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For Akheem

Cinema Eye Honors Announces the 2017 Unforgettables

List of Year’s Most Notable & Significant Film Subjects

October 17,2017, New York City – Cinema Eye, the organization that recognizes outstanding craft and artistry in nonfiction filmmaking, today announced their annual list of Unforgettables, which annually celebrates the exciting and sometimes tricky collaborations between filmmaker and subjects by noting those indelible individuals who helped define documentary cinema in 2017.

This year’s list includes two families, the Sung family from Steve James’ Abacus: Small Enough to Jail and the Rainey family from Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest; five people whose films bear their name, Dina Buno, Jim Carrey, Jane Goodall, Dolores Huerta and Bobbi Jene Smith; and three filmmakers who appear in their own films, wrestling with disease, murder and mortality, Jennifer Brea (Unrest), Yance Ford (Strong Island) and Agnès Varda (Faces Places).

In all, 30 individuals from 15 different films were selected for the Unforgettables list by Cinema Eye’s nominations committee, which is comprised of the world’s top documentary film programmers and curators, as well as filmmakers in the running for this year’s awards.

“We’re excited to kickoff our celebrations for Cinema Eye 2018 by recognizing that most complicated relationship between filmmaker and subject – even in those cases when the filmmaker and the subject are the same person,” said filmmaker and Cinema Eye Honors Co-Chair Dawn Porter. “This year’s list of Unforgettables includes some of the most memorable individuals to grace nonfiction cinema in recent memory, allowing audiences an intimate look at their lives and circumstances.”

The Unforgettables is one of Cinema Eye’s non-competitive Distinctive Honors. Subjects selected to this list of Unforgettables will be celebrated at the Cinema Eye Honors Lunch, to be held on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 in Manhattan.

2017 Cinema Eye Honors Unforgettables

  • Chanterelle Sung, Hwei Lin Sung, Jill Sung, Thomas Sung and Vera Sung
    Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
  • Bobbi Jene Smith
    Bobbi Jene
  • Abdalaziz Alhamza, Hamoud Almousa and Mohamad Almusari
    City of Ghosts
  • Ola Kaczanowska
    Communion
  • Dolores Huerta
    Dolores
  • Dina Buno and Scott Levin
    Dina
  • Agnés Varda
    Faces Places
  • Daje Shelton
    For Ahkeem
  • Grigory Rodchenkov
    Icarus
  • Jane Goodall
    Jane
  • Jim Carrey
    Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond
  • Christine’a Rainey, Christopher “Quest” Rainey, PJ Rainey and William Withers
    Quest
  • Yance Ford
    Strong Island
  • Jennifer Brea
    Unrest
  • Brian, Charles, Chris, Dark Cloud, Kiki and Vegas
    The Work

The full slate of Cinema Eye nominations for nonfiction feature, short and broadcast films/series will be be announced on Friday, November 3 in San Francisco at SFFILM’s Doc Stories event. Awards will be presented in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image on Thursday, January 11, 2018.

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: Chris Boeckmann (True/False), Pamela Cohn (Dokufest Kosovo), David Courier (Sundance), Cara Cusumano (Tribeca), Bruno Dequen (RIDM), Nominations Committee Chair Ben Fowlie (Camden), Tom Hall (Montclair), Sarah Harris (Dallas), Jim Kolmar (SXSW), Amir Labaki (It’s All True), Artur Liebhart (Docs Against Gravity), Mads Mikkelsen (CPH:DOX), Meghan Monsour (Ambulante), Luke Moody (Sheffield), 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), David Wilson (True/False) and Jenn Wilson (Los Angeles).

About the 11th Annual Cinema Eye Honors and Cinema Eye Week 2018
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 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 from around the world.

Cinema Eye Announcement of #CEH18 Nominees
Wednesday, November 3, 2017

Cinema Eye Week
Friday, January 5 – Thursday, January 11, 2018

Cinema Eye Honors Awards Ceremony
Thursday, January 11, 2018
Museum of the Moving Image