Three films – Viktor Jakovleski’s Brimstone & Glory, Matthew Heineman’s City of Ghosts and Yance Ford’s Strong Island – lead the 2018 Cinema Eye Honors nominations with 4 apiece. Five films received three nominations: Yuri Ancarani’s The Challenge, Jeff Orlowski’s Chasing Coral, Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places, Brett Morgen’s Jane and Jonathan Olshefski’s Quest.
City of Ghosts, Faces Places, Quest and Strong Island are joined in the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category by Frederick Weisman’s Ex Libris: The New York Public Library and Feras Fayyad’s Last Men in Aleppo. Kitty Green (Casting Jon Benet) joins the aforementioned Yuri Ancarani, Yance Ford, Matthew Heineman, Agnés Varda and JR, and Frederick Wiseman as a nominee in the Outstanding Achievement in Direction category.
With his nomination, Frederick Wiseman becomes the first filmmaker in Cinema Eye history to be nominated three times for Outstanding Direction, having been previously nominated for La Danse – The Paris Opera Ballet and In Jackson Heights. He also received Cinema Eye’s 2012 Legacy Award for his 1967 classic Titicut Follies. Agnès Varda won the Outstanding Direction Award in 2010 for The Beaches of Agnés.
Outstanding Direction nominees Kitty Green and Yuri Ancarani were both previously nominated for Outstanding Nonfiction Short, Green in 2016 for The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul and Ancarani was nominated twice for Il Capo (2012) and Da Vinci (2014).
Chasing Coral received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Cinematography for director Jeff Orlowski, an Honor he won in 2013 for Chasing Ice. Stefan Nadelman, nominated for his Graphic Design work on the Grateful Dead documentary Long Strange Trip, won the same award in 2016 for Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.
Ten films were nominated for the annual Audience Choice Prize, which includes many of the year’s most popular and talked about nonfiction films, notably Brett Morgen’s Jane, Ceyda Torun’s Kedi, Amanda Lipitz’ Step, Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis’ Whose Streets? and Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary’s The Work. The winner in this category is voted on by the general public.
This year’s Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking category includes a number of notable filmmakers, among them a previous Cinema Eye winner and a nominee. Fisher Stevens, a winner for Outstanding Production and Feature for The Cove (2010), is nominated this year with his co-director Alexis Bloom for Bright Lights: Starring Carrie FIsher and Debbie Reynolds (HBO). Ryan White, who was nominated for Production in 2015 for The Case Against 8, is up this year for his Netflix series The Keepers. Oscar nominee Ava DuVernay received her first Cinema Eye nomination for her Netflix film 13th, while veteran filmmaker Kristi Jacobson gets her first nod for the HBO feature doc Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison.
This year’s winners will be announced at the 2018 Honors Awards Ceremony on Thursday, January 11, 2018 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens. The ceremony will be hosted, for the third consecutive year, by award-winning nonfiction filmmaker Steve James (The Interrupters, Life Itself, Hoop Dreams), who is a Cinema Eye nominee this year for his latest film, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.
2018 Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominations
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
City of Ghosts
Directed and Produced by Matthew Heineman
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Directed and Produced by Frederick Wiseman
Faces Places
Directed by Agnès Varda and JR (Director) | Produced by Rosalie Varda
Last Men in Aleppo
Directed by Feras Fayyad | Produced by Kareem Abeed, Stefan Kloos and Søren Steen Jespersen
Quest
Directed by Jonathan Olshefski | Produced by Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
Strong Island
Directed by Yance Ford | Produced by Joslyn Barnes and Yance Ford
Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Kitty Green | Casting JonBenet
Matthew Heineman | City of Ghosts
Yuri Ancarani | The Challenge
Frederick Wiseman | Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
Agnès Varda and JR | Faces Places
Yance Ford | Strong Island
Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Bill Morrison | Dawson City: Frozen Time
Joe Beshenkovsky | Jane
TJ Martin | LA92
Keith Fraase and John Walter | Long Strange Trip
Lindsay Utz | Quest
Francisco Bello, Daniel Garber and David Barker | The Reagan Show
Outstanding Achievement in Production
Nominees to be Determined | Brimstone and Glory
Matthew Heineman | City of Ghosts
Heino Deckert, Ai Weiwei and Chin-Chin Yap | Human Flow
Kareem Abeed, Stefan Kloos and Søren Steen Jespersen | Last Men in Aleppo
Brenda Coughlin, Yoni Golijov and Laura Poitras | Risk
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Tobias von dem Borne | Brimstone and Glory
Yuri Ancarani, Luca Nervegna and Jonathan Ricquebourg | The Challenge
Andrew Ackerman and Jeff Orlowski | Chasing Coral
TBD | Human Flow
Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva | Machines
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin | Brimstone and Glory
Francesco Fantini and Lorenzo Senni | The Challenge
Alex Somers | Dawson City: Frozen Time
Philip Glass | Jane
Dan Deacon | Rat Film
Hildur Gudnadóttir and Craig Sutherland | Strong Island
Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Chad Herschberger | 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene
Matt Schultz and Shawna Schultz | Chasing Coral
Grant Nellessen | Citizen Jane: Battle for the City
Daniel Gies and Emily Paige | Let There Be Light
Stefan Nadelman | Long Strange Trip
Audience Choice Prize
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail |Directed by Steve James
City of Ghosts | Directed by Matthew Heineman
Chasing Coral | Directed by Jeff Orlowski
Faces Places | Directed by Agnès Varda and JR
Jane | Directed by Brett Morgen
Kedi | Directed by Ceyda Torun
Quest | Directed by Jonathan Olshefski
Step | Directed by Amanda Lipitz
Whose Streets? | Directed by Sabaah Folayan and Damon Davis
The Work | Directed by Gethin Aldous and Jairus McLeary
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
Viktor Jakovleski | Brimstone and Glory
Anna Zamecka | Communion
Rahul Jain | Machines
Theo Anthony | Rat Film
Yance Ford | Strong Island
Outstanding Achievement in Broadcast Nonfiction Filmmaking
13th
Directed by Ava DuVernay | Produced by Ava DuVernay & Howard Barish | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Adam Del Deo and Lisa Nishimura
Abortion: Stories Women Tell
Directed and Produced by Tracy Droz Tragos | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Sara Bernstein
Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
Directed by Alexis Bloom & Fisher Stevens | Produced by Alexis Bloom, Fisher Stevens, Julie Nives & Todd Fisher | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Nancy Abraham
Five Came Back
Directed by Laurent Bouzereau | Produced by John Battsek & Laurent Bouzereau | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Adam Del Deo and Lisa Nishimura
The Keepers
Directed by Ryan White | For Netflix: Executive Producers Ben Cotner, Jason Springarn-Koff and Lisa Nishimura
Solitary: Inside Red Onion State Prison
Directed and Produced by Kristi Jacobson | Produced by Katie Mitchell and Julie Goldman | For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins, Senior Producer Nancy Abraham
Spotlight Award
Donkeyote | Directed by Chico Pereira
An Insignificant Man | Directed by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle | Directed by Gustavo Salmerón
Plastic China | Directed by Jiuliang Wang
Stranger in Paradise | Directed by Guido Hendrikx
Taste of Cement | Directed by Ziad Kalthoum
Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
Edith+Eddie | Directed by Laura Checkoway
Heroin(e) | Directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon
Little Potato | Directed by Wes Hurley and Nathan M. Miller
Polonaise | Directed by Agnieszka Elbanowska
The Rabbit Hunt | Directed by Patrick Bresnan
Ten Meter Tower | Directed by Maximilien Van Aertryck & Axel Danielson
The Unforgettables | Non-competitive Honor
Chanterelle Sung, Hwei Lin Sung, Jill Sung, Thomas Sung & Vera Sung |Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Bobbi Jene Smith | Bobbi Jene
Abdalaziz Alhamza, Hamoud Almousa and Mohamad Almusari | For City of Ghosts
Ola Kaczanowska | Communion
Dolores Huerta | Dolores
Dina Buno and Scott Levin | Dina
Agnès Varda | Faces Places
Daje Shelton | For Ahkeem
Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov | Icarus
Dr. 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