The 2023 Cinema Eye Honors have unveiled the 20 titles for its Audience Choice Prize Long List, with voting now open.
The 17th annual awards ceremony also recognized the best nonfiction and documentary films and series across five Broadcast categories and a Shorts List with 10 of the year’s top documentary short films, as well as the 20 films in the running for the Audience Choice Prize Long List.
This year’s list includes films from Cinema Eye Honors alumni including “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” “Stamped from the Beginning,” “32 Sounds,” “A Compassionate Spy,” “Confessions of a Good Samaritan,” “The Mission,” “The Pigeon Tunnel,” and “Stephen Curry: Underrated.”
Hulu series “The 1619 Project” and Showtime’s “Nothing Lasts Forever” lead the Broadcast Film and Series nominations with three nods each. The “1619 Project,” adapted from Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones’s work with The New York Times and executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, scored nods in Anthology Series, Broadcast Editing, and Broadcast Cinematography. Jason Kohn’s “Nothing Lasts Forever,” which entertainingly explores the history and future of the diamond industry, scored nods in Broadcast Film, Broadcast Editing, and Broadcast Cinematography.
The 2023 awards ceremony will take place January 12, 2024 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem, New York. AJ Schnack, Founding Director of Cinema Eye Honors, said of the new location, “After more than a decade of hosting our celebration in Queens with our friends at the Museum of the Moving Image, we’re excited to return to Manhattan for our 17th edition and to reimagine our annual awards show in this historic venue in Harlem.”
For the overall nominations, Hulu leads all networks and streamers with eight nominations total. Netflix scored five nominations, while Showtime received four. Other films and series receiving multiple nominations include Hulu’s “Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields,” directed by Lana Wilson; National Geographic’s “Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin”; Netflix’s “Our Planet II”; FX’s “Dear Mama,” directed by Allen Hughes; and Peacock’s “Paul T. Goldman,” directed by Jason Woliner.
Cinema Eye also announced the 10 films on this year’s Shorts List, the organization’s annual list of semi-finalists for its Nonfiction Short Film Honor. Of those 10 films, five or six will be announced as the official nominees in the Cinema Eye Honors Short Film category next month. For the first time, Cinema Eye will screen all ten of the Shorts List.
The annual list of The Unforgettables, a category unique to Cinema Eye that celebrates the collaboration between filmmakers and the participants in front of the camera, marks 15 feature films.
Founded in 2007, Cinema Eye remains the only international nonfiction award to recognize the whole creative team, presenting annual craft awards in directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing, sound design, visual design and recognizing the contributions of participants in front of the camera.
The 17th Cinema Eye Honors Week will take place in January 2024, where a series of celebratory events bring together many of the year’s most accomplished filmmakers from around the globe.
A full list of this year’s announcements and nominees is below.
Audience Choice Award Long List
—20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov
—32 Sounds, directed by Sam Green
—American Symphony, directed by Matthew Heineman
—Beyond Utopia, directed by Madeleine Gavin
—Bobi Wine: The People’s President, directed by Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo
—A Compassionate Spy, directed by Steve James
—Confessions of a Good Samaritan, directed by Penny Lane
—The Deepest Breath, directed by Laura McGann
—The Eternal Memory, directed by Maite Alberdi
—Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
—Little Richard: I Am Everything, directed by Lisa Cortés
—Invisible Beauty, directed by Bethann Hardison and Frédéric Tcheng
—Joan Baez I Am a Noise, directed by Karen O’Connor, Miri Navasky and Maeve O’Boyle
—Kokomo City, directed by D. Smith
—The Mission, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss
—The Pigeon Tunnel, directed by Errol Morris
—Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, directed by Anna Hints
—Stamped From the Beginning, directed by Roger Ross Williams
—Stephen Curry: Underrated, directed by Peter Nicks
—Still: Michael J. Fox Movie, directed by Davis Guggenheim
The Unforgettables Honorees
—American Symphony, Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad —Apolonia, Apolonia, Apolonia Sokol
—Bobi Wine: The People’s President, Bobi Wine —Confessions of a Good Samaritan, Penny Lane —The Disappearance of Shere Hite, Shere Hite
—The Eternal Memory, Augusto Góngora & Paulina Urrutia —Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, Nikki Giovanni —Invisible Beauty, Bethann Hardison
—Joan Baez I Am a Noise, Joan Baez
—Kokomo City, Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver —The Pigeon Tunnel, David Cornwell aka John le Carré
—Still: Michael J. Fox Movie, Michael J. Fox
—A Still Small Voice, Margaret “Mati” Engel,
—Twice Colonized, Aaju Peter —While We Watched, Ravish Kumar
Broadcast Film Nominees
—Being Mary Tyler Moore, directed by James Adolphus, HBO | Max
—Judy Blume Forever, directed by Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, Prime Video
—Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, directed by Sam Pollard and Geeta Gandbhir, Peacock
—Nothing Lasts Forever, directed by Jason Kohn, Showtime
—Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, directed by Lana Wilson, Hulu
—The Stroll, directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker, HBO | Max Nonfiction Series Nominees
—Couples Therapy — Season Three, directed by Joshua Altman and Bennett Elliott, Showtime
—Dear Mama, directed by Allen Hughes, FX
—Paul T. Goldman, directed by Jason Woliner, Peacock
—Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, directed by Andrew Renzi, Netflix
—Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence, directed by Zach Heinzerling, Hulu
Anthology Series Nominees
—The 1619 Project
Executive Producers: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Roger Ross Williams, Shoshana Guy, Caitlin Roper, Kathleen Lingo, Helen Verno and Oprah Winfrey, Hulu
—Chef’s Table: Pizza
Executive Producers: Andrew Fried, David Gelb and Brian McGinn, Netflix
—Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin
Executive Producers: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman and Anna Barnes, National Geographic
—Leguizamo Does America
Executive Producers: Carolina Saavedra, John Leguizamo, Ben DeJesus, Elizabeth Fischer, Andy Berg, Rashida Jones and Amanda Spain, MSNBC
—Our Planet II
Executive Producers: Alastair Fothergirll and Keith Scholey, Netflix
—Untold
Executive Producers: Ben Silverman, Howard T. Owens, Isabel San Vargas, Ryan Duffy, Miguel Tamayo, Jaymee Messler and Chrissy Teigen, Netflix
Broadcast Editing Nominees
—The 1619 Project
Editors: Ephraim Kirkwood, Adriana Pacheco, Stefanie Maridueña and Ed Barteski, Hulu
EMBARGOED UNTIL OCTOBER 19, 2023 2:30pm Pacific Time / 5:30pm ET
—Dear Mama
Editor: Lasse Järvi, FX
—Paul T. Goldman
Editors: Mike Giambra, Hank Friedmann, Jody McVeigh-Schultz and Danny Scharar, Peacock
—Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields
Editors: Sara Newens, Anne Yao and David Teague, Hulu
—Nothing Lasts Forever
Editors: Paul Marchand and Jack Price, Showtime
Broadcast Cinematography Nominees
—The 1619 Project
Cinematographer: Jerry Henry, Hulu
—The Cave of Adullam
Cinematographers: Greg Harriot and Mike Doyle, ESPN
—Edge of the Unknown with Jimmy Chin
Cinematographers: Ross McDonnell, Alfredo de Juan, Cam Riley, Nick Kraus, Bryan Smith, David Pearson and Pablo Durana, National Geographic
—Nothing Lasts Forever
Cinematographer: Heloisa Passos, Showtime
—Our Planet II
Nominees to be determined, Netflix
—Restaurants at the End of the World
Cinematographer: Petr Cikhart, National Geographic
Shorts List Semifinalists
—Away, directed by Ruslan Fedotow
—Between Earth and Sky, directed by Andrew Nadkami
—Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games, directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
—Deciding Vote, directed by Jeremy Workman and Rob Lyons
—Into the Blue, directed by Omer Sami
—The Last Repair Shop, directed by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
—Margie Soudek’s Salt and Pepper Shakers, directed by Meredith Moore —Neighbour Abdi, directed by Douwe Dijkstra
—Oasis, directed by Justine Martin
—Will You Look at Me, directed by Shuli Huang
