Cinema Eye Honors Unveils Feature Film Nominees for 18th Annual Awards

Cinema Eye Honors, an organization that celebrates the artistic achievements of nonfiction and documentary filmmakers, has unveiled the feature film nominees for its 18th annual award ceremony, which takes place Jan. 9 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem, N.Y.

“Sugarcane,” from co-directors Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, led the pack with six nods, including nominations for outstanding nonfiction feature and direction. The film investigates abuses and forced separations of families within a Canadian Indigenous community.

“Dahomey,” from Mati Diop, and “No Other Land,” from Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor, also landed nods for outstanding nonfiction feature and direction. Both films pulled in five nominations each.

Nominees for the outstanding production category include Paula DuPre’ Pesman’s “Porcelain War.” Pesman previously won in the category at the 3rd Cinema Eye Honors in 2010 for “The Cove.” Shane Boris and Odessa Rae, who took home the outstanding production award in 2023 for “Hollywoodgate,” are once again nominated this year for “Navalny”

Over the past 10 years, five winners in the outstanding production category have gone on to win best documentary feature at the Academy Awards. Those winners include “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Navalny,” “Free Solo,” “OJ: Made in America” and “Citizenfour.”

The audience choice nominees, which were selected from a pool of more than 30,000 votes, include “Copa 71,” “Daughters,” “Frida,” “Mountain Queen,” “Porcelain War,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” “Sugarcane,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “Will and Harper.”

As for the short film honorees, screenings for Cinema Eye’s 11 semi-finalists will take place Dec. 1 at DCTV in New York and Dec. 7 at Vidiots in Los Angeles. The official short film nominations will be announced Dec. 8.