The Cinema Eye Honors kicked off the documentary side of award season with a big upset. Sam Green’s 32 Sounds won the award for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature last night as the Cinemaa Eye Honors unveiled its winners. 32 Sounds also won prizes for its score by JD Samson and its sound design by Mark Mangini. The unique “immersive documentary” premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and offers a boundary-pushing exploration of audio storytelling. The doc is one of fifteen films shortlisted in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.
Fellow Oscar shortlistees The Eternal Memory and Four Daughters, meanwhile, tied for the Outstanding Direction prize for Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania, respectively. The Eternal Memory is a poignant vérité-style portrait of a couple’s love that endures through sickness and health, while Four Daughters is a unique fusion of performance and nonfiction that explores a family’s loss. Other Oscar-shortlisted winners included 20 Days in Mariupol, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, short doc Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games, and Bobi Wine: The People’s President, which won the audience choice award. Finally, D. Smith’s first feature Kokomo City, which topped the nominations, won the prize for best debut.
The list of Cinema Eye Honors winners is as follows:
Outstanding Nonfiction Feature
32 Sounds
Directed by Sam Green
Produced by Josh Penn and Thomas O. Kriegsman
Outstanding Direction
Maite Alberdi | The Eternal Memory
Kaouther Ben Hania | Four Daughters
Outstanding Editing
Michael Harte | Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Outstanding Production
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner, Raney Aronson Rath and Derl McCrudden | 20 Days in Mariupol
Outstanding Cinematography
Ants Tammik | Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Outstanding Original Score
JD Samson | 32 Sounds
Outstanding Sound Design
Mark Mangini | 32 Sounds
Outstanding Visual Design
Thomas Curtis and Sean Pierce | Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Outstanding Debut
Kokomo City | Directed by D. Smith
Outstanding Nonfiction Short
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games | Directed by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson
Outstanding Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
The Stroll | Directed by Kristen Lovell and Zackary Drucker
Outstanding Nonfiction Series
Paul T. Goldman | Directed by Jason Woliner
Outstanding Anthology Series
The 1619 Project | Executive Producers: Nikole Hannah-Jones, Roger Ross Williams, Shoshana Guy, Caitlin Roper, Kathleen Lingo, Helen Verno and Oprah Winfrey
Outstanding Broadcast Editing
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields | Sara Newens, Anne Yao and David Teague
Outstanding Broadcast Cinematography
Nothing Lasts Forever | Heloisa Passos
Audience Choice Prize
Bobi Wine: The People’s President | Directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp
Spotlight
Q | Directed by Jude Chehab
Heterodox
The Buriti Flower | Directed by João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora
The Unforgettables (Non-Competitive Honor)
American Symphony | Jon Batiste and Suleika Jaouad
Apolonia, Apolonia | Apolonia Sokol
Bobi Wine: The People’s President | Bobi Wine
Confessions of a Good Samaritan | Penny Lane
The Disappearance of Shere Hite | Shere Hite
The Eternal Memory | Augusto Góngora & Paulina Urrutia
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Nikki Giovanni
Invisible Beauty | Bethann Hardison
Joan Baez I Am a Noise | Joan Baez
Kokomo City | Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver
The Pigeon Tunnel | David Cornwell aka John le Carré
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie | Michael J. Fox
A Still Small Voice | Margaret “Mati” Engel
Twice Colonized | Aaju Peter
While We Watched | Ravish Kumar
