The Broadcast Film Critics Assn. (BFCA) and Broadcast Television Journalists Assn. (BTJA) jointly announced the nominees for the second annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Monday.
Leading the nominations with four was “Kedi,” a Turkish chronicle of the stray cats of Istanbul directed by Ceyda Torun.
“The inaugural event last year was such a fantastic night, we cannot wait to celebrate the leading lights in the doc world at our second annual event,” said BFCA president Joey Berlin. “This is a golden age for documentary filmmaking and nonfiction television and we’re proud to help audiences find the best of the best.”
“California Typewriter,” “Chasing Coral,” “City of Ghosts,” “Cries From Syria,” and “Dawson City: Frozen Time” all picked up multiple nominations.
Oscar- and Emmy-nominated filmmaker Joe Berlinger (“Paradise Lost” Trilogy, “Metallica: Some Kind of Monster”) will receive the Critics’ Choice Impact Award.
One rule change of note this year: There is no longer a distinction between theatrical and TV/streaming releases in the best documentary, best director, and best first feature documentary categories. “As our industry continues to grow and change, the nominating committees of the BFCA and the BTJA came to the decision together that we needed our categories to better reflect the current way documentaries are released as well as how the audience consumes content,” said nominating committees chairperson David Freedman by way of explanation.
Winners will be announced Thursday, Nov. 2 at BRIC in Brooklyn, New York. Penn Jillette has been tapped to host the event once again.
Full list of nominations below.
Best Documentary
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“Beware the Slenderman”
“Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds”
“California Typewriter”
“Chasing Coral”
“City of Ghosts”
“Cries From Syria”
“Dawson City: Frozen Time”
“Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis”
“Ex Libris: The New York Public Library”
“Faces Places”
“Jane”
“Kedi”
“One of Us”
“Spettacolo”
“Strong Island”
Best Director
Evgeny Afineevsky (“Cries from Syria”)
Amir Bar-Lev (“Long Strange Trip”)
Matthew Heineman (“City of Ghosts”)
Bill Morrison (“Dawson City: Frozen Time”)
Doug Nichol (“California Typewriter”)
Jeff Orlowski (“Chasing Coral”)
Irene Taylor Brodsky (“Beware the Slenderman”)
Ceyda Torun (“Kedi”)
Agnès Varda & JR (“Faces Places”)
Frederick Wiseman (“Ex Libris: The New York Public Library”)
Best First Documentary
“California Typewriter” (Doug Nichol)
“Kedi” (Ceyda Torun)
“Nowhere to Hide” (Zaradasht Ahmed)
“Step” (Amanda Lipitz)
“Strong Island” (Yance Ford)
“Whose Streets?” (Sabaah Folayan)
Best Political Documentary
“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”
“City of Ghosts”
“Dolores”
“11/8/16”
“The Reagan Show”
Best Sports Documentary
“AlphaGo”
“Disgraced”
“Icarus”
“Speed Sisters”
“Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton”
“Trophy”
Best Music Documentary
“Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives”
“Contemporary Color”
“Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis”
“I Called Him Morgan”
“Long Strange Trip”
“Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World”
Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary
The Cats of Istanbul (“Kedi”)
Etty (“One of Us”)
Al Gore (“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”)
Laird Hamilton (“Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton”)
Dolores Huerta (“Dolores”)
Gigi Lazzarato (“This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous”)
The Sung Family (“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”)
Most Innovative Documentary
“78/52”
“Casting JonBenet”
“Dawson City: Frozen Time”
“Karl Marx City”
“Kedi”
“Last Men in Aleppo”
Best Song in a Documentary
“Truth to Power” from “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Powe” (OneRepublic)
“Tell Me How Long” from “Chasing Coral” (Kristen Bell)
“Prayers for This World” from “Cries From Syria” (Cher)
“Best I Can” from “Dina” (Michael Cera featuring Sharon Van Etten)
“Dancing Through the Wreckage” from “Served Like a Girl” (Pat Benatar)
“Jump” from “Step” (Cynthia Erivo)
Best Limited Documentary Series (TV/Streaming)
“The Defiant Ones”
“Five Came Back”
“The Keepers”
“The Nineties”
“Planet Earth II”
“The Vietnam War”
Best Ongoing Documentary Series (TV/Streaming)
“30 for 30”
“American Masters”
“Frontline”
“Independent Lens”
“POV”
“VICE”
