12th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Award Ceremony

On Thursday, January 10^th, the 12^th 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!

Co-Director of "Silence of Others", Almundena Carracedo.

Director of "The Distant Barking of Dogs", Simon Lereng Welmont.

"The Distant Barking of Dogs" crew. From left to right, azad Salafrov, Olga Voitovych, Monica Hellstrom, Simon Lereng Welmont, Elvina Seitbullaieva, and Oleg Afanasyev (middle).

"Minding The Gap" crew with Bing Liu (middle), Keire Johnson and Zack Mulligan to his left, and Gordon Quinn and Diane Moy Quon to his right.

"Three Identical Strangers" crew with Becky Read (left), David Kellman (middle), Robert Shafran (middle right), and Tim Wardle (right).

"Crime + Puinishment" producer Ross Tuttle (left) and director Stephen Maing (right).

"Eyes On The Prize" crew. From left to right, Jon Else, Judith Vecchione, Prudence Arndt, Sue Williams, Callie Crossley, and James A. DeVinney

Callie Crossley from "Eyes On The Prize".

"Brisbee '17" crew with Douglas Tirola (left), Susan Bedusa next to him, and Robert Greene next to her.

"Won't You Be My Neighbor" crew. From left to right, Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, and Nicholas Ma

"On Her Shoulders" crew with Director, Hayley Pappas (middle).

"Shirkers" crew with Sophia Siddique Harvey (left) and Sandi Tan (middle).

"Hale County This Morning, This Evening" crew. From left to right, Joslyn Barnes, Maya Krinsky, RaMell Ross, and Su Kim

Free Solo Crew with Director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi in the middle and Director Jimmy Chin to the right of her.

From left to right, Bing Liu, RaMell Ross, Sandi Tan, and Robert Greene

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