and films in contention for the Spotlight Award need not be eligible for other awards.

●      Previous winners in this category are Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) (2008), Man on Wire (2009), The Cove (2010) and Exit Through the Gift Shop (2011).

●      Three out of the previous four years, the Outstanding Feature award has gone to a debut film, but that film has never also received the Debut Film award.

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

Clio Barnard

The Arbor

Danfung Dennis

Hell and Back Again

Steve James

The Interrupters

Patricio Guzmán

Nostalgia for the Light

Leonard Retel Helmrich

Position Among the Stars

●      Previous winners in this category include Alex Gibney for Taxi to the Dark Side (2008), Ari Folman for Waltz with Bashir (2009), Agnès Varda for The Beaches of Agnès (2010) and Laura Poitras for The Oath (2011).

●      Clio Barnard and Danfung Dennis are both also nominated in the Outstanding Debut category.

●      Steve James is the most nominated individual this year with four nods for The Interrupters.

Outstanding Achievement in Production

Erik Nelson and Adrienne Ciuffo

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Mike Lerner

Hell and Back Again

Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz

The Interrupters

Renate Sachse

Nostalgia for the Light

Gian-Piero Ringel and Wim Wenders

Pina

●      Previous winners in this category include Seth Kanegis, Tomas Radoor and Mikael Rieks for Ghosts of Cite Soleil (2008), Simon Chinn for Man on Wire (2009), Paula DuPré Pesman and Fisher Stevens for The Cove (2010) & Mila Aung-Thwin and Daniel Cross for Last Train Home (2011).

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Alma Har’el

Bombay Beach

Eric Koretz

Dragonslayer

Danfung Dennis

Hell and Back Again

Katell Dijan

Nostalgia for the Light

Leonard Retel Helmrich and Ismail Fahmi Lubish

Position Among the Stars

●      Alma Har’el, Danfung Dennis and Leonard Retel Helmrich are also nominated in other categories: Dennis and Helmrich in the Outstanding Direction category, Har’el and Dennis in the Debut Feature category.

●      Previous winners in this category include Heloisa Passos for Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) (2008), Peter Zeitlinger for Encounters at the End of the World (2009), Brook Aitken for The Cove (2009) and Lixin Fan for Last Train Home (2011).

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

Hanna Lejonqvist SFK  & Göran Hugo Olsson

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Jennifer Tiexiera and Lizzy Calhoun

Dragonslayer

Joe Walker

Life in a Day

Jasper Naaijkens

Position Among the Stars

Gregers Sall and Chris King

Senna

●      Chris King won this award last year for his work on Exit Through the Gift Shop.  His nomination for Senna marks the second time that someone has been nominated in successive years in the same category that they won in the previous year.  The first was Lise Lense-Møller, who won in the former International category for Burma VJ (2010) and was nominated the next year for Into Eternity (2011).

●      Previous winners in this category include Doug Abel, Jenny Golden and Andy Grieve for Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), Jinx Godfrey for Man on Wire, Janus Billeskov-Jansen and Thomas Papapetros for Burma VJ and Chris King and Tom Fulford for Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Audience Choice Prize

Bill Cunningham New York

Directed by Richard Press

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975

Directed by Göran Hugo Olsson

Buck

Directed by Cindy Meehl

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Directed by Werner Herzog

Give Up Tomorrow

Directed by Michael Collins

The Interrupters

Directed by Steve James

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never

Directed by Jon M. Chu

Project Nim

Directed by James Marsh

Senna

Directed by Asif Kapadia

Tabloid

Directed by Errol Morris

●      Werner Herzog, James Marsh and Errol Morris were all previously nominated in this category in 2009 in this category: Herzog for Encounters at the End of the World, Marsh for Man on Wire and Morris for Standard Operating Procedure.

●      Justin Bieber: Never Say Never is the highest grossing nonfiction feature to score a Cinema Eye nomination in the award’s history.

●      Previous winners in this category include The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2008), Up the Yangtze (2009), The September Issue (2010) and Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2011).

●      The Audience Choice Prize is a vote that is open to the general public.  In 2011, nearly 10,000 people voted for this award.

●      This is the first year that the nominations committee has voted directly for nominees in this category.  Previously, nominees were determined by a combination of votes in other categories and North American theatrical box office.  Now films can become eligible either by having a successful theatrical release or by winning an Audience Award at a Cinema Eye qualifying film festival.

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film

Clio Barnard

The Arbor

Michal Marczak

At the Edge of Russia

Alma Har’el

Bombay Beach

Tristan Patterson

Dragonslayer

Danfung Dennis

Hell and Back Again

●      Previous winners in this category include Jennifer Venditti for Billy the Kid (2008), Yung Chang for Up the Yangtze (2009), Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher for October Country (2010) and Jeff Malmberg for Marwencol (2011).

Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score

Harry Escott and Molly Nyman

The Arbor

Ernst Reijseger

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

T. Griffin

Dragonslayer

Antonio Pinto

Senna

John Kusiak

Tabloid

●      T. Griffin was nominated in this category in 2011 for his work on Utopia in Four Movements.

●      This category was introduced in 2009.

●      Previous winners in this category include Max Richter for Waltz with Bashir (2009), Danny Grody, Donal Mosher, Michael Palmieri and Kenric Taylor for October Country (2010) and Norbert Möslang for The Sound of Insects: Record of a Mummy (2011).

●      The Original Music Score award is a juried prize.

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation

Justin Barber and Ryland Jones

!Women Art Revolution

Mike Nicholson and Allison Moore

Better This World

Brent Green

Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then

Kinda Akash

Project Nim

Raynor Pettge

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure

Rob Feng and Jeremy Landman

Tabloid

●      Previous winners in this category include Lewis Kofsky and Richard Winkler for Chicago 10 (2008), Yoni Goodman and David Polonsky for Waltz with Bashir (2009), Bigstar for Food, Inc. and Brett Gaylor & team for RIP: A Remix Manifesto (2010, tie) and Juan Cardarelli and Alex Tyson for Gasland (2011).

Spotlight Award

Family Instinct

Directed by Andris Gauja

Last Days Here

Directed by Don Argott and Demien Fenton

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth

Directed by Chad Friedrichs

Scenes of a Crime

Directed by Blue Hadaegh and Grover Babcock

The Tiniest Place

Directed by Tatiana Huezo Sánchez

●      The Spotlight Award was introduced in 2010 and is a juried award.

●      Previous winners in this category include Jessica Oreck’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (2010) and Andrei Ujica’s The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu (2011).

●      Films need not be eligible in other categories to be eligible in this category.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking

Il Capo

Directed by Yuri Ancarani

Diary

Directed by Tim Hetherington

Minka

Directed by Davina Pardo

Out of Reach

Directed by Jakub Stożek

This Chair Is Not Me

Directed by Andy Taylor Smth

●      The award for Nonfiction Short Filmmaking was introduced in 2011.

●      The previous winner of this award is Vance Malone’s The Poodle Trainer (2011).

●      This is a juried award.  Finalists for the Cinema Eye Honors short film awards were selected by a nominations committee that included Hussain Currimbhoy (Sheffield Doc/Fest), Sarafina DiFelice (Hot Docs Film Festival), Ben Fowlie (Camden International Film Festival), Ted Mott (Full Frame), Veton Nurkollari (DokuFest Kosovo), Sky Sitney (Silverdocs) and Kim Yutani (Sundance).  Nominees were chosen from a list of 11 finalists by a jury that was composed of Peter Debruge (senior film critic, Variety), Audrey Marrs (producer, No End in Sight and Inside Job; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Feature, 2008 and Outstanding Production, 2011), Christine O’Malley (producer, Wordplay and I.O.U.S.A.), Chris Shellen (producer, Marwencol; Cinema Eye nominee for Outstanding Feature, 2011) and Peter Van Steemburg, Director of Acquisitions, Magnolia Pictures.

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~ David Simon