On Thursday, January 10th, the 12th annual Cinema Eye Honors award ceremony was held at the Museum of Moving Images in Queens, New York.
The Cinema Eye Honors recognizes the most innovative, impactful, and well-created documentary films of the year. Awards for categories such as outstanding editing, graphic design/animation, and production are given to those that best displayed the respective quality. Among the nominees were the films Won’t You Be My Neighbor, Free Solo, and Minding the Gap.
The event started off with a pre-reception in the lobby of the museum from 6:30 pm – 8 pm There was an assortment of food laid out, following a Mediterranean theme as well as an open bar. Directors, producers, editors, and subjects of the documentaries nominated that night arrived on the red carpet. Check out everyone below!
At 8 pm, everyone started to file into the auditorium where the award ceremony was held. The host for the night was Oscar-nominated producer and director, Steve James. Steve brought a lot of humor and charisma to the ceremony, cracking tons of jokes and even giving himself a fake award for “Outstanding Drone Footage”, of which he was the only nominee. The entire ceremony had an informal feel to it. They didn’t take themselves too seriously here, so everyone was willing to embrace awkward moments, roast each other a little bit, and stay laid back. Also, the room was filled with people who knew and were friends with each other. Everyone was just happy to be there and be recognized for their work and support their good friends with their success. Typically, award ceremonies are boring to watch, but this quality of friendliness and informality allowed everyone to have some fun with it.
There was also a very touching moment during the middle of the ceremony. Clips from the landmark documentary series about the civil rights movement, Eyes on the Prize, played. Afterward, a few people who worked on the series back in 1987, came up on stage to a standing ovation. They were given the Legacy Award and honored for their revolutionary contribution to documentary filmmaking and civil rights. They spoke about their experiences filming and the results of the series and other presenters spoke about their experiences watching the series at a young age and being inspired to travel on the same path of documentary filmmaking. Their success in the past was, and still is, a testament to what documentary filmmaking can achieve in terms of story-telling, sending a message, informing people, and changing lives.
Here are the nominees and winners for each category.
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Directed by RaMell Ross
Produced by Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim, and RaMell Ross
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Bing Liu
Minding the Gap
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Joshua Altman and Bing Liu
Minding the Gap
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes, and Shannon Dill
Free Solo
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin, and Mikey Schaeffer
Free Solo
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Ishai Adair
Shirkers
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Lucas Celler and Sandi Tan
Shirkers
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
Minding the Gap
Directed by Bing Liu
Audience Choice Prize
Free Solo
Directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
Baltimore Rising Directed by Sonja Sohn HBO
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
America to Me
Directed by Steve James STARZ
Spotlight Award
The Distant Barking of Dogs
Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes
Directed by Charlie Tyrell
Heterodox Award
American Animals
Directed by Bart Layton
Legacy Award
Eyes On the Prize
Executive Producer Henry Hampton
Series Producer/Writer/Director Judith Vecchione Series Producer Jon Else
Director/Writer/Producers Orlando Bagwell, Sheila Curran Bernard, Callie Crossley, James A. DeVinney, Madison D. Lacy, Thomas Ott, Samuel D. Pollard, Terry Kay Rockefeller, Jacqueline Shearer and Paul Stekler