8th Critics Choice Documentary Awards ‘Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie’ Wins Five Including Best Doc Feature

The Critics Choice Association (CCA) unveiled the winners of their 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards at a gala event in New York City where Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie took home five trophies in all including the top award of the evening, Best Documentary Feature. The film’s other trophies were Best Director for Davis Guggenheim, Best Editing for Michael Harte, Best Narration for Michael J. Fox, and Best Biographical Documentary.

With the exception of 2021’s Summer of Soul, the CCA doc feature winner has had a bit of curse attached to it with every winner since the awards’ inception in 2017 finding itself snubbed for an Oscar nomination after making the Academy’s shorlist.

20 Days in Mariupol, and American Symphony, and The Deepest Breath each took home two awards. 20 Days in Mariupol won Best First Documentary for director Mstyslav Chernov, and Best Political Documentary, Jon Batiste won Best Score for his work on American Symphony and the award for Best Music Documentary, while The Deepest Breath took home the wins for Tim Cragg in Best Cinematography and Best Sports Documentary. 

The Last Repair Shop won the award for Best Short Documentary. The award for Best Science/Nature Documentary was presented to Secrets of the Elephants. Best Historical Documentary went to JFK: One Day in America and Best Archival Documentary was awarded to Being Mary Tyler Moore.

Best Limited Documentary Series went to The 1619 Project and 30 for 30 took home the award for Best Ongoing Documentary Series.

The Pennebaker Award was presented to acclaimed documentarian Ross McElwee. The award, formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, is named in honor of D A Pennebaker, a past winner. It was presented to Kopple by Chris Hegedus, Pennebaker’s long-time collaborator and widow.

The full list of winners of the 8th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

BEST DIRECTOR

Davis Guggenheim – Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Mstyslav Chernov – 20 Days in Mariupol

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Tim Cragg – The Deepest Breath

BEST EDITING

Michael Harte – Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

BEST SCORE

Jon Batiste – American Symphony

BEST NARRATION

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie – Written and Performed by Michael J. Fox

BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY

Being Mary Tyler Moore

BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY

JFK: One Day in America

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

American Symphony

BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY

20 Days in Mariupol

BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY

Secrets of the Elephants

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY

The Deepest Breath

BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY – TIE

Lennon: Murder Without a Trial

Telemarketers

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY

The Last Repair Shop

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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