‘American Factory,’ ‘Apollo 11’ top Cinema Eye Honors doc awards

American Factory, the verite portrait of a once-closed Ohio factory that is bought by a Chinese company, took top honors at tonight’s Cinema Eye Honors, winning the awards for Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction for veteran filmmakers Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert. Bognar and Reichert are the first directing team to win either award in Cinema Eye history.

Apollo 11, an epic retelling of the first humans to land on the moon and return to Earth, also won two awards, Outstanding Editing for director/editor Todd Douglas Miller and Original Score for composer Matt Morton.

In addition to American Factory and Apollo 11, a number of other films on the Academy Awards Documentary Feature Shortlist received awards. Two of the year’s most acclaimed films documenting the Syrian War, The Cave and For Sama, tied for the Honor for Outstanding Achievement in Production. Honeyland won the award for Outstanding Cinematography. The Great Hack was recognized for Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and The Biggest Little Farm won the Audience Choice Prize, with more than 12,000 votes cast by documentary film fans around the world.

See the full list of winners below.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
American Factory
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
Produced by Steve Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert and Julie Parker Benello

Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
American Factory

Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Todd Douglas Miller
Apollo 11

Outstanding Achievement in Production (tie)
Waad Al-Kateab
For Sama

Kirstine Barfod and Sigrid Dyekjær
The Cave

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma
Honeyland

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Matt Morton
Apollo 11

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Patrick Cederberg, Matthew Hornick and Ash Thorp
The Great Hack

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
The Disappearance of My Mother
Directed by Beniamino Barrese

Audience Choice Prize
The Biggest Little Farm
Directed by John Chester

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
Leaving Neverland
Directed by Dan Reed
HBO

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Film for Broadcast
Tricky Dick
Directed by Mary Robertson
CNN

Outstanding Achievement in Editing in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast
David Tillman
Apollo: Missions to the Moon
National Geographic

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Nonfiction Film or Series for Broadcast
Mark Ritchie, Julian Klincewicz, Dikayl Rimmasch and Irie Calkins
Homecoming
Netflix

Spotlight Award
Present.Perfect.
Directed by Shengze Zhu

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
Ghosts of Sugar Land
Directed by Bassam Tariq

Heterodox Award
The Souvenir
Directed by Joanna Hogg

Legacy Award
Koyaanisqatsi
Directed and Produced by Godfrey Reggio
Cinematography Ron Fricke
Editing Ron Fricke and Alton Walpole
Original Score Philip Glass

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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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