Cinema Eye Honors Announces Feature Film Nominations for 20th Annual Awards Ceremony
American Doctor and You Can See Everything Lead with 7 Nominations Each
6 Nominations for Time and Water; NAZA Receives 5
Nonfiction Feature nominees are American Doctor, My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile, NAZA, Once Upon a Time in Harlem, Rehearsals for a Revolution, To Hold a Mountain and You Can See Everything
20th Annual Award Ceremony set for Monday, January 11, 2027
at the Times Center in New York City
Los Angeles, CA, November 12, 2026 — Cinema Eye Honors, the organization that recognizes outstanding artistic achievement in nonfiction and documentary films and series, revealed the full slate of Feature Film nominations for its 20th annual awards celebrations.
Poh Si Teng’s American Doctor and Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything led all films with 7 nominations each.
American Doctor premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and has been a festival stalwart throughout the year. The debut feature from Poh Si Teng, the film follows three U.S. surgeons who travel to Gaza to try to save citizens in the midst of the genocide. In addition to its nomination for Nonfiction Feature and Direction, the film was recognized in the Debut, Production, Original Score, Audience Choice as well as receiving recognition in the Unforgettables category for the film’s onscreen collaborators Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa. It is being distributed by Watermelon Pictures.
Fielder and Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything has been a box office sensation for A24 since its surprise premiere at the 2026 Telluride Film Festival. The portrait of disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes in the final days before she goes to prison and the film’s subsequent interrogation of truth and the documentary form made Cinema Eye history as the first film to be nominated for Nonfiction Feature, Direction, Editing, Production, Cinematography and Original Score. The film is also up for the Audience Choice Prize.
Joining those two films in the category of Outstanding Nonfiction Feature are My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile, NAZA, Once Upon a Time in Harlem, Rehearsals for a Revolution and To Hold a Mountain.
Scoring six nominations was Sara Dosa’s Time and Water, which was recognized across the feature film craft categories, including nominations for previous Cinema Eye winners Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput (for Editing), Dan Deacon (for Original Score) and Lucy Munger (for Visual Design). The Sundance premiere from National Geographic Documentary Films follows Icelandic author Andri Snær Magnason as he reflects on his family history as he prepares to offer a eulogy for a dying glacier.
NAZA, the new film from Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, Cinema Eye winners in 2025 for their film No Other Land, received 5 nominations. That film was picked up by distributor Neon after it had already launched a successful US theatrical release, an almost unheard of scenario. Eight films followed with three nominations: Barbara Forever, Closure, Everest: The Other Side, Musk, Nuisance Bear, The Oldest Person in the World, Once Upon a Time in Harlem and Rehearsals for a Revolution.
Poh Si Teng is also the most nominated individual this year with five nominations. Fielder and Oppenheim received four apiece.
After a first round of voting that saw nonfiction fans from around the world cast tens of thousands of votes for their favorite films, the Audience Choice nominees were announced, including a number of the most talked about and lauded films of the year: American Doctor, Cookie Queens, The Cycle of Love, Everest: The Other Side, NAZA, The Oldest Person in the World, Steal This Story, Please!, Time and Water, Wild Inside and You Can See Everything.
The last eight winners of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar – Mr. Nobody Against Putin, No Other Land, 20 Days in Mariupol, Navalny, Summer of Soul, My Octopus Teacher, American Factory and Free Solo – were all first contenders for the Audience Choice Prize. Second round voting to determine this year’s winner will take place in December.
Cinema Eye previously announced its first Honorees of the season, their annual list of the Unforgettables – the on-camera collaborators from six feature documentaries. In addition to the three physicians from American Doctor, the winners include E. Jean Carroll from Ask E. Jean, Soraya Akhlaghi from A Fox Under a Pink Moon, Billie Jean King from Give Me the Ball, Israa from One in a Million and Amy Goodman from Steal This Story, Please!
Also previously announced were the ten short films that have been named to Cinema Eye’s annual Shorts List. Those ten films will screen at DCTV in New York City on Wednesday, December 2 and in Los Angeles at Vidiots on Saturday, December 5. Nominees in the categories of Nonfiction Short Film will be announced in mid-December.
Steve James’ documentary masterpiece, Hoop Dreams, will receive this year’s Legacy Award, which is presented to a classic nonfiction film that continues to inspire today’s working filmmakers. James will accept the award on behalf of his team members Peter Gilbert (Producer and DP), Frederick Marx (Producer and Editor), Adam Singer (Sound Recordist), Gordon Quinn (Executive Producer and founder of Kartemquin Films), Bill Haugse (Editor), Marcie McCall (Kartemquin) and Ben Sidran (Composer).
Among distributors, HBO, National Geographic and Netflix tied with the most nominations, with each receiving 12 nods across all categories. Neon followed with 9 nominations, while A24 and Watermelon Pictures both had 7.
Cinema Eye will return to the Times Center in New York City, the home of its 2nd and 3rd editions, for its 20th Awards Ceremony on Monday, January 11, 2027. Cinema Eye Week/end, which includes a number of events and activities for Cinema Eye nominees and honorees, kicks off on Friday, January 8.
Key Dates for the 2027 Cinema Eye Honors
Wednesday, December 2: Shorts List Screenings, DCTV, New York
Saturday, December 5: Shorts List Screenings, Vidiots, Los Angeles
Monday, December 14: Shorts Nominees Announced and Final Audience Choice Voting Opens
Friday, January 8, 2027: Cinema Eye Week/end begins in New York City
Monday, January 11, 2027: 20th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards Ceremony
Nonfiction Feature
NOTE: This is the second year that the named nominees in the Nonfiction Feature category will include the entire creative team – the directors, producers, editors, cinematographers, composers, sound designers, visual designers and significant on-screen participants.
American Doctor
Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod, Reem Haddad, Chris Rentaria, Ibrahim Al Otla, Ramzy Haddad, Christopher White, Ema Ryan Yamazaki, Suad Bushnaq, Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen, Patrick Svaneberg Vejen, Jacob Langkjær Davidsen, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile
Julia Loktev, Michael Taylor, Anna Nemzer, Ksenia Mironova, Elena Kostyuchenko and Valeria Ratnikova
NAZA
Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Harry Davies, Lindsay Poulton, James Wilson, Robert Farr, Lars Ginzel, Benjamin Hörbe and Anonymous
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
William Greaves, David Greaves, Liani Greaves, Anne de Mare, Lynn True, Tamar-kali, Clive Davidson, Roland Mitchell, Mike Frank, Matthew J. Hoffman, and Bella Racklin
Rehearsals for a Revolution
Pegah Ahangarani, Kaveh Farnam, Adria Mones, Arash Ashtiani, Neda Mohseni and Dani Zacarias
To Hold a Mountain
Biljana Tutorov, Petar Glomazić, Quentin Laurent, Rok Bicek, Eva Kraljević, George Cragg, Draško Adžić, Julij Zornik, Samo Jurca, Mileva Gara Jovanović and Nada Stanišić
You Can See Everything
Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim, Tatiana Bears, Maggie Ambrose, Jack Davis, David Bolen, Adam Locke-Norton, Ari Balouzian, Richard Carlos, Paul Hsu, Elizabeth Holmes, Billy Evans and Amanda Seyfried
Direction
Poh Si Teng
American Doctor
Michal Marczak
Closure
John Wilson
The History of Concrete
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
NAZA
Pegah Ahangarani
Rehearsals for a Revolution
Sara Dosa
Time and Water
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim
You Can See Everything
Editing
Jeff Malmberg
The Bend in the River
Colin Monie
Everybody to Kenmure Street
Anne de Mare and Lynn True
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Ross McElwee and Joe Bini
Remake
Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput and Mark Harrison
Time and Water
Adam Locke-Norton
You Can See Everything
Production
Poh Si Teng, Kirstine Barfod and Reem Haddad
American Doctor
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill, Anna Barnes and Bob Eisenhardt
Everest: The Other Side
Jessie Deeter, Erin Edeiken and Alex Gibney
Musk
Julia Loktev
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile
Harry Davies, Lindsay Poulton and James Wilson
NAZA
Nathan Fielder, Lance Oppenheim, Tatiana Bears, Maggie Ambrose and Jack Davis
You Can See Everything
Cinematography
Nathan Golon, Pete Muller and Mark Unger
Bucks Harbor
Michal Marczak
Closure
Clair Popkin, Jimmy Chin and Christopher Murphy
Everest: The Other Side
Stephen Maing and Eric Daniel Metzgar
The Great Experiment
Eva Kraljević
To Hold a Mountain
David Bolen
You Can See Everything
Original Music Score
Suad Bushnaq
American Doctor
Daniel Pemberton
Musk
Cristóbal Tapia De Veer
Nuisance Bear
William Ryan Fritch and T. Griffin
The Oldest Person in the World
Dan Deacon
Time and Water
Ari Balouzian
You Can See Everything
Sound Design
Gisela Fulla Silvestre and Eli Cohn
Barbara Forever
Katarzyna Szczerba and Konrad Błaszczyk
Closure
Robert Farr, Lars Ginzel and Benjamin Hörbe
NAZA
David Rose, Lou Solakofski and Reid Goobie
Nuisance Bear
Mark Mangini
The Oldest Person in the World
Björn Viktorsson, Atli Arnarsson and Jón Atli Magnússon
Time and Water
Visual Design
Will Hodgson
14th
Philip Eddolls, Michael Enzbrunner and Aisha Ghali
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
Mohammad Lotfali
A Fox Under a Pink Moon
Anthony Konigbagbe, Yibi Hu and Daisy Evans
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Nominees to be determined
Musk
Lucy Munger
Time and Water
Archival Artistry
Brydie O’Connor
Barbara Forever
Wyatt Stone, Viridiana Lieberman and Rebecca Adorno Dávila
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Paula Vaccaro, Aaron Brookner and Tomas Baltazar
Nova ‘78
Anne de Mare, Lynn True, Matthew J. Hoffman and Bella Racklin
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Arash Ashtiani
Rehearsals for a Revolution
Helen Macgowan, Byron Leon, Niles Howard and Gabriela Tessitore
Soul Patrol
Debut Feature
American Doctor
Directed By Poh Si Teng
Barbara Forever
Directed By Brydie O’Connor
Bucks Harbor
Directed By Pete Muller
The History of Concrete
Directed By John Wilson
Nuisance Bear
Directed By Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden
Spotlight Award
Jaripeo
Directed By Efraín Mojica and Rebecca Zweig
Joybubbles
Directed By Rachael J. Morrison
My NDA
Directed by Juliane Dressner and Miriam Shor
TheyDream
Directed By William D. Caballero
The Whole World is a Lie
Directed By Charlie Birns
Wood Street
Directed By Caron Creighton
Heterodox Award
Blue Heron
Directed By Sophy Romvari
A Child of My Own
Directed By Maite Alberdi
Dao
Directed By Alain Gomis
I Heard That They Are Not Going to See Each Other Anymore
Directed By Ka Ki Wong
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Directed By Matt Johnson
Whispers in May
Directed By Dongnan Chen
Audience Choice Prize
American Doctor
Directed by Poh Si Teng
Cookie Queens
Directed by Alysa Nahmias
The Cycle of Love
Directed by Orlando von Einsiedel
Everest: The Other Side
Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
NAZA
Directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (Shore)
The Oldest Person in the World
Directed by Sam Green
Steal This Story, Please!
Directed by Carl Deal and Tia Lessin
Time and Water
Directed by Sara Dosa
Wild Inside
Directed by Penny Lane
You Can See Everything
Directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim
The following categories were previously announced on Thursday, October 22, 2026.
Audience Choice Prize Longlist
The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist
Directed by Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell
Ask E. Jean
Directed by Ivy Meeropol
The Bend in the River
Directed by Robb Moss
Everybody to Kenmure Street
Directed by Felipe Bustos Sierra
Give Me the Ball
Directed by Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff
The History of Concrete
Directed by John Wilson
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Directed by William Greaves and David Greaves
Unforgettables Honorees
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa
American Doctor
E. Jean Carroll
Ask E. Jean
Soraya Akhlaghi
A Fox Under a Pink Moon
Billie Jean King
Give Me the Ball
Israa
One in a Million
Amy Goodman
Steal This Story, Please!
Nonfiction Shorts List
The Boys and the Bees
Directed by Arielle Knight
Buckskin
Directed by Mars Verrone
A Derailment
Directed by Nathan Truesdell
Free Joan Little
Directed by Yoruba Richen
I Got My Brother
Directed by Victor Gabriel
An Open Field
Directed by Teboho Edkins
Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon
Directed by Bill Morrison
They’re Here
Directed by Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller
La Tierra del Valor (The Home of the Brave)
Directed by Cristina Costantini
Water Cooler
Directed by Emma V.F.
Broadcast Film
Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story
Directed by Jyllian Gunther and Stephanie Schwam
HBO Max
The Bitter Pill
Directed by Clay Tweel
POV
Critical Incident: Death at the Border
Directed by Richard Rowley
HBO Max
Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World
Directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson
HBO Max
Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television
Directed by Giselle Bailey and Phil Bertelsen
HBO Max
Songs from the Hole
Directed by Contessa Gayles
Netflix
Nonfiction Series
High Horse: The Black Cowboy
Directed by Jason Perez
Peacock
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time
Directed by Traci A. Curry
National Geographic
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir, Samantha Knowles, and Spike Lee
Netflix
Mr. Scorsese
Directed by Rebecca Miller
Apple TV
Trust Me: The False Prophet
Directed by Rachel Dretzin
Netflix
The Yogurt Shop Murders
Directed by Margaret Brown
HBO Max
Anthology Series
Limitless: Live Better Now (Season Two)
Executive Producers Darren Aronofsky, Jane Root, Ari Handel, Tom Watt-Smith, Chris Hemsworth and Benjamin Grayson
Disney+
Neighbors
Executive Producers Ronald Bronstein, Eli Bush, Josh Safdie, Harrison Fishman, Dylan Redford and Samuel Fishman
HBO Max
Trainwreck
Executive Producers Sheun Adelasoye de Nicola, Alexander Marengo and Tim Wardle
Netflix
Tucci in Italy (Season Two)
Executive Producers Stanley Tucci, Lottie Birmingham, Amanda Lyon and Simon Raikes
National Geographic
Untold (Volume Six)
Executive Producers Ben Silverman, Howard Owens, Isabel San Vargas, Chapman Way, Maclain Way and Ryan Duffy
Netflix
Broadcast Editing
#Skyking
Edited by Emiliano Battista and Alexis Johnson
Hulu
Bang My Box: The Robin Byrd Story
Edited by Jeremy Stulberg
HBO Max
Breakdown: 1975
Edited by Alan Lowe and Jody McVeigh-Schultz
Netflix
Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World
Edited by Andrew Morrow, Matt Cascella and Tim Ziegler
HBO Max
Katrina: Come Hell and High Water
Edited by Arielle Amsalem and Anna Auster
Netflix
Mr. Scorsese
Edited by David Barter
Apple TV
Broadcast Cinematography
Caught in the Crackdown
Cinematographers Timothy Grucza, Jeremy Gould, Nick Kraus, Kevin McKeever and Jeff Perlman
Frontline | PBS | ProPublica
High Horse: The Black Cowboy
Cinematographers Jerry Henry and Justin Janowitz
Peacock
The Man Will Burn
Cinematographers Benji Lanpher, Chris Darnell, Neil Fernandez, Consuelo Althouse and Natalie Sims
HBO Max
Songs from the Hole
Cinematographers Michelle Kwong and Contessa Gayles
Netflix
Tucci in Italy (Season Two)
Cinematographer Matt Ball
National Geographic
The Yogurt Shop Murders
Cinematographer Justin Zweifach
HBO Max
