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CEH 2023 All Nominees Collage

Led by All That Breathes and Fire of Love

Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes Wins Outstanding Feature and Cinematography

Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love receives 3 Honors for Editing, Original Score and Visual Design

Laura Poitras wins Outstanding Direction for All The Beauty And The Bloodshed

Moonage Daydream and Navalny each win two awards

Outstanding Debut Feature goes to Alex Pritz’ The Territory 

Nuisance Bear wins Outstanding Nonfiction Short

Broadcast Honors go to Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes, Black and Missing, How To with John WilsonWe Need to Talk About Cosby and Playing with Sharks


January 12, 2023 – The 16th annual edition of the Cinema Eye Honors, recognizing excellence in nonfiction filmmaking, took place tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, with winners being announced in 18 categories.

Shaunak Sen’s Cannes-winning feature All That Breathes, which follows two brothers who run a bird hospital dedicated to rescuing injured black kites, took the top prize, winning the award for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking as well as the award for Cinematography.

Fire of Love, Sara Dosa’s documentary about intrepid husband-and-wife volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft received  three honors—the most of the evening won by any single film—for Outstanding Editing, Outstanding Visual Design (tied with Moonage Daydream) and Outstanding Original Score. The score was composed by Nicolas Godin of French electronic music duo Air. 

Laura Poitras won Outstanding Direction for All The Beauty And The Bloodshed. The film, which follows the life and work of photographer and activist Nan Goldin, marks the third nomination and third win in this category for Poitras. She previously won the award for both The Oath (2010) and Citizenfour (2014). She is the only individual to have won the Directing award more than once.

In the Visual Design category, Stefan Nadelman also became a three-time winner on Thursday, taking home the trophy for Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream (tied with Fire of Love), which illuminates the life and genius of David Bowie. He previously won for Kurt Cobain Montage of Heck (2016) and Long Strange Trip (2018). Moonage Daydream took home two awards, with Samir Foco, John Warhurst and Nina Hartsone winning for Sound Design.   

Also receiving two awards was Daniel Roher’s Navalny, a nonfiction film that follows the Russian opposition leader and former presidential candidate Alexei Navalny in real time as he recovers from an assassination attempt. Navalny‘s producing team won the Outstanding Achievement in Production award, and the film also took home the Audience Choice Prize, an award voted on by documentary fans around the world. This year, for the first time, voters from the general public selected this year’s Audience Choice Prize nominees from a 16-film Long List  by Cinema Eye’s nominations committee, and they then voted for the winner. More than 50,000 votes were cast to determine this year’s award recipient.

All That Breathes, Fire of Love, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Moonage Daydream and Navalny are all on the Documentary Feature shortlist for the upcoming Academy Awards. Also shortlisted is Alex Pritz’ The Territory, which won the Award for Debut Feature. Nuisance Bear won for Outstanding Nonfiction Short and is also on the Academy shortlist in that category.

In Broadcast Honors, a notable win came in the Outstanding Anthology Series category. How To with John Wilson (Season Two) won the award. It previously won the Broadcast Editing award at last year’s ceremony, marking the second consecutive win for the Cinema Eye-nominated series.

This year’s ceremony opened with an emotional tribute to documentary pioneer Julia Reichert, a Cinema Eye winner and godmother of American independent documentary, Reichert died in December. Her husband and filmmaking partner, Steven Bognar, talked about Julia’s passion for her beloved documentary community.

Whitney Museum Curator Chrissie Iles announced this year’s Legacy Award, which was given to Terry Zwigoff for Crumb, his 1994 landmark portrait of artist Robert Crumb. Zwigoff thanked his team and the documentary filmmakers in attendance in video remarks from San Francisco. Zwigoff will be presented the Legacy Award trophy in Los Angeles at a screening of Crumb at Vidiot Foundation’s newly-reopened Eagle Theatre later this year.

Brandy Burre, the centerpiece of Robert Greene’s previously nominated film Actress, spoke of the challenge many in the nonfiction filmmaking community are having in determining the role and title of those who are in front of the documentary camera. She also introduced videos celebrating this year’s Unforgettables, Cinema Eye’s category recognizing documentary subject/collaborators who have been particularly memorable this year. 

In remarks later in the evening, Cinema Eye Founding Director AJ Schnack noted the continued imprisonment of filmmaker and Cinema Eye winner Jafar Panahi and encouraged those in attendance to be vigilant to attacks on filmmakers and journalists.

Kai Ryssdal and a number of reporters from American Public Media’s Marketplace radio program served as Cinema Eye’s “Voice of Goddess”, welcoming audience members and introducing categories. This year’s n-person presenters were documentary filmmakers Cecilia Aldarondo, Zeshawn Ali, Nels Bangerter, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Monica Hellström, Angelo Madsen Minax, Omar Mullick, Diane Quon, Jeff Reichert, Ondi Timoner, Caroline Waterlow and Simon Lehring Wilmont.

A full list of winners follows. For the complete list of this year’s nominees, check out the Cinema Eye website: https://cinemaeyehonors.com/


16h Annual Cinema Eye Honors Winners | January 12, 2023


Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

All That Breathes
Directed and Produced by Shaunak Sen
Produced by Aman Mann and Teddy Leifer

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Laura Poitras

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

Fire of Love
Erin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

All That Breathes
Ben Bernhard and Riju Das

Outstanding Achievement in Production

Navalny
Odessa Rae, Diane Becker, Melanie Miller and Shane Boris

Outstanding Achievement in Original Score

Fire of Love
Nicolas Godin

Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design

Moonage Daydream
Samir Foco, John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone

Outstanding Achievement in Visual Design (tie)

Fire of Love
Lucy Munger, Kara Blake, and Rui Ting Ji

Moonage Daydream
Stefan Nadelman

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film

The Territory
Directed by Alex Pritz

Audience Choice Prize

Navalny
Directed by Daniel Roher

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast

Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes
Directed by James Jones | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Series

Black and Missing
Directed by Geeta Gandbhir and Samantha Knowles | HBO Documentary Films/HBO Max

Outstanding Achievement in Anthology Series

How To with John Wilson (Season Two)
Nathan Fielder, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking and John Wilson, Executive Producers | HBO

Outstanding Achievement in Editing in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast

We Need to Talk About Cosby
Meg Ramsay | Showtime

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast

Playing With Sharks
Michael Taylor, Judd Overton, Nathan Barlow and Toby Ralph | Disney+

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking

Nuisance Bear
Directed by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden

Legacy Award

Crumb
Directed by Terry Zwigoff

Heterodox Award

Aftersun
Directed by Charlotte Wells

Spotlight Award

Master of Light
Directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten


About Cinema Eye, Cinema Eye Week and the 2023 Cinema Eye Honors

Cinema Eye was founded in 2007 to recognize excellence in artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking.  Its mission is three-fold: to build the documentary community by creating spaces where practitioners of the artform can connect with one another; to celebrate the whole creative team that works to create a nonfiction film; and to recognize artistic boldness and risk-taking within the form.

Cinema Eye was the first and remains the only international nonfiction award to recognize the whole creative team, presenting annual craft awards in directing, producing, cinematography, editing, composing, sound design and visual design; and recognizing the essential contribution of documentary subject/collaborators. Cinema Eye presents and produces the annual Cinema Eye Week and Awards Ceremony.  

The Awards Ceremony is the centerpiece of Cinema Eye Week, a multi-day celebration for nonfiction filmmakers and craftspeople that creates community and celebrates excellence. For more on Cinema Eye eligibility and rules: https://cinemaeyehonors.com/rules/.

Sponsors for the 16th Annual Cinema Eye Honors are Lead Sponsors Apple TV+, HBO Max and National Geographic Documentary Films; Major Sponsors Amazon Studios, Hulu, Netflix and Showtime Documentary Films. Venue Partners for the Cinema Eye Honors are DCTV, the Museum of the Moving Image and Vidiots Foundation. Supporting Sponsors are American Cinema Editors and Spacestation.

Cinema Eye is led by a core team that includes Lead Producer Wendy Garrett, Program Director Doug Jones, Publicity Director Laura Molinari, Ceremony Director Zoe Reiniger, Founding Director AJ Schnack and Editorial Director Neyat Yohannes.

This year’s nominations committee included Claire Aguilar, Jonathan Ali, Beth Barrett, Opal Bennett, Megan Costello, Cara Cusumano, Heather Croall, Bilge Ebiri, Kate Erbland, Jessica Fairbanks, Joanne Feinberg, Ben Fowlie, Cliff Froehlich, Laura Good, Tom Hall, Brandon Harrison, Gail Kovatseff, Amir Labakli, Jaie Laplante, Alex Lee, Artur Liebhart, Karen McMullin, Mads Mikkelsen, Liz Shannon Miller, Cynthia “Tina” Morton, Ted Mott, Jenn Murphy, David Nugent, Veton Nurkollari, Dan Nuxoll, Andrea Passafiume, Janet Pierson, Thom Powers, Sydney Rodriguez, Rachel Rosen, Sudeep Sharma, Sky Sitney, Shane Smith, Sadie Tillery, Chloe Trainer, Basil Tsiokos and Harry Vaughn.

For more information, contact Laura Molinari at laura@therightnow.co

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