'13th,' 'Gleason' Lead Critics' Choice Documentary Nominations
A still from Clay Tweel’s documentary ‘Gleason’ (Amazon Studios)
By Kristopher Tapley, Variety
The Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA), having joined forces to celebrate the best in documentary filmmaking, announced the nominees for the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Monday.
Ezra Edelman’s eight-part O.J. Made in America event, Ava DuVernay’s New York Film Festival opener 13th and Clay Tweel’s emotional ALS exploration Gleason led the way with five nominations each.
All three films picked up best documentary feature nominations along with Cameraperson, Life, Animated, Tickled, Tower, Weiner and The Witness. Interestingly, Berlinale best-in-show Fire at Sea, also Italy’s submission for foreign Oscar consideration this year, landed its only nomination in the top field.
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Not unlike the two groups’ formerly separate, now combined film and television awards celebrations, there are enough categories scattered across the ballot to leave room for everyone. So while Ava DuVernay is inexplicably missing from the direction of a documentary feature list, she turns up in the TV/streaming director field.
Music and sports get their own separate categories, as does the political arena.
Full list of nominations below. Winners will be revealed at the first annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards on Nov. 3 in New York.
Best Documentary Feature
13th
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Cameraperson
Fire at Sea
Gleason
Life, Animated
Tickled
Tower
Weiner
The Witness
Best Direction of a Documentary Feature
Ezra Edelman (30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America)
Ron Howard (The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years)
Kirsten Johnson (Cameraperson)
Keith Maitland (Tower)
Clay Tweel (Gleason)
Roger Ross Williams (Life, Animated)
Best First Documentary
Otto Bell (The Eagle Huntress)
David Farrier, Dylan Reeve (Tickled)
Adam Irving (Off the Rails)
Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg (Weiner)
James D. Solomon (The Witness)
Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow)
Best Political Documentary
13th
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Audrie & Daisy
Newtown
Weiner
Zero Days
Best Documentary Feature (TV/Streaming)
13th
30 for 30 – Fantastic Lies
Amanda Knox
Audrie & Daisy
Before the Flood
Holy Hell
Into the Inferno
Jim: The James Foley Story
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Rats
Best Director (TV/Streaming)
Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato (Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures)
Rod Blackhurst, Brian McGinn (Amanda Knox)
Ava DuVernay (13th)
Werner Herzog (Into the Inferno)
Morgan Spurlock (Rats)
Fisher Stevens (Before the Flood)
Best First Feature (TV/Streaming)
Jacob Bernstein, Nick Hooker (Everything Is Copy)
Will Allen (Holy Hell)
Jessica Edwards (Mavis!)
Sophie Robinson, Lotje Sodderland (My Beautiful Broken Brain)
Deborah Esquenazi (Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four)
Jon Greenhalgh (Team Foxcatcher)
Best Limited Documentary Series
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth
The Eighties
The Hunt
Jackie Robinson
Soundbreaking: Stories From the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music
Best Ongoing Documentary Series
30 for 30
Frontline
Last Chance U
Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man
POV
This is Life with Lisa Ling
Best Song in a Documentary
Angel by the Wings from The Eagle Huntress
The Empty Chair from Jim: The James Foley Story
Flicker from Audrey & Daisy
Hoping and Healing from Gleason
I’m Sill Here from Miss Sharon Jones!
Letter to the Free from 13th
Best Sports Documentary
30 for 30 – Fantastic Lies
30 for 30 – O.J.: Made in America
Dark Horse
The Eagle Huntress
Gleason
Jackie Robinson
Keepers of the Game
Best Music Documentary
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
Gimme Danger
Miss Sharon Jones!
The Music of Strangers
Presenting Princess Shaw
We Are X
Most Innovative Documentary
Cameraperson
Kate Plays Christine
Life, Animated
Nuts
Tower
Under the Sun
