The nominations for the 3rd Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards have been announced. The ceremony will take place on Saturday November 10th in Brooklyn, NY, hosted by iconic TV personality and science educator Bill Nye. Filmmaker Stanley Nelson will receive the Critics Choice Impact Award and Oscar winner Michael Moore is this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree. The Critics Choice Documentary Awards has been a consistent indicator of the top documentary films recognized by other awards groups and the Academy.
“Free Solo”, from National Geographic, leads the nominations with six. Hulu’s “Minding the Gap” and Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” are right behind with five each. “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”, the highly successful and embraced Mister Rogers doc, has four noms, including Best Documentary Feature and Best Director (Morgan Neville). Other 2018 box office hits are in the Best Doc race, including “RBG” and “Three Identical Strangers”.
Some of my personal favorites in the genre from the past year have also received category noms, including HBO’s “The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling” (Best Limited Documentary Series), Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” (Best Music Documentary) and the darling “Science Fair” (Best First Time Director).
The WB and IMAX nature doc “Pandas” is a Best Cinematography nominee. And the late Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” has been recognized with a Best Ongoing Doc series nomination.
According to the official press release: “For the first year, the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards has introduced the Catalyst Sponsorship, a program for industry leaders to support the event. The inaugural sponsors include Focus Features, National Geographic Documentary Films, Netflix, Curiosity Stream, and others.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this year’s outstanding documentary work at the upcoming event,” said Broadcast Film Critics Association President Joey Berlin. “The year 2018 has been called ‘The Year of the Documentary’ and we are so happy to give these films and shows the recognition and high praise that they deserve.”
As a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association, I will once again be voting for the Critics Choice Doc Awards and will also attend the star-studded event on Nov. 10. Check out my social media pages (Twitter @LCJReviews and Instagram @lightscamjackson) for photos and updates throughout the night.