One hundred fifty-nine features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 92nd Academy Awards®. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
American Factory, the latest verite documentary feature from Oscar-nominated filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, and Apollo 11, Todd Douglas Miller’s recounting of the US space program through previously undiscovered archival footage, led 2020 Cinema Eye Honors nominations with 5 apiece, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature.
The 2019 Indie Memphis Film Festival spanning from October 30th to November 4th, 2019, features work from up-and-coming filmmakers, as well as festival hits such as Agnès Varda’s final film VARDA BY AGNÈS and Céline Sciamma’s PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE. This year’s Special Presentations includes Jim Jarmusch in attendance for the 30th Anniversary of his now-classic Memphis-set film MYSTERY TRAIN and a screening of his latest THE DEAD DON’T DIE, with Jarmusch in conversation with The New Yorker’s Richard Brody.
The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) unveiled the full slate of films for the 2019 edition, including additional spotlight films – Tom Harper’s THE AERONAUTS, Marc Meyers’ HUMAN CAPITAL, Scott Z. Burns’ gripping post 9/11 drama THE REPORT; François Girard’s THE SONG OF NAMES; and Bruce Springsteen and Thom Zimny’s concert documentary WESTERN STARS.
For its 15th edition, the Camden International Film Festival (CIFF) which will take place September 12-15, 2019 throughout Camden, Rockport and Rockland, Maine, will present 38 features, 50 short films, and 16 virtual reality and immersive experiences from over 35 countries. More than half of the feature films are presented as major premieres, including the US Premiere of Alex Gibney’s Citizen K.
The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey is partnering with Rooftop Films to present four free screenings at their Liberty Park plaza as part of its continuing efforts to transform the World Trade Center site into a dynamic space in Lower Manhattan.
Rooftop Films announced the feature films selected for 23rd Summer Series to run from May 17th to August 23rd. Films include Brittany Runs a Marathon, celebrated playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo’s Sundance smash that took home the fest’s U.S. Dramatic Audience Award; Tali Shalom-Ezer’s My Days of Mercy, starring Ellen Page, Kate Mara and Amy Seimetz; Mickey and the Bear, Annabelle Attanasio’s Montana-set drama starring Camila Morrone; Alex Thompson’s SXSW Audience Award winner, Saint Frances; Michael Tyburski’s strikingly unique Rooftop Filmmakers Fund grantee, The Sound of Silence, starring Peter Sarsgaard and Rashida Jones; Tom Cullen’s devastating directorial debut, Pink Wall, starring Tatiana Maslany and Jay Duplass; Premature, Rashaad Ernesto Green’s fresh portrait of New York love; Samantha Buck & Marie Schlingmann’s playfully irreverent Sister Aimee; and Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe’s suburban black comedy, Greener Grass.
Sheffield Doc/Fest announced the line-up of 180+ documentary features and shorts for its 26th edition, which runs from 6 to 11 June, 2019, under the tagline “Ways of Seeing” inspired by John Berger’s television series and book of the same name. The festival opens on Thursday June 6 with Diego Maradona, a wild and irreverent look at one of the world’s most iconic sportsmen, both on and off the pitch, during his infamous time in Naples.
The 8th annual Montclair Film Festival (MFF) taking place May 3 to 12, 2019, in Montclair, NJ will feature over 150 films, events, discussions, and parties. The festival will open on Friday, May 3, with Tom Harper’s WILD ROSE, and on Saturday, May 11, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders’ TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM will screen as the festival’s Closing Film.
South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival announced the second round of its Film Festival program, including the Midnighters, Festival Favorites, Shorts, Episodic Pilot Competition, Virtual Cinema, Music Video and Title Design lineup, plus late-addition Features and the Closing Night Film for the 26th edition of the Festival, running March 8 to 17, 2019 in Austin, Texas.
Christopher McNabb, Damon Davis and Sabaah Folayan work on “Whose Streets?” at the 2016 Documentary Editing Lab. © 2016 Sundance Institute | Photo by Jonathan Hickerson.[/caption]
Five projects will convene at the Sundance Resort in Utah for the Sundance Institute flagship Documentary Edit and Story Lab on July 6.
The Lab creates a space to develop, interrogate and collaborate on independent nonfiction films that are in the later stages of post-production. Through a rigorous process, director and editor teams come together with renowned documentary filmmakers, who advise on the process of re-centering their work around original motivations, tweaking or re-conceiving dramatic structures, and exploring story and character development.
Documentary Film Program Director Tabitha Jackson, who oversees the process with Labs Director Kristin Feeley, said “By facilitating these filmmakers coming together to dig deep into context, meaning, structure and narrative — aided by some of documentary’s most innovative and experienced minds — we hope to advance not just these projects, but also make a meaningful investment into some of the most exciting practitioners of nonfiction storytelling for the screen.”
Advisors for the Documentary Edit and Story Lab are Maya Hawke (Box of Birds), Sabine Hoffman (Risk), Jeff Malmberg (Spettacolo), Robb Moss (Containment), Jonathan Oppenheim (Blowin’ Up) and Toby Shimin (This Is Home). The contributing editors are Yuki Aizawa, Hannah Choe, Jaki Covington and Katherine Gorringe.
For the third year, the Lab will host a writer-in-residence: Eric Hynes joins as part of a program designed to bring film critics and nonfiction filmmakers together to forge a deeper understanding of nonfiction film through immersion in the creative process.
The 2018 Documentary Edit and Story Lab projects and Fellows are:
After a Revolution (United Kingdom)
Giovanni Buccomino (director), James Scott (editor), Naziha Arebi, Al Morrow (producers) — An intimate story, filmed over six years, of a brother and sister who struggle to rebuild their lives after fighting on opposite sides of the Libyan revolution. It is also a close-up on the country’s traumatic course from rebellion, to elections to the edge of civil war.
Giovanni Buccomino studied History and Philosophy and gained his master at the University of Rome. While studying Giovanni worked as a sound engineer in music and later moved into film. He has directed two nonfiction features, In the Valley of the Moon and Yanqui. He spent a long time in Libya creating a sound installation of Libya for the Azimut project at the MuCEM Museum in Marseille, directing a 52’’ film for Al Jazeera on the Tabu tribe of Libya. Giovanni continues working as a sound designer and field recordist in documentary, television and fiction cinema, as well as directing his own films.
James Scott is a film editor based in Brighton, England, originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. He won a Special Jury Award for Editing at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival & the Canadian Screen Award for Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary for Jerry Rothwell’s How To Change The World. His feature-length cinema documentary credits include, Toby Amies’ The Man Whose Mind Exploded, Jeanie Finlay’s The Great Hip Hoax. Other feature credits include, Jerry Rothwell’s Sour Grapes (Netflix), Dunstan Bruce’s This Band is So Gorgeous; The Search For Weng Weng; and Sophie Robinson’s My Beautiful Broken Brain (Netflix).
Crip Camp (USA)
James LeBrecht and Nicole Newnham (co-directors/producers), Andy Gersh (editor), Sara Bolder (producer) — They came as campers, and left as rebels. Just down the road from Woodstock, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, a parallel revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers. Crip Camp explores summer camp awakenings that would transform young lives, and America, forever. Told from the point of view of former camper Jim LeBrecht, the film traces the journeys of several teenagers from camp to the raucous early days of the disability rights movement in Berkeley — and up to the present, in this compelling and untold story of a powerful journey towards inclusion.
James LeBrecht has over 40 years experience as a film and theater sound designer and mixer, author, disability rights activist and filmmaker. His film mixing credits include the documentaries Minding The Gap, Unrest, The Force, The Island President, The Waiting Room, The Kill Team, and Audrie and Daisy. Jim co-authored Sound and Music for the Theatre: the art and technique of design. Now in its fourth edition, the book is used as a textbook all over the world.
Nicole Newnham is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and director. She recently produced two virtual reality films with the Australian artist / director Lynette Wallworth: the breakthrough VR work Collisions, and the mixed-reality work Awavena. She co-directed The Revolutionary Optimists; co-produced and directed the acclaimed documentary The Rape of Europa. With Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Brian Lanker, she produced They Drew Fire, about the Combat Artists of WWII, and co-wrote the companion book, distributed by Harper Collins.
Andrew Gersh is a documentary film editor based in Berkeley, California. He began his career on staff at WGBH in Boston, working on many groundbreaking series for PBS, including NOVA, FRONTLINE and the ten-hour WGBH/BBC co-production on the history of ROCK & ROLL. His latest feature documentaries include Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, REAL BOY. Other work includes Ask Not, Daddy Don’t Go, and Ready, Set, Bag!
Forgiveness (United Kingdom)
Elizabeth Stopford (director/producer), Gary Forrester (editor) — A modern American ghost story and a house that vanished. In the wake of two seemingly inexplicable shooting sprees, can a community forgive the teenage boy at the heart of its tragic past?
After graduating with a Masters in English from Oxford, Elizabeth Stopford took her passion for storytelling to UK production company Tiger Aspect, developing and producing a portfolio of documentaries for the BBC about monastic life – The Monastery, The Convent, and 40 Days (TLC). She set up White Rabbit Films in 2008, and her directing credits include: Long Lost Family, and We Need to Talk About Dad. Selected in 2014 for the BFI’s Guiding Lights scheme, over the past four years Elizabeth has focused on developing two feature film projects that combine the authentic heart of documentary with the craft of fiction: Forgiveness (developed with Film4 and Sundance), and Shooting Kids (developed with the British Film Institute).
Gary Forrester is a dynamic and diverse editor moving seamlessly between commercials, feature nonfiction as well as fiction. His film credits include the award winning feature documentary Radioman, directed by Mary Kerr. His most recent film Access All Areas, an indie drama directed by Bryn Higgins (Black Mirror) won best screenplay at the National Film Awards 2017.
The Hottest August (USA)
Brett Story (director/producer), Nels Bangerter (editor), Danielle Varga (producer) —
A film about climate change, disguised as a portrait of collective anxiety, The Hottest August offers a window into the collective consciousness of the present.
Brett Story is an award-winning non-fiction filmmaker based out of Toronto and New York whose films have screened at True/False, Oberhausen, Hot Docs, the Viennale, and Dok Leipzig, among other festivals. Her feature documentary, The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and was a nominee for Best Canadian Feature Documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards. Story holds a PhD in geography from the University of Toronto and is the author of the forthcoming book, The Prison Out of Place.
Nels Bangerter is an award-winning documentary film editor whose work includes Cameraperson, Let the Fire Burn, Very Semi-Serious and War Child. Nels also edited the fiction short film Buzkashi Boys, which was produced and edited in Kabul, Afghanistan and nominated for an Academy Award. Before becoming an editor, he worked in a gold mine, lived in a redwood tree, and earned bachelor’s degrees in English and electrical engineering from Rice University and an MFA at USC. He is based in Oakland, California, and has two terrific kids, ages two and five.