‘Flee’ Leads All Documentaries in Cinema Eye Honors Nominations

Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated documentary “Flee” led all films in nominations for the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which were announced on Wednesday.

“Flee,” which is also Denmark’s entry in the Oscars Best International Feature Film race, landed seven nominations, including Outstanding Feature Film. Its competitors in that category are two other international films, Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension” and Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi”; two music documentaries, Questlove’s “Summer of Soul” and Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground”; and E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “The Rescue.”

The Outstanding Direction category includes Rasmussen, Kingdon, Beshir, Questlove, Nanfu Wang for “In the Same Breath” and Robert Greene for “Procession.”

The seven nominations for “Flee” also included production, score, sound design, graphic design/animation and the Audience Choice Prize.

“Ascension” and “Faya Dayi,” which explore life in China and Ethiopia, respectively, each received five nominations, as did “The Rescue,” about the mission to free a trapped youth soccer team from a flooded cave in Thailand. “The Velvet Underground” received four.

In the Heterodox category, which honors films that blur the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, the nominees were “The Souvenir Part II,” “Bo Burnham: Inside,” “A Cop Movie,” “The Inheritance” and “El Planeta.”

HBO led all distributors/broadcasters with 16 nominations, followed by Hulu with 12 and National Geographic Documentary Films and Neon/Super LTD with 11 each.

Nominations in the CEH broadcast categories were previously announced.

Winners will be announced at the 15th annual Cinema Eye Honors awards ceremony on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2022 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.

The Cinema Eye Honors is a New York-based organization that was established in 2008 to honor all facets of nonfiction filmmaking. In its early years, CEH tended to honor more adventurous documentaries than the ones nominated by the Oscars – but as the Academy’s Documentary Branch has grown in size and admitted younger and more international members, its choices have themselves become bolder. Over the last five years, almost 60% of the Oscar documentary nominees were first nominated by Cinema Eye.

The list of nominees:

Outstanding Nonfiction Feature

Ascension
Directed and Produced by Jessica Kingdon
Produced by Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell

Faya Dayi
Directed and Produced by Jessica Beshir

Flee
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Produced by Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sorensen

The Rescue
Directed and Produced by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Produced by P.J. van Sandwjik and John Battsek

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
Produced by Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein

The Velvet Underground
Directed and Produced by Todd Haynes
Produced by Christine Vachon, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn

Outstanding Direction

Ascension
Jessica Kingdon

Faya Dayi
Jessica Beshir

Flee
Jonas Poher Rasmussen

In the Same Breath
Nanfu Wang

Procession
Robert Greene

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson

Outstanding Editing

Homeroom
Kristina Mohwani and Rebecca Adorno

The Rescue
Bob Eisenhardt

Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain
Eileen Meyer and Aaron Wickenden

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Joshua Pearson

The Velvet Underground
Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz

Outstanding Production

The First Wave
Matthew Heineman, Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville

Flee
Monica Hellström and Signe Byrge Sorensen

In the Same Breath
Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements and Carolyn Hepburm

President
Signe Byrge Sorensen and Joslyn Barnes

The Rescue
E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, P.J. van Sandwijk and John Battsek

Outstanding Cinematography

All Light, Everywhere
Corey Hughes

Ascension
Jessica Kingdon and Nathan Truesdell

Cusp
Isabel Bethencourt

Faya Dayi
Jessica Beshir

The Rescue
David Katznelson, Picha Srisansanee and Ian Seabrook

Outstanding Original Score

All Light, Everywhere
Dan Deacon

Ascension
Dan Deacon

Flee
Uno Helmersson

Julia
Rachel Portman

maini – towards the ocean, towards the shore
Thad Kellstadt

Procession
Keegan DeWitt

Outstanding Sound Design

All Light, Everywhere
Udit Duseja

Faya Dayi
Tom Efinger and Abigail Savage

Flee
Edward Björner and Tormod Ringnes

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Jimmy Douglass and Paul Hsu

The Velvet Underground
Leslie Shatz and Jahn Sood

Outstanding Graphic Design/Animation

Becoming Cousteau
Daniel Rutledge

Flee
Kenneth Ladekjær

Rebel Heards
Una Lorenzen and Emma Berliner

The Sparks Brothers
Joseph Wallace

Wojnarowicz: F*ck You F*ggot F*cker
Grant Nellessen and Andrew Rose

Outstanding Debut

Ascension
Directed by Jessica Kingdon

A Cop Movie
Directed by Alfonso Ruizpalacios

Faya Dayi
Directed by Jessica Beshir

Jacinta
Directed by Jessica Earnshaw

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson

Outstanding Nonfiction Short

Águilas
Directed by Kristy Guevara-Flanagan and Maite Zubiaurre

A Broken House
Directed by Jimmy Goldblum

Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma
Directed by Topaz Jones and rubberband

Terror Contagion
Directed by Laura Poitras

Three Songs for Benazir
Directed by Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei

Audience Choice Prize

Becoming Cousteau
Directed by Liz Garbus

Billie Eilish – The World’s a Little Blurry
Directed by R.J. Cutler

Flee
Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Homeroom
Directed by Peter Nicks

Julia
Directed by Julie Cohen and Betsy West

Lily Topples the World
Directed by Jeremy Workman

Listening to Kenny G
Directed by Penny Lane

The Rescue
Directed by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It
Directed by Mariem Pérez Riera

Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain
Directed by Morgan Neville

The Sparks Brothers
Directed by Edgar Wright

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson

Try Harder!
Directed by Debbie Lum

The Velvet Underground
Directed by Todd Haynes

Writing With Fire
Directed by Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

Spotlight

Fruits of Labor
Directed by Emily Cohen Ibañez

The Neutral Ground
Directed by CJ Hunt

North by Current
Directed by Angelo Madsen Minax

Socks on Fire
Directed by Bo McGuire

Two Gods
Directed by Zeshawn Ali

Heterodox

Bo Burnham: Inside
Directed by Bo Burnham

A Cop Movie
Directed by Alfonso Ruizpalacios

The Inheritance
Directed by Ephraim Asili

El Planeta
Directed by Amalia Ulman

The Souvenir Part II
Directed by Johanna Hogg

The Unforgettables (Non-Competitive Honor)

Flee
Amin

Homeroom
Denilson Garibo

Introducing, Selma Blair
Selma Blair

Jacinta
Jacinta Hunt

Lily Topples the World
Lily Hevesh

Listening to Kenny G
Kenny G

Mr. Bachmann and His Class
Mr. Bachmann

My Name is Pauli Murray
Pauli Murray

Not Going Quietly
Ady Barkan

Procession
Joe Eldred, Mike Foreman, Ed Gavagan, Dan Laurine, Michael Sandridge, & Tom Viviano

The Rescue
Rick Stanton

Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It
Rita Moreno

Roadrunner: A Film about Anthony Bourdain
Anthony Bourdain

The Sparks Brothers
Ron Mael and Russell Mael

Writing With Fire
Meera Nevi