The 9th annual Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing achievements in non-fiction film from 2015, took place last night in a ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image. Earlier this week, the organization hosted its Honors Lunch, which celebrated this year’s Legacy Award winner, Chris Smith’s AMERICAN MOVIE; as well as “The Influentials,” 24 additional classic nonfiction films which were singled out as inspirational to this year’s nominees; “The Unforgettables,” a list of notable documentary subjects from 2015’s films; and Jafar Panahi’s TAXI as the winner of the Heterodox Award, which annually goes to a fiction film that incorporates nonfiction strategies.
Below is the full list of winners announced at last night’s ceremony, which was hosted by acclaimed documentarian Steve James, who might just have a future in comedy. I was happy to once again serve on the Nominations Committee. Congratulations to all the winners, nominees, and the Cinema Eye organizers!
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Audience Choice Prize
MERU
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Joshua Oppenheimer for THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Chris King for AMY
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Signe Byrge Sørensen for THE LOOK OF SILENCE
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
tie:
Matthew Heineman and Matt Porwoll for CARTEL LAND
and
Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk for MERU
Outstanding Nonfiction Film Made for Television
PRIVATE VIOLENCE
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
THE WOLFPACK
Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score
Laurie Anderson for HEART OF A DOG
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing for KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK
Spotlight Award
TOTO AND HIS SISTERS
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
tie:
BUFFALO JUGGALOS by Scott Cummings
and
HOTEL 22 by Elizabeth Lo
what (not) to doc 