The Critics Choice Association (CCA) has unveiled the nominees for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCDA). The winners will be revealed at a gala event on Sunday, November 13, 2022 at The Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, marking a change of venue and borough. The ceremony will be hosted by longtime event supporter, actor, and standup comedian Wyatt Cenac.
Fire of Love leads with seven nominations, including nods for Best Documentary Feature, Sara Dosa for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Science/Nature Documentary.
Good Night Oppy is recognized with six nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, Ryan White for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, and Best Science/Nature Documentary.
Cenac is an Emmy-winning, WGA-winning, and Grammy-nominated performer, writer, and producer. From 2008 to 2012, he was a writer and popular correspondent on the hit late-night Comedy Central series The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he earned three Emmy Awards and one Writers Guild Award.
For the very first time, the Awards will be live-streamed through Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Viewing links will be available on the Critics Choice Association website at 7:00 PM ET on Sunday, November 13.
The Critics Choice Association is honoring the year’s finest achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV, and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified CCA members.
This year, two categories–Best Ongoing Documentary Series and Best Limited Documentary Series–that have traditionally been included in the Critics Choice Real TV Awards will now be presented at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
In addition to the 17 award categories listed below, a most prestigious honor–The Pennebaker Award (formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award)–will be presented to esteemed documentarian Barbara Kopple. The award is named for Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award winner D A Pennebaker, who passed away in 2019. The award will be presented to Kopple by Pennebaker’s producing partner and wife, Chris Hegedus.
Kopple, a director of documentaries, narrative TV, and film, is a two-time Academy Award winner and 10-time Emmy Award nominee. Her most recent project is the forthcoming documentary Gumbo Coalition, which premieres at DOC NYC as the Centerpiece Presentation in November 2022.
Kopple produced and directed Harlan County USA and American Dream, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her other films include Miss Sharon Jones!, Desert One, The House of Steinbrenner, Woodstock: Now and Then, Shut Up and Sing, Havoc, A Conversation with Gregory Peck, My Generation, Wild Man Blues, Running From Crazy, Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, and This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous.
For the second year in a row, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards welcomes back National Geographic Documentary Films as the Presenting Sponsor.
The Catalyst Sponsor for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards is Peacock, with more sponsor announcements forthcoming.
“This year’s nominees prove that documentaries of all lengths and formats are advancing nonfiction media like never before,” said Christopher Campbell, co-president of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “And we are excited to celebrate the tremendous talents who contributed to all of these brilliant films and series.”
Carla Renata, co-president of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch, added, “We are also thrilled to witness an exemplary number of women filmmakers and female-focused subjects being represented, further solidifying the Critics Choice Documentary Awards’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the documentary landscape.”
Last year at the Sixth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) received the award for every category in which it was nominated, including the evening’s most prestigious award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as Best Director (TIE), Best First Documentary Feature, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Music Documentary. Subsequently, the film took home the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.
The nominees for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards are:
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
- Aftershock (Hulu)
- The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
- Descendant (Netflix)
- Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment)
- Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
- The Janes (HBO)
- Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
- Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)
- Sidney (Apple TV+)
BEST DIRECTOR
- Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)
- Margaret Brown – Descendant (Netflix)
- Sara Dosa – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Reginald Hudlin – Sidney (Apple TV+)
- Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
- Laura Poitras – All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (HBO/Neon)
- Daniel Roher – Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)
- Ryan White – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
- Andrea Arnold – Cow (IFC Films)
- Lisa Hurwitz – The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
- Jono McLeod – My Old School (Magnolia Pictures)
- Amy Poehler – Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
- Alex Pritz – The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)
- David Siev – Bad Axe (IFC Films)
- Bianca Stigter – Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Neon)
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
- Benjamin Bernhard, Riju Das – All That Breathes (HBO)
- Magda Kowalczyk – Cow (IFC Films)
- Lucas Tucknott – McEnroe (Showtime)
- Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Sam Holling – Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
- The Cinematography Team – Our Great National Parks (Netflix)
- Alex Pritz, Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau – The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)
BEST EDITING
- Jabez Olssen – The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
- Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Joe Beshenkovsky – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)
- Helen Kearns, Rejh Cabrera – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
- Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
- Langdon Page, Maya Daisy Hawke – Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)
- Katharina Wartena – Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Neon)
BEST SCORE
- Hummie Mann – The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
- Nicolas Godin – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Blake Neely – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
- Max Avery Lichtenstein – The Janes (HBO)
- David Schwartz – Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
- Marius de Vries, Matt Robertson – Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)
BEST NARRATION
–Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story (Fin and Fur Films)
Written by Ben Masters
Performed by Matthew McConaughey
–Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Written by Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Sara Dosa
Performed by Miranda July
–Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White
Performed by Angela Bassett
–Our Great National Parks (Netflix)
Performed by Barack Obama
–Riotsville, U.S.A. (Magnolia Pictures)
Written by Tobi Haslett
Performed by Charlene Modeste
–Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Neon)
Written by Bianca Stigter
Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
- The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
- Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
- Nothing Compares (Showtime)
- Riotsville, U.S.A. (Magnolia Pictures)
- Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Neon)
BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
- The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
- Descendant (Netflix)
- The Janes (HBO)
- Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Peacock)
- Still Working 9 to 5 (Mighty Fine Entertainment)
- Three Minutes: A Lengthening (Neon)
- The U.S. and the Holocaust (PBS)
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY
- George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)
- The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max)
- Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
- The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Peacock)
- Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams (Sony Pictures Classics)
- Sidney (Apple TV+)
- Sr. (Netflix)
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
- The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
- Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (Sony Pictures Classics)
- If These Walls Could Sing (Disney Original Documentary)
- Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (Apple TV+)
- Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
- Nothing Compares (Showtime)
- The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile (Sony Pictures Classics)
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
- Aftershock (Hulu)
- All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (HBO/Neon)
- Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment)
- The Janes (HBO)
- Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)
- Retrograde (National Geographic Documentary Films)
- Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Netflix)
BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY
- All That Breathes (HBO)
- Cow (IFC Films)
- Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
- Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
- Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
- Return to Space (Netflix)
- The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
- Citizen Ashe (Magnolia/HBO)
- Hockeyland (Greenwich Entertainment)
- Kaepernick & America (Dark Star Pictures)
- McEnroe (Showtime)
- The Redeem Team (Netflix)
- Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
- 38 at the Garden (HBO)
- Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison (MTV Documentary Films)
- The Flagmakers (National Geographic Documentary Films)
- Four Seasons Total Documentary (MSNBC)
- My Disability Roadmap (The New York Times Op Docs)
- Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
- Stranger at the Gate (The New Yorker)
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
- The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
- Hostages (HBO)
- The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max)
- The Lincoln Project (Showtime)
- Our Great National Parks (Netflix)
- The U.S. and the Holocaust (PBS)
- We Need to Talk About Cosby (Showtime)
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
- 30 for 30 (ESPN)
- American Masters (PBS)
- Cheer (Netflix)
- The Circus (Showtime)
- Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix)
- Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)
