Documentarian Rory Kennedy will receive the Pennebaker Award at the Ninth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards on Sunday, November 10, 2024. The late Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award winner D. A. Pennebaker inspired the name of the award, and Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s producing partner and widow, will present it.

Academy Award-nominated Primetime Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy has directed over 40 films, including Downfall: The Case Against Boeing (Netflix), Last Days in Vietnam (American Experience), and Ethel (HBO), all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Her film, The Volcano: Rescue From Whakaari, was the #1 Netflix film in the world during its release week in December, 2022. Kennedy most recently directed and produced The Synanon Fix, an HBO docu-series about the long celebrated addiction treatment center that transformed over the decades into an organization engaging in cult-like activity.

Kennedy served two terms as Governor of AMPAS and is a founding member of the Climate Emergency Fund.

Actor Erich Bergen will host the ceremony and Chelsea Clinton along with Amanda Zurawski will participate as presenters on behalf of their documentary, Zurawski V Texas, that follows a group of women, led by Amanda Zurawski, who were denied access to healthcare and decided to band together with a fearless attorney from the Center for Reproductive Rights to sue the state of Texas.

Also joining as presenters are Bridget Moynahan (Blue Bloods), Lorraine Toussaint (The Equalizer), Ken Leung (Industry), Ali Wentworth (Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields), Lauren Greenfield (Social Studies), Michael Cyril Creighton (Only Murders in the Building), Daphne Rubin-Vega (Only Murders in the Building) and R.J. Cutler (Elton John: Never Too Late).