10th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Announces The Unforgettables
Museum of Moving Image Launches “Pushing the Envelope” Screening Series
Highlighting Cinema Eye’s First Decade
October 19, 2016, New York City – Cinema Eye, the organization that recognizes outstanding craft and artistry in nonfiction filmmaking, today announced their annual list of The Unforgettables – this year’s most notable and significant nonfiction film subjects.
In addition, the Museum of the Moving Image, which has been home to the Cinema Eye Awards Ceremony since 2011, announced its 10-week series highlighting films from the first #CEHDecade: “Pushing the Envelope: A Decade of Documentary’s Cinema Eye Honors”. The series will kick off Friday, November 4, 2016 with the first winner of Cinema Eye’s Outstanding Nonfiction Feature award, Jason Kohn’s Manda Bala (Send a Bullet). The series will continue through November and December with highlights from Cinema Eye’s first decade, including CEH winning films from Laura Poitras, Sarah Polley, Banksy, Joshua Oppenheimer, Asif Kapadia, James Marsh and Bill & Turner Ross.
This is the 10th anniversary year for Cinema Eye and the 4th straight year for Cinema Eye’s list of the Unforgettables, which annually celebrates the exciting collaborations between filmmaker and subjects. This year’s selection represents the wide range of style and content of this year’s documentary films.
The list includes a director/cinematographer that is barely glimpsed on-screen (Kirsten Johnson in Cameraperson), a couple who have remained in the national news even as their film opened in theatres this summer (Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner in Weiner) and two subjects who ride the sometimes blurry line between participant and performer (Michal Huszcza in All These Sleepless Nights and Kate Lyn Sheil in Kate Plays Christine).
In all, 18 individuals from 15 films were selected for the Unforgettables list by Cinema Eye’s nominations committee, which is comprised of some of the world’s top documentary film programmers and curators, as well as the 2016 filmmakers in the running for this year’s awards, nominations for which will be announced November 2, 2016 in Brooklyn at the newly-opened Alamo Drafthouse.
“For the fourth year, we are proud to celebrate the collaborative process of documentary filmmaking by acknowledging the role that subjects play in creating many of the year’s best films”, said Cinema Eye Managing Director Will Lennon. “Particularly this year, we note the extraordinary access granted by the subjects and earned by the filmmakers that led to unforgettable moments in nonfiction cinema.”
The Unforgettables is one of Cinema Eye’s non-competitive Distinctive Honors. Subjects selected to this list of Unforgettables will be acknowledged at the Cinema Eye Honors Lunch, held on Tuesday, January 10, 2017 in Manhattan.
2016 Cinema Eye Honors Unforgettables
- Michal Huszcza
All These Sleepless Nights - Audrie Pott and Daisy Coleman
Audrie & Daisy - Laura Albert
Author: The JT Leroy Story - Kirsten Johnson
Cameraperson - Aisholpan Nurgaiv
The Eagle Huntress - Samuele Pucillo
Fire at Sea - Steve Gleason and Michel Varisco
Gleason - Ye Haiyan
Hooligan Sparrow - Kate Lyn Shiel
Kate Plays Christine - Owen Suskind
Life, Animated - Sharon Jones
Miss Sharon Jones! - Peter Dunning
Peter and the Farm - Princess Shaw
Presenting Princess Shaw - Sonita Alidazeh
Sonita - Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner
Weiner
Selections for the Unforgettables were made by open voting from this year’s eligible filmmakers and Cinema Eye’s nominations committee. While voters were given a list of eligible films to select from, no suggestions were made as to individuals in those films.
The 2017 Cinema Eye Nominations Committee includes: Claire Aguilar (Sheffield), Pamela Cohn (Dokufest Kosovo), David Courier (Sundance), Cara Cusumano (Tribeca), Bruno Dequen (RIDM), Sarafina DiFelice (Hot Docs), Joanne Feinberg (formerly Programmer, Ashland), Elena Fortes (Morelia/Ambulante), Nominations Committee Chair Ben Fowlie (Camden), Tom Hall (Montclair), Sarah Harris (Dallas), Lane Kneedler (AFI Fest), Jim Kolmar (SXSW), Amir Labaki (It’s All True), Artur Liebhart (Planete Doc Review), Mads Mikkelsen (CPH:DOX), David Nugent (Hamptons), Veton Nurkollari (Dokufest Kosovo), Janet Pierson (SXSW), Thom Powers (Toronto), Rachel Rosen (San Francisco), Shane Smith (Hot Docs), Martijn te Pas (IDFA), Sadie Tillery (Full Frame), Basil Tsiokos (DOC NYC) and David Wilson (True/False).
About the 10th Annual Cinema Eye Honors and Cinema Eye Week 2017
The Cinema Eye Honors for Nonfiction Filmmaking were founded in late 2007 to recognize and honor exemplary craft and innovation in nonfiction film. Cinema Eye’s mission is and has been to advocate for, recognize and promote the highest commitment to rigor and artistry in the nonfiction field. At its inception, Cinema Eye was the first US or international organization to present annual awards for documentary in the fields of production, cinematography, original score and graphic design and the only organization, aside from the guilds, to recognize outstanding direction and editing.
The Honors Awards Ceremony is the centerpiece of Cinema Eye Week, a multi-day, multi-city celebration that acknowledges the best work in nonfiction film through screenings and events. The final three days of Cinema Eye Week culminate yearly in New York City, where a series of celebratory events bring together many of the field’s most accomplished filmmakers.
Cinema Eye Year 10 Celebration and Announcement of #CEH17 Nominees
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Cinema Eye Week
Friday, January 6 – Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Cinema Eye Honors Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Museum of the Moving Image