Cutie and the Boxer (pictured), The Act of Killing, After Tiller and Leviathan are among the docs notching multiple nominations for the seventh annual Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking.
Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which looks at the lives and marriage of boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife Noriko, led the field with six nominations; while Joshua Oppenheimer’s experimental genocide doc The Act of Killing received five.
In the flagship Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking category, Cutie and Killing face competition from Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s abortion doc After Tiller, Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel’s experimental film Leviathan, and Sarah Polley’s family tale Stories We Tell.
In the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category, meanwhile, the nominees are Alan Berliner for First Cousin Once Removed, Tinatin Gurchiani for The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, Oppenheimer for Killing, Shane and Wilson for Tiller, Castaing-Taylor and Paravel for Leviathan, and Polley for Stories.
The organization notes that this marks the first time in Cinema Eye history that more women were nominated for the directing award than their male counterparts.
Cinema Eye is also introducing its inaugural award for Nonfiction Films Made for Television this year. Four of the six nominees came from HBO Documentary Films, including Lucy Walker’s The Crash Reel, Dawn Porter’s Gideon’s Army, Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, and Sebastian Junger’s Which Way to the Front Line from Here: the Life and Times of Tim Hetherington.
PBS earned the other two nominations: one for Susan Lacy’s Inventing David Geffen (for ‘American Masters’) and the other for Christine Turner’s Homegoings (for ‘POV’). The new TV award recognizes the key producers from the network, earning nominations for HBO Documentary Films president Sheila Nevins (with four nods) and programming VP Sara Bernstein (with three).
In the short film category, six films have been nominated, including the notable inclusion of Laura Poitras’s Death of a Prisoner, which first appeared as a New York Times ‘Op-Doc.’ Poitras, who helped break the Edward Snowden story worldwide this year, previously won the Cinema Eye Honor for Direction in 2011 for her doc The Oath.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony in early January 2014 in New York City. A full list of nominees follows below:
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
The Act of Killing
Directed by: Joshua Oppenheimer
Produced by: Signe Byrge Sørensen
After Tiller
Directed and produced by: Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
Cutie and the Boxer
Directed by: Zachary Heinzerling
Produced by: Lydia Dean Pilcher, Mark Steele
Leviathan
Directed and produced by: Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel
Stories We Tell
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Produced by: Anita Lee
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
After Tiller
Directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
First Cousin Once Removed
Directed by Alan Berliner
Leviathan
Directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
Directed by Tinatin Gurchiani
Stories We Tell
Directed by Sarah Polley
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
The Act of Killing
Edited by Janus Billeskov Jansen
First Cousin Once Removed
Edited by Alan Berliner
Let the Fire Burn
Edited by Nels Bangerter
Leviathan
Edited by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel
Our Nixon
Edited by Francisco Bello
Outstanding Achievement in Production
The Act of Killing
Signe Byrge Sørensen
After Tiller
Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
Dirty Wars
Anthony Arnove, Brenda Coughlin and Jeremy Scahill
Expedition to the End of the World
Michael Haslund-Christensen
The Square
Karim Amer
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
12 O’Clock Boys
Cinematography by Lotfy Nathan
Cutie and the Boxer
Cinematography by Zachary Heinzerling
Dirty Wars
Cinematography by Richard Rowley
Elena
Cinematography by Janice D’avila, Will Etchebehere and Miguel Vassy
Expedition to the End of the World
Cinematography by Martin Munch
Leviathan
Cinematography by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Films Made for Television
The Crash Reel
Directed by Lucy Walker
Produced by Julian Cautherley and Lucy Walker
For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins; Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein
Gideon’s Army
Directed by Dawn Porter
Produced by Dawn Porter and Julie Goldman
For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins; Senior Producer Nancy Abraham
Homegoings
Directed and produced by Christine Turner
For PBS/POV: Executive Producer Simon Kilmurry
Inventing David Geffen
Directed by Susan Lacy
Produced by Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin
For PBS/American Masters: Executive Producer Susan Lacy
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Directed by Alex Gibney
Produced by Alex Gibney, Alexandra Johnes, Jedd Wider, Todd Wider and Kristen Vaurio
For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins; Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein
Which Way Is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
Directed by Sebastian Junger
Produced by Nick Quested and James Brabazon
For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins; Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein
Audience Choice Prize
20 Feet from Stardom
Directed by Morgan Neville
The Act of Killing
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Blackfish
Directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
The Crash Reel
Directed by Lucy Walker
Cutie and the Boxer
Directed by Zachary Heinzerling
Muscle Shoals
Directed by Greg ‘Freddy’ Camalier
Rafea: Solar Mama
Directed by Mona Eldaief & Jehane Noujaim
Sound City
Directed by Dave Grohl
The Square
Directed by Jehane Noujaim
Stories We Tell
Directed by Sarah Polley
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
12 O’Clock Boys
Directed by Lotfy Nathan
After Tiller
Directed by Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
Cutie and the Boxer
Directed by Zachary Heinzerling
Let the Fire Burn
Directed by Jason Osder
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear
Directed by Tinatin Gurchiani
Sofia’s Last Ambulance
Directed by Ilian Metev
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
A Band Called Death
Score by Sam Retzer & Tim Boland
Blackfish
Score by Jeff Beal
Cutie and the Boxer
Score by Yasuaki Shimizu
Expedition to the End of the World
Score by Mads Heldtberg
Narco Cultura
Score by Jeremy Turner
Teenage
Score by Bradford Cox
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Cutie and the Boxer
Graphics by Art Jail
Far Out Isn’t Far Enough
Graphics by Rick Cikowski & Brandon Dumlao
The Fruit Hunters
Graphics by Brandon Blommaert & Fred Casia
Inequality for All
Graphics by Brian Oakes
Maidentrip
Graphics by Margot Tsakiri-Scanatovits & Daniel Chester
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
Graphics by Maryanne Butler & Marc Smith
Spotlight Award
Bending Steel
Directed by Dave Carroll
Fuck for Forest
Directed by Michal Marczak
Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction
Directed by Sophie Huber
The Last Station
Directed by Cristian Soto and Catalina Vergara
The Search for Emak Bakia
Directed by Oskar Algeria
Valentine Road
Directed by Marta Cunningham
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
Da Vinci
Director: Yuri Ancarani
Death of a Prisoner
Director: Laura Poitras
Outlawed in Pakistan
Director: Habiba Nosheen, Hilke Schellmann
Reindeer
Director: Eva Weber
SLOMO
Director: Josh Izenberg
A Story for the Modlins
Director: Sergio Oksman