Last Monday Cinema Eye hosted their 13th annual Award ceremony. The night was about “celebrating the craft of nonfiction filmmaking and artistic excellence.”
The 2020 Awards Ceremony at the Museum of the Moving Image on Monday, January 6, 2020. Cinema Eye celebrates the art and craft of nonfiction filmmaking and gathers many of the world’s top documentary filmmakers together on the evening before voting closes for the 2020 Oscar nominations. Nearly all of the filmmakers on the Academy Awards Shortlist for Documentary Feature and Short were in attendance.
Among the top winners was American Factory, the verite portrait of a once-closed Ohio factory that is bought by a Chinese company, took top honors at tonight’s Cinema Eye Honors.
American Factory took home awards for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction for veteran filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert. Bognar and Reichert are the first directing team to win either award in Cinema Eye history.
Julia Reichert gave a great speech with her husband, stating that it is her goal to accomplish “the goal of telling the truth” through her filmmaking. Both were producers on the respective film.
Apollo 11, an epic retelling of the first humans to land on the moon and return to Earth, also won two awards, Outstanding Editing for director/editor Todd Douglas Miller and Original Score for composer Matt Morton.
Composter Matt Morton gave a speech about his journey scoring the film, the editing process, and working with NASA and his 1968 synthesizers.
Other nominees for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature included the heart-wrenching For Sama and Honeyland, which also took home awards, which can be seen below.
In addition, Godfrey Reggio accepted his Legacy Award for his revolutionary 1982 epic Koyannasqatsi. In his speech, he spoke about his legendary film as well as some hardships that come with the aftermath of directing such a revolutionary piece of art.
He left the audience with some advice, stating “I always act as if I know what I’m doing. And I think that should be for every filmmaker because following that is my most famous, my most meaningful proverb in life.”
Yance Ford did a great job hosting the awards with a lot of political talks, almost mirroring the Golden Globes, covering topics such as Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. The rest of the award night was high spirited and a lot of fun for recurring attendees.
Below is the list of the 2020 Cinema Eye Honors Winners
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
American Factory
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Produced by Steve Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, and Julie Parker Benello
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
American Factory
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Todd Douglas Miller
Apollo 11
Outstanding Achievement in Production
(tie)
Waad Al-Kateab
For Sama
And
Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær
The Cave
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma
Honeyland
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Matt Morton
Apollo 11
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Patrick Cederberg, Matthew Hornick, and Ash Thorp
The Great Hack
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
The Disappearance of My Mother
Directed by Beniamino Barrese
Audience Choice Prize
The Biggest Little Farm
Directed by John Chester
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
Leaving Neverland
Directed by Dan Reed
HBO
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
Tricky Dick
Directed by Mary Robertson
CNN
Outstanding Achievement in Editing in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast
David Tillman
Apollo: Missions to the Moon
National Geographic
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast
Mark Ritchie, Julian Klincewicz, Dikayl Rimmasch and Irie Calkins
Homecoming
Netflix
Spotlight Award
Present.Perfect.
Directed by Shengze Zhu
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
Ghosts of Sugar Land
Directed by Bassam Tariq
Heterodox Award
The Souvenir
Directed by Joanna Hogg
Legacy Award
Koyaanisqatsi
Directed and Produced by Godfrey Reggio
Cinematography Ron Fricke
Editing Ron Fricke and Alton Walpole
Original Score Philip Glass
The pre-reception was hosted by MTV Documentary Films and a post-reception was hosted by National Geographic Documentary Film at Tacuba.