Cinema Eye Honors announce 2023 ‘Unforgettables’ and Audience Choice Long Lists

Cinema Eye Honors, the organization that recognizes outstanding artistic achievement in nonfiction and documentary films & series, continued its awards announcements today for their 16th Annual Honors by revealing this year’s Audience Choice Long List as well as the 2023 Unforgettables.

Ten years ago, Cinema Eye was the first awards body to introduce an honor recognizing documentary subjects, their relationship with their filmmakers and their essential contributions to documentary film. This year, in recognition of the 10th anniversary of the Unforgettables list — as well as the centennial of Robert Flaherty’s Nanook of the North — Cinema Eye is introducing a year-plus thematic celebration that intends to further interrogate the prominence of documentary subjects. Last week, at the Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Los Angeles, the organization announced that Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb would receive the organization’s Legacy Award as part of this Celebration of Unforgettables.

HBO’s ‘Four Hours at the Capitol’ leads Cinema Eye Honors Broadcast nominations, Terry Zwigoff (‘Crumb’) to receive Legacy Award

In addition, Cinema Eye also announced the Audience Choice Prize Long List — 16 films selected by the Cinema Eye Feature Film Nominations Committee for their “ability to engage, entertain, inspire, outrage, aggravate or otherwise connect with audiences.” Voting is open now on the Cinema Eye website here and documentary film fans from around the world will select the 10 films that will be nominated in the category. Voting will close at 11:59 pm PT on November 1, 2022.

Each year, tens of thousands of global documentary audience members have participated in final voting for this award, which has gone to favorites such as Free Solo, The September Issue, The King of Kong and Boys State. In 10 out of the 11 past years, the eventual Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature was an Audience Choice Prize nominee (Icarus was given the Hell Yeah Prize and was not eligible in the category).

This year, there is significant overlap in the films that are recognized in both the Unforgettables list as well as the Audience Choice Long List. In all, 11 films appear on both lists: All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, In Her Hands, Last Flight Home, Mija, My Old School, Navalny, Nothing Compares, Sr. and The Territory.

Both of this year’s lists are below.

Cinema Eye will announce its full list of nominations, including the 10 films selected by global documentary lovers for the Audience Choice Prize, on Thursday, November 10. Audience Choice final voting will open in December. The 16th Annual Cinema Eye Awards Ceremony will take place Thursday, January 12, 2023 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.

The Unforgettables List

All That Breathes – Mohammad Saud and Nadeem Shehzad

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed – Nan Goldin

Bad Axe – Chun Siev

Beba – Rebeca Huntt

Fire of Love – Katia and Maurice Krafft

Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down – Gabby Giffords

I Didn’t See You There – Reid Davenport

In Her Hands – Zarifa Ghafari

Last Flight Home Eli Timoner

Mija – Doris Muñoz

My Old School – Brandon Lee

Navalny – Alexei Navalny

Nothing Compares – Sinead O’Connor

“Sr.“ – Robert Downey Sr.

The Territory – Bitaté Uru Eu Wau Wau and Neidinha Bandeira

The Audience Choice Prize Long List

All That Breathes – Directed by Shaunak Sen

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed – Directed by Laura Poitras

The Balcony Movie – Directed by Pawel Lozinski

Fire of Love – Directed by Sara Dosa

Good Night Oppy – Directed by Ryan White

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song – Directed by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine

In Her Hands – Directed by Tamana Ayazi and Marcel Mettelsiefen

Last Flight Home – Directed by Ondi Timoner

Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues – Directed by Sacha Jenkins

Mija – Directed by Isabel Castro

Moonage Daydream – Directed by Brett Morgen

My Old School – Directed by Jono McLeod

Navalny – Directed by Daniel Roher

Nothing Compares – Directed by Kathryn Ferguson

“Sr.“ – Directed by Chris Smith

The Territory – Directed by Alex Pritz