THE COVE nominated for a leading 7 Awards
BURMA VJ and OCTOBER COUNTRY receive 5 nominations each
FOOD, INC. and LOOT will also vie for top award
Legendary filmmaker Agnes Varda among six nominated for Outstanding Direction
Five films selected as inaugural Spotlight Award nominees, recognizing films that have yet to receive the attention they deserve
Download Full Cinema Eye Honors 2010 Press Release Here
Sheffield, UK – Nominations were announced tonight in the United Kingdom for the 2010 Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing excellence in artistic achievements in nonfiction filmmaking.
Louie Psihoyos’ THE COVE, a film about dolphin hunts in Japan that recently drew worldwide attention when it screened at the Tokyo Film Festival, received a record-tying seven nominations, including nods for Production, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, Debut Feature and the top prize, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking.
Receiving five nominations each were the acclaimed Danish film BURMA VJ, by director Anders Østergaard, about the 2007, monk-led, anti-government uprisings, and Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher’s debut feature OCTOBER COUNTRY, a lyrical portrait of mosher’s up-state New York family. Both were nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking.
Rounding out the nominations for the top award were Robert Kenner’s popular expose on industrial agriculture production, FOOD, INC., up for four awards, and Darius Marder’s debut film, LOOT, a hypnotic story of a treasure hunter and his aging clients, nominated for three awards.
In co-directing, co-producing, photographing and co-scoring OCTOBER COUNTRY, Michael Palmieri became the first individual nominated for five Cinema Eye Honors in a single year. Last year, Ari Folman set the previous high mark of four nominations for WALTZ WITH BASHIR, a number matched this year by Donal Mosher.
Other multiple nominees included LOOT director Darius Marder, 45365 co-director, co-photographer and editor Bill Ross, BURMA VJ’s Østergaard and THE COVE’s Psihoyos, all up for three honors.
Palmieri & Mosher, Marder and Østergaard were among six nominees in the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category. They are joined by legendary French director AGNES VARDA for her autobiographical THE BEACHES OF AGNES, John Maringouin for BIG RIVER MAN and British director Terence Davies for OF TIME AND THE CITY.
Cinema Eye also unveiled a new honor – the Spotlight Award, designed to honor films that have not yet received the recognition that they deserve in the united states. Films recognized in this category did not have to be eligible for other Cinema Eye categories in order to be nominated. The inaugural Spotlight Award nominees include BECAUSE WE WERE BORN (France/Brazil), BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO (USA), EPISODE 3: ENJOY POVERTY (Netherlands), THE SOUND OF INSECTS: RECORD OF A MUMMY (Switzerland) and TRIMPIN: THE SOUND OF INVENTION (USA).
The nominations were announced at the Cinema Eye Roller Disco by Cinema Eye Honors co-chairs Esther Robinson & AJ Schnack and two-time Cinema Eye Honoree Simon Chinn. Robinson was the director of the Cinema Eye nominated film A WALK INTO THE SEA: DANNY WILLIAMS AND THE WARHOL FACTORY. Schnack is the founder of Cinema Eye and the director of KURT COBAIN ABOUT A SON and this year’s CONVENTION. Simon Chinn produced the 2009 Cinema Eye Outstanding Feature honoree MAN ON WIRE. Rachel Rosen, programmer for the San Francisco Film Society is also a Co-Chair of this year’s event.
Nominations were determined in voting by top documentary programmers from international film festivals. This year’s nominations committee was chaired by previous Cinema Eye co-chair Thom Powers, documentary programmer for the Toronto International Film Festival and programmer for New York’s popular Stranger Than Fiction Series. Committee members included Meira Blaustein (Woodstock Film Festival), Heather Croall (Sheffield), Sean Farnel (Hot Docs), Ben Fowlie (Camden), Tom Hall (Sarasota/Newport), Doug Jones (Los Angeles), David Kwok (Tribeca), Caroline Libresco (Sundance), Janet Pierson (SXSW), Powers, Rosen, Sky Sitney (Silverdocs), Sadie Tillery (Full Frame) and David Wilson (True/False).
98 films were eligible for the 2010 Cinema Eye Honors and 78 of those films received votes from the nominations committee.