Cinema Eye Honors Film Nominations: ‘Sugarcane’ Leads With Six; Four Docs Tied With Five Apiece

Erik Pedersen
·6-min read

Sugarcane, the story of sexual abuse and disappearances at a school for Indigenous children in British Columbia, leads the nominations for the prestigious documentary-focused Cinema Eye Honors awards with six. Four films are next with five noms each: Dahomey, Eno, Frida and No Other Land. See the full list below.

Sugarcane, Dahomey and No Other Land will vie for the marquee Nonfiction Feature prize along with Black Box Diaries, Daughters, Look Into My Eyes and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat. This is the first year that the named nominees in the Nonfiction Feature category will include the entire creative team: directors, producers, editors, cinematographers, composers, sound designers, visual designers and significant on-screen participants.

More from Deadline

The producers of Sugarcane, No Other Land, Hollywoodgate, Mistress Dispeller, Porcelain War and Union are up for the Production prize. The Cinema Eye winner in that category has gone on to take the Documentary Feature Academy Award five of the past 10 years, including the past two with 20 Days in Mariupol and Navalny.

Cinema Eye Honors trophies
Cinema Eye Honors trophies

The past six winners of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar — 20 Days in Mariupol, Navalny, Summer of Soul, My Octopus Teacher, American Factory and Free Solo — were nominees for the Audience Choice Prize, whose second-round voting will take place in December.

Cinema Eye previously announced its first honorees of the season with the Unforgettables, the on-camera collaborators from eight feature documentaries. The winners were Shiori Ito (Black Box Diaries), Brian Eno (Eno), Lhakpa Sherpa (Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa), Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), Patrice Jetter (Patrice: The Movie), Jenna Marvin (Queendom), Chris Smalls (Union) and Harper Steele (Will and Harper).

The ceremony for the 18th annual Cinema Eye Honors, which recognize outstanding artistic achievement in nonfiction and documentary films and series, will be held January 9 at New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem. Cinema Eye Week begins January 6 in New York City.

Here are the film nominees for the 18th Cinema Eye Honors and the shortlist for short films, whose will be revealed next month; for the TV noms, click here:

NONFICTION FEATURE

Black Box Diaries
Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin, Ema Ryan Yamazaki, Yuta Okamura, Yuichiro Otsuka, Mark Degli Antoni and Andrew Tracy

Dahomey
Mati Diop, Eve Robin, Judith Lou Levy, Gabriel Gonzalez, Joséphine Drouin Viallard and Nicholas Becker

Daughters
Natalie Rae, Angela Patton, Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, James Cunningham, Mindy Goldberg, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, Laura Choi Raycroft, Adrian Aurelius, Philip Nicolai Flindt, Michael Cambio Fernandez and Kelsey Lu

Look Into My Eyes
Lana Wilson, Kyle Martin, Hannah Buck and Stephen Maing

No Other Land
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, Julius Pollux Rothlaender and Bård Harazi Farbu

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Johan Grimonpre, Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety, Jonathan Wannyn, Rik Chaubet, Ranko Pauković and Alek Bunic Goosse

Sugarcane
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, Kellen Quinn, Christopher LaMarca, Nathan Punwar, Maya Daisy Hawke, Mali Obomsawin, Martin Czembor, Andrea Bella, Michael Feuser and Ed Archie Noisecat

DIRECTION

Mati Diop
Dahomey

Gary Hustwit
Eno

Lana Wilson
Look Into My Eyes

Elizabeth Lo
Mistress Dispeller

Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
No Other Land

Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Sugarcane

Stephen Maing and Brett Story
Union

PRODUCTION

Shane Boris, Odessa Rae and Talal Derki
Hollywoodgate

Emma D. Miller, Elizabeth Lo and Maggie Li
Mistress Dispeller

Fabien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning
No Other Land

Paula DuPre’ Pesmen, Aniela Sidorska, Camilla Mazzaferro and Olivia Ahnemann
Porcelain War

Emily Kassie and Kellen Quinn
Sugarcane

Mars Verrone and Samantha Curley
Union

EDITING

Maya Tippet and Marley McDonald
Eno

Alexandra Strauss
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

Carla Gutiérrez
Frida

Charlotte Tourres
Intercepted

Hannah Buck
Look Into My Eyes

Rik Chaubet
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Joséphine Drouin Viallard
Dahomey

Elizabeth Lo
Mistress Dispeller

Satya Rai Nagpual
Nocturnes

Andrey Stefanov
Porcelain War

Christopher LaMarca
Sugarcane

Olivier Sarbil
Viktor

ORIGINAL SCORE

Wally Badarou and Dean Blunt
Dahomey

Alexeï Aïgui
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

Victor Hernández Stumpfhauser
Frida

Nainita Dasai
Nocturnes

Uno Helmersson
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

Mali Obomsawin
Sugarcane

SOUND DESIGN

Nicolas Becker
Dahomey

Nas Parkash and Patrick Fripp
Eno

Alex Lane
Intercepted

Tom Paul, Shreyank Nanjappa and Sukanto Mazumder
Nocturnes

Ranko Pauković and Alek Bunic Goosse
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Peter Albrechtsen, Nicolas Becker and Heikki Kossi
Viktor

VISUAL DESIGN

Brendan Dawes
Eno

Sofía Inés Cázares and Renata Galindo
Frida

Howard Baker
Piece by Piece

Brendan Bellomo and BluBlu Studios
Porcelain War

Agniia Galdanova
Queendom

Rasmus Tukia and Ada Wikdahl
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin

DEBUT FEATURE

Black Box Diaries
Directed by Shiori Ito

Daughters
Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton

Frida
Directed by Carla Gutiérrez

Grand Theft Hamlet
Directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane

Hollywoodgate
Directed by Ibrahim Nash’at

No Other Land
Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor

AUDIENCE CHOICE PRIZE

Copa 71
Directed by James Erskine and Rachel Ramsay

Daughters
Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton

Frida
Directed by Carla Gutiérrez

Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
Directed by Lucy Walker

Porcelain War
Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Directed by Benjamin Ree

Skywalkers: A Love Story
Directed by Jeff Zimbalist

Sugarcane
Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie

Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui

Will and Harper
Directed by Josh Greenbaum

SPOTLIGHT

Black Snow
Directed by Alina Simone

Homegrown
Directed by Michel Premo

A New Kind of Wilderness
Directed by Silje Evensmo Jacobsen

A Photographic Memory
Directed by Rachel Elizabeth Seed

Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
Directed by Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet

Heterodox

Caught by the Tides
Directed by Jia Zhang-ke

Kneecap
Directed by Rich Peppiatt

My First Film
Directed by Zia Anger

Pavements
Directed by Alex Ross Perry

Sing Sing
Directed by Greg Kwedar

Songs from the Hole
Directed by Contessa Gayles

Broadcast Film

Bread & Roses
Directed by Sahra Mani | Apple TV+

Girls State
Directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss | Apple TV+

Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets
Directed by Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson | HBO

The Lady Bird Diaries
Directed by Dawn Porter | Hulu

Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.
Directed by Jeremy O. Harris | HBO

Spermworld
Directed by Lance Oppenheim | FX

SHORTS LIST SEMIFINALISTS

Contractions
Directed by Lynne Sachs | NY Times Op-Docs

Eternal Father
Directed by Ömer Sami | New Yorker

I Am Ready, Warden
Directed by Smriti Mundhra | MTV Documentary Films

Incident
Directed by Bill Morrison | New Yorker

Instruments of a Beating Heart
Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki | NY Times Op-Docs

Love in the Time of Migration
Directed by Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas | LA Times

Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World
Directed by Julio Palacio | Netflix

The Medallion
Directed by Ruth Hunduma | New Yorker

A Move
Directed by Elahe Esmaili | NY Times Op-Docs

The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Directed by Molly O’Brien | Netflix

A Swim Lesson
Directed by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack | POV

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Latest stories