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

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.

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.

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