News

Balisa Balaban has been promoted to VP Original Documentaries. The streaming service has been ramping up its Hulu Original Documentary films slate with recent titles including Ask Dr. Ruth, The Amazing Johnathon and the Emmy-winning Crime + Punishment.

Balaban joined Hulu in 2017 as Director of Original Content and helped to launch originals Minding The Gap and Fyre Fraud.

The news comes as Hulu recently announced two new high-profile original documentaries to stream in 2020: Hillary, its four-part docuseries about Hillary Clinton that debuts at the Sundance Film Festival, and Greta, a feature charting the rise of climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Prior to joining Hulu, Belisa was Head of Original Programming at Pivot, where she oversaw all original series and documentaries including Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s HitRecord. That stint followed posts at Actual Reality Pictures (Showtime’s Freshman Diaries), Comedy Central and started at Fox.

She...

Laura Poitras became a rock star of the documentary world with 2014’s Oscar-winning “Citizenfour,” an explosive and definitive account of the Edward Snowden story that brought Poitras’ investigative filmmaking to a global audience. Since then, she has completed just one feature, the Julian Assange portrait “Risk,” but supported countless others as the co-creator and executive producer behind Field of Vision, the documentary film unit designed to support investigative filmmaking on a wavelength similar to her own.

Now, she’s ready to return to her filmmaking full time. Poitras is stepping down from her leadership position at Field of Vision to focus on her next feature, though will remain onboard at parent company First Look Media. Charlotte Cook, who co-founded the project with Poitras and filmmaker A.J. Schnack in 2015, will continue to lead the organization.

“In the last year, I felt like that Field of Vision established itself in the documentary field,...

Yet another competitive category, it’s possible any of the Oscars frontrunners listed below are snubbed and it’s possible all of them make the cut. It’s hard to see the documentary branch not rewarding at least a few of the summer’s big doc hits with a nod. Our guess is that means “Three Identical Strangers” misses out, but “Rbg” could as well. [Posted Jan. 16, 2019]

Likely Frontrunners

“Free Solo”

“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”

“Minding the Gap”

“Rbg”

“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Players

“Charm City”

“Communion”

“Crime + Punishment”

“Dark Money”

“The Distant Barking of Dogs”

“Of Fathers and Sons”

“On Her Shoulders”

“Shirkers”

“The Silence of Others”

“Three Identical Strangers”

More predictions:

Best Picture

Best Director

Actress

Actor

Supporting Actress

Supporting Actor

Original Screenplay

Adapted Screenplay

Foreign Language Film

Continue reading 2019 Best Documentary Feature Oscars Predictions at The Playlist.

When the Oscar Documentary Feature shortlist came out recently, Hulu had double the reason to celebrate. Two of its films made the exclusive roster, a considerable achievement in a competitive environment where Netflix, HBO, PBS, National Geographic and other parties are all vying for the Academy’s favor.

Hulu scored with Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap and Stephen Maing’s Crime + Punishment, two of the most honored documentaries of 2018.

“We don’t do it for the awards,” Maing says, “but awards are an amazing engine to get people to pay attention.”

The story he wanted viewers to pay attention to involves an alleged quota system within the New York Police Department that forces officers to keep up arrest and summons numbers or face a career-blunting backlash. The practical effect, Maing illustrates, is that cops go after the easiest targets—young people of color—issuing court summons and making...

Just in time for some essential Oscar nomination prep, documentary film lovers can catch up on all 15 shortlisted contenders for Best Documentary, thanks to the Academy’s recently launched new program “Oscars Spotlight: Documentary Feature Shortlist.” The program features all of the shortlisted titles, including “Charm City,” “Communion,” “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “The Distant Barking of Dogs,” “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “On Her Shoulders,” “Rbg,” “Shirkers,” “The Silence of Others,” “Three Identical Strangers,” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The films are screening theatrically in 13 cities nationwide now through January 21, 2019. A number of screenings will also include Q&As with filmmakers, and you can find out more about those (and other important ticket-buying info) right here on the Atom Tickets website.

“The Academy is thrilled to be collaborating with exhibitors and distributors to shine a light on...

Four of the most successful documentaries of recent years remain in contention for a prize beyond box office glory—the kind that comes with an Oscar trophy.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Rbg, Three Identical Strangers and Free Solo all made the Oscar documentary shortlist as the Academy culled the list of 166 eligible nonfiction films down to an exclusive 15.

Morgan Neville’s Neighbor, which explores the work of children’s television pioneer Fred Rogers, has become the top-grossing biographical documentary of all time with more than $22 million in earnings. Rbg, the film directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen that documents Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, started the box office gold rush earlier in the year, amassing just over $14 million.

Three Identical Strangers, Tim Wardle’s story of identical triplets who were separated as infants and reunited by accident as adults, has tallied $12.3 million. Free Solo, about mountain...

Yesterday afternoon, the Academy did something brand new. The announced nine shortlists for the upcoming 91st Academy Awards. Yes, the Oscars are hinting at some of their below the line finalists. In the categories of Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Original Song, Best Animated Short Film, Best Live Action Short Film, and Best Visual Effects, we now have a narrowed field. Essentially, Academy voters can now focus in on just a handful of titles in these categories. The wisdom of that remains to be seen, but time will tell if we get a different set of nominees than expected because of this. For now, get used to it. This is the new normal, Oscar voting wise… Below you’ll be able to see the nine lists that voters will be selecting from. In Best Documentary Feature,...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it wasn’t not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 was announced December 17, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. The early advantage went to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Focus Features), “Rbg” (CNN/Magnolia), and “Three Identical Strangers” (CNN/Neon), as well as August/September openers including critically hailed “Dark Money” (PBS), “Crime + Punishment” and “Minding the Gap...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it wasn’t not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 was announced December 17, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. The early advantage went to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Focus Features), “Rbg” (CNN/Magnolia), and “Three Identical Strangers” (CNN/Neon), as well as September openers including critically hailed “Dark Money” (PBS), “Crime + Punishment (“Hulu”), and another...

It won’t exactly be on a par with Oscars nominations morning, but Monday will be one of the biggest December days in the history of the Academy Awards.

That’s because for the first time, the Academy isn’t systematically doling out the short lists of films that remain in contention. Instead, they’re dropping all the lists at once in a single press release that will trim the fields in Best Documentary Feature, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Song and six other categories.

One drop, nine categories, a total of 101 films that’ll get good news and far more that’ll be disappointed.

The strategy of dumping all the Oscars short lists at once has not been greeted with universal approval. For one thing, contenders in the different categories were used to having their individual moments in the spotlight. Music Branch voters, who are facing a pair...

“Minding the Gap” had a great day on December 8. Hours after Bing Liu‘s heartfelt look at live in the Rust Belt was named Best Documentary Feature of the year by the Chicago film critics, it won the top award from The International Documentary Association (Ida).

At the Ida, it prevailed in the largest-ever field of contenders at this key precursor prize. Among the competition were all of the other frontrunners for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars: National Geographic’s “Free Solo,” Hulu’s “Crime + Punishment,” the Mr. Rogers retrospective “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and PBS’ “Dark Money.”

This was the first year that Ida had nominated 10 films for their top award, a sharp increase from the 5-6 contenders cited in the past. While only two films were nominated by both the Ida and Oscar last year, in 2017 the groups lined up on four nominees and...

Bing Liu’s skateboarding movie “Minding The Gap” has won the International Documentary Association’s award for top feature of 2018.

Floyd Russ’s “Zion” was awarded best short. Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” won for best limited series and HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” took the ABC News VideoSource Award. PBS’ “Pov” won for best curated series, Showtime’s “The Trade” for best episodic series, Mel Films for best short form series, and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” were each awarded best music documentary while “Bisbee ’17” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening” were each awarded best music score. The New York Times’ “Caliphate” took the inaugural award in the audio documentary category.

Ricki Lake hosted the ceremonies Saturday night for the 34th...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

There’s no denying the race for documentary Oscar has changed dramatically in the past decade and even more so in the past five years. The reason for the shift? Money. What is debatable is if the shift is for the better.

There are many reasons for the recent exponential rise in docu campaign budgets. One is the 2012 Academy rule change that allowed for all members of the documentary branch to weigh in on the shortlist. Until 2011, small volunteer branch committees were in charge of viewing the year’s eligible entries, in their entirety, in order to form a shortlist. With an average of 100-plus docus eligible for Oscar consideration each year (this year there are 166 eligible films), ensuring a doc doesn’t get overlooked is a challenge for the majority of the qualified filmmakers. That challenge can be overcome with money, which leads to the second reason for the...

Film chronicles life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Holocaust survivor who become famous sex therapist.

Hulu, whose Minding The Gap was on Thursday named best documentary of the year by New York Film Critics Circle, has acquired 2019 Sundance selection Ask Dr. Ruth with Magnolia Pictures on board as theatrical partner.

Ryan White, chronicles the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America’s most famous sex therapist. Despite her thick German accent, the diminutive therapist’s uninhibited approach to sex therapy and education transformed the conversation around sexuality.

Ask Dr. Ruth follows Dr. Ruth as she approaches her...

“Ask Dr. Ruth,” a documentary about the revolutionary sex therapist, has sold theatrical and streaming rights to Hulu ahead of its Sundance Film Festival premiere.

Directed by Ryan White (Netflix’s “The Keepers”), the doc follows 90-year-old Dr. Ruth Westheimer — a groundbreaking and candid authority on American sexuality who became a cultural icon.

Hulu will pledge the widest theatrical release its ever attempted for an original documentary, a fledgling library the streamer is building which includes “Minding the Gap,” “Crime + Punishment,” and “Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie.”

“I’ve never really stopped to examine my life, so when I first saw Ask Dr. Ruth even I was amazed by what had transpired during my ninety years,” Dr. Ruth said in a statement. “I am delighted that audiences will be able to share that experience both on Hulu and in movie theaters around the U.S.”

The logline for the movie reads: “Ask Dr.

Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” has been named the best documentary of 2018 at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, which were handed out on Saturday evening at Bric in Brooklyn, New York.

The film about “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” star Fred Rogers won in a category whose other nominees were “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hal,” “Hitler’s Hollywood,” “Minding the Gap,” “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Wild Wild Country.”

Michael Moore received a lifetime achievement award from Robert De Niro, who called him “an American hero.” Moore new film, “Fahrenheit 11/9,” was not nominated in the Best Documentary category, instead receiving a mention only in Best Political Documentary, where it lost to “Rbg.”

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Leads All Films in Nominations for Cinema Eye Honors

“Quincy” won the award for best music documentary, while “Free Solo” won for best sports documentary and most innovative documentary.

Shortlist of 15 films to be announced on December 17.

Us box office hits Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Rbg, Three Identical Strangers and Free Solo have made it on to the 166-strong longlist of documentary feature Oscar hopefuls.

The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 17. Thursday’s (8) longlist includes Fahrenheit 11/9, Crime + Punishment, Generation Wealth, Maria By Calas, The Price Of Everything, Pope Francis – A Man of His Word, Ruben Blades Is Not My Name, Shirkers, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead, Trust Machine, and Matangi / Maya / M.I.A. are also in contention.

A...

“Minding the Gap,” a documentary that mixes stories of skateboarding teens with a dark family story, led all films in nominations for the Cinema Eye Honors, one of the top awards devoted to all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.

Bing Liu’s highly personal film tied a Cinema Eye record by receiving seven nominations overall, one in a previously announced category and six in the 10 categories that Cinema Eye announced on Thursday. Those included nominations for directing, editing, cinematography and music, as well as one in the marquee category, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking.

Other nominees in that category were Robert Greene’s “Bisbee ’17,” RaMell Ross’ “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Son,” Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers” and the 12th highest-grossing documentary of all time, Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Film Review: Powerful...

A total of 166 films have been submitted for consideration in the documentary feature category for the 91st Academy Awards.

Notable titles up for the gold include “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers,” “Free Solo” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” — which have performed strongly at the box office. Fred Rogers documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” has grossed $22.6 million domestically.

Nine of the 10 titles named as finalists for the International Documentary Association’s top feature are on the list, including “Crime + Punishment,” “Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Minding the Gap,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “The Silence of Others,” “United Skates” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences noted that several of the 166 films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying runs. A shortlist of 15 movies will be announced on Dec. 17.

Nominations...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...

Last year, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 166 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others for the first time on a single date this year: December 17.

All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume until last month, when they received a batch of 77, with more to come. It’s a burden to watch them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list. Give the advantage to early box office hits that were made available in the summer such as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Rbg,” and “Three Identical Strangers,” as well as September’s list including critically hailed “Dark Money,...

A whopping 166 documentary features have been submitted to the academy for consideration at the 2019 Oscars. That is down by four from last year’s record 170 submissions. Among these contenders are all of the highest grossing documentaries of the year including “Free Solo,” “Rbg” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

To winnow the entries down to the 15 semi-finalists that will be announced on December 17, the academy is sending monthly packages of the newly eligible documentary feature screeners to all 400 or so members of the documentary branch. While all members are encouraged to watch as many of these as they can, one-fifth of the voters are assigned each title. In late November, each branch member will submit a preferential ballot listing their top 15 choices.

See 2019 Oscars: Foreign-language film entries from A (Afghanistan) to Y (Yemen)

All of these ballots will be collated to determine the 15 semi-finalists. Branch members will then be...

In a year that has seen multiple documentaries find mainstream success, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released the list of 166 docs that have been submitted for Oscar consideration this year.

Among the films on the list are Michael Moore’s anti-Trump polemic “Fahrenheit 11/9,” as well as CNN Films’ Ruth Bader Ginsburg biography “Rbg” and Focus’ Mister Rogers retrospective “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

Other films considered frontrunners include “Three Identical Strangers,” the wild story of triplets who were separated at birth by a bizarre experiment, “Free Solo,” which documents the first ever attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan without any climbing gear, and “Dark Money,” an investigative report into the influence of billionaires on American democracy through the lens of a Montana congressional race.

Also Read: Sorry, Oscar Documentary Voters: Your Workload Just Doubled

The contender field is slightly less than last year’s record field of 170 but does include,...

The Savannah College of Art and Design (Scad) has announced the award winners for its 21st celebration of the Scad Savannah Film Festival.

The honors were revealed during an awards brunch held at local restaurant The Olde Pink House. A key stop on the Oscar festival circuit, this year’s Scad Savannah Film Festival screened a total of 164 films, including 33 narrative films, 16 documentary films and 115 shorts, more than any year before.

Twenty-seven awards were announced from the 105 films that competed in the categories of narrative features, documentary features, professional shorts, animated shorts, and student shorts selections.

Professional Competition

Best Narrative Feature – Tomorrow Best Documentary Feature – The Human Element Best Narrative Short – Geoff Best Directing – Will Kenning & Michael Rouse – Geoff Best Editing – Hold The Night Jury Award for Acting – Skyler Samuels – Spare Room Jury Award for Screenwriting – One Cambodian Family Please For My Pleasure Jury Award, Unheard Voices – Facing The Dragon...

Members of the Academy’s documentary branch received a generous gift from AMPAS on Friday: 77 new films that had qualified in this year’s Best Documentary Feature category.

And it turned what had been a modest year for docs — with a total of 83 films included in June, July, August and September groups — into one in which the number of eligible films that voters would need to watch nearly doubled.

The Academy also promised voters in the branch to expect a final batch of films in early November — which, if it hits double digits, will set a new record in the category.

Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations

The previous high, set last year, was 170 films. With 160 already on the Oscar eligibility list and one additional (though likely small) batch yet to come, this year’s crop will give voters a lot of work to do before...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominees for its annual awards on Wednesday morning. The ten films nominated in the Best Feature category were pulled from the group’s short list announced earlier this month. Among those nominees are five early frontrunners in the Oscar race for Documentary Feature: National Geographic’s “Free Solo,” Hulu’s two films “Minding the Gap” and “Crime + Punishment,” the Mister Rogers piece “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” and PBS’ “Dark Money,” all of which were also cited by the Broadcast Film Critics Association for their own documentary awards.

This is the first year the Ida has nominated 10 films for their top award, an increase from the 5-6 nominated previously. While only two films were nominated by both the Ida and Oscar last year, in 2016 the groups lined up on four nominees and in 2015 there were three double dippers. In each year, the...

“Dark Money,” “Free Solo,” “Minding the Gap,” “The Silence of Others” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” have been nominated for the top film award at the International Documentary Association’s 2018 Ida Documentary Awards, the Ida announced on Wednesday.

Those five films will be joined in the feature category by another five: “Crime + Punishment,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Of Fathers and Sons,” “Sky and Ground” and “United Skates.”

The 10 Ida Documentary Awards feature nominees is the largest number ever nominated in the category, which has typically consisted of five films. Half of the films were directed by women.

Also Read: 'Free Solo' Leads Critics' Choice Documentary Awards Nominations

Missing from the list are a few of the most successful docs of the year, including “Rbg,” “Three Identical Strangers” and “Fahrenheit 11/9.”

In the television categories, nominees include “American Masters,” “Pov” and “Independent Lens” in Curated Series,...

With the sprawling number of high-caliber documentaries flooding every platform and clamoring for attention, the International Documentary Association Awards are a crucial curator pointing other awards groups in the direction of what they need to see. Academy documentary branch members, who are inundated with hundreds of movies to watch, aren’t necessarily keeping track of which movies won awards at festivals along the way.

So far, the influential Doc NYC shortlist and the Critics Choice Documentary Award nominees also included many of the Ida’s feature picks: On all three lists are Stephen Maing’s NYPD expose “Crime + Punishment,” fall box office hit E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s vertiginous “Free Solo,” rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” and Morgan Neville’s summer box office phenomenon “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” an emotionally wrenching portrait of the late TV star Fred Rogers.

Making two out...

With the sprawling number of high-caliber documentaries flooding every platform and clamoring for attention, the International Documentary Association Awards are a crucial curator pointing other awards groups in the direction of what they need to see. Academy documentary branch members, who are inundated with hundreds of movies to watch, aren’t necessarily keeping track of which movies won awards at festivals along the way.

So far, the influential Doc NYC shortlist and the Critics Choice Documentary Award nominees also included many of the Ida’s feature picks: On all three lists are Stephen Maing’s NYPD expose “Crime + Punishment,” fall box office hit E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s vertiginous “Free Solo,” rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap,” and Morgan Neville’s summer box office phenomenon “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” an emotionally wrenching portrait of the late TV star Fred Rogers.

Making two out...

The International Documentary Assn. announced nominees for the 34th annual Ida Awards Wednesday, spotlighting the best in documentary filmmaking.

Among the feature nominees were mainstays on the circuit so far this year like Hulu’s “Crime + Punishment” and “Minding the Gap,” as well as National Geographic’s “Free Solo” and Focus Features’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”

In recognition of another banner year for non-fiction cinema, which has been reflected in box office spikes around key titles this year, the Ida expanded the number of nominees in the best feature and short films categories to 10 films.

In “creative recognition” fields, winners and nominees were announced. “Distant Constellation” won the cinematography prize, while “Minding the Gap” took editing. “The Other Side of Everything” won the writing award, and the music category saw a tie, between “Bisbee ’17” and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening.”

Additionally, the Ida’s Courage Under...

The International Documentary Association is out with the nominees for its 2018 Ida Documentary Awards. Winners of the 34th edition will be announced December 8 duyring a ceremony hosted by Ricki Lake at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles. See the full list of nominees below.

Up for Best Feature — which has been expanded to 10 nominees this year — are Stephen Maing’s Crime + Punishment, Kimberly Reed’s Dark Money, E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Free Solo, RaMell Ross’ Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Bing Liu’s Minding the Gap, Talal Derki’s Of Fathers and Sons, Talya Tibbon and Joshua Bennett’s Sky and Ground, Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s The Silence of Others, Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown’s United Skates and Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor.

“This year’s nominees and winners of the Ida Awards reflects that 2018 has been a remarkable...

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi‘s “Free Solo” leads the third annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards with six bids, including Best Documentary and Best Director. Also nabbing nominations in those two top categories is Bing Liu‘s “Minding the Gap,” which is also in the running for Best First Time Director, as well as “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?,” “Dark Money,” “Hitler’s Hollywood,” and “Three Identical Strangers.” In all 10 films were nominated for the top prize at these awards bestowed by the Broadcast Film Critics Assn. (Bfca). The other four are “Crime + Punishment,” “Hal,” “Rbg,” and “Wild Wild Country.”

Last year the Bfca nominated 16 films for this award, three of which –“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” “Faces Places,” and “Strong Island” — went on to contend at the Oscars. And in 2016 the Bfca shared its Best Documentary winner (“O.J.: Made in America”) with the Academy...

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Free Solo,” a National Geographic documentary about Alex Honnold’s attempt to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan rock formation without any ropes or protective equipment, leads all films in nominations for the third annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Associations announced on Monday.

“Free Solo” received five nominations, including Best Documentary and Best Director, and an additional honor for subject Honnold, who was one of eight subjects singled out in the Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary category.

Bing Liu’s “Minding the Gap” and Chapman Way and Maclain Way’s “Wild Wild Country” each received five nominations, while Kimberly Reed’s “Dark Money,” Rüdiger Suchsland’s “Hitler’s Hollywood” and Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” received four each.

Also Read: 'Fahrenheit 11/9' Director Michael Moore to Receive Critics' Choice...

The perilous attempt by climber Alex Honnold to become the first person ever to scale and solo climb Yosemite’s 3000 foot high El Capitan Mountain with no ropes or safety gear is chronicled in the documentary Free Solo, a film that has climbed the list of nominees with six nods (and one honor) for the 2018 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The awards take place on Saturday November 10 in Brooklyn.

Bing Liu’s skateboarding docu, Minding The Gap, and the Emmy winning Netflix limited docu series Wild Wild Country follow with five nominations each. All three films are nominated in the Best Documentary category which includes theatrical features and streaming/television entries.

In what has been an outstanding year for docus, both critically and at the box office, three films that have earned big dollars in theaters are also well represented on the list – Morgan Neville’s poignant Mr. Rogers docu, Won...

Two of the season’s most reliable groups when it comes to forecasting the eventual Academy Awards nominees for Documentary Feature have now announced the shortlists for their own programs. The International Documentary Association (Ida) and Doc NYC, one of the largest documentary film festivals in the country, both boast great track records with either nominating, awarding and/or screening major contenders for the Oscars in recent years.

Doc NYC, who announced a short list of 15 titles for their 2018 festival which runs from November 8th to 15th, has overlapped their own short list with the academy’s short list with 9 to 10 titles in each of the last five years. In addition, they’ve included 4 to 5 titles that went on to be Oscar-nominated and in the last seven years they’ve screened the documentary that won the Academy Award.

Ida is comparably prescient, having matched their award nominees with the eventual...

Do you want to know what film is going to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature next February?

It’ll either be Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 11/9,” Betsy West and Julie Cohen’s “Rgb,” Tim Wardle’s “Three Identical Strangers,” Susan Lacy’s “Jane Fonda: A Life in Five Acts,” Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” or one of these 10 other docs:

“Crime + Punishment,” Stephen Maing; “Free Solo,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin; “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross; “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu; “On Her Shoulders,” Alexandra Bombach; “Pope Francis: A Man of His Word,” Wim Wenders; “Quincy,” Rashida Jones and Alan Hicks; “Reversing Roe,” Annie Sundberg & Ricki Stern; “The Sentence,” Rudy Valdez; “Shirkers,” Sandi Tan.

Those, at least, are the 15 films on the annual Short List compiled by the documentary festival Doc NYC. Since its inception in 2012, the list has...

In his shocking new film Crime + Punishment, Stephen Maing follows a group of rabble-rousing cops of color who took on the NYPD’s illegal quota system

In any era of systemic corruption and malpractice, whistleblowers naturally emerge. But rarely do we get to see the human face behind their mettle, let alone the toll it takes on the psyche to be a cog in the machine of a system they know to be unjust. That’s what film-maker Stephen Maing achieves with Crime + Punishment, his new documentary about the 12 cops, all people of color, who fought back against the New York police department’s covert and illegal quota system, which led to a class action against the department over its practice of pressuring minority officers to issue predetermined numbers of arrests and summonses per month – oftentimes in communities of color deemed “high-crime”.

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According to the New York City Police Department, officer quotas for arrests and summonses have been banned since 2010. Supervisors have denied that there are quotas; the onetime commissioner had denied that there are quotas. Yet in 2015, a small group of cops filed a class-action lawsuit against the department and the city for the retaliation they experienced after poor performance reviews that were based on the officers’ “numbers.”

In “Crime + Punishment,” Stephen Maing’s documentary about the development of the suit, one of the plaintiffs gets specific about the problem: “Law enforcement uses black bodies to generate revenue.”

The NYPD 12, as the suing officers became known, are all minorities who were told to go after minorities for easy stats: Hispanics and, especially, African Americans. “You must stop black people from 14-21,” one boss told his underling after an unsatisfactory review.

Also Read: Hulu Acquires Sundance Award-Winning Doc 'Crime + Punishment'

The more attention the group received,...

"This is not just another law suit." IFC Films + Hulu have released the first official trailer for a documentary titled Crime + Punishment, which first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year. It also played a bunch of other festivals throughout this year including True/False, Hot Docs, Montclair, Seattle, Nantucket, and Traverse City. In 2010, New York City banned quotas on arrests and summonses. In 2015, a group of 12 minority NYPD officers filed a class-action lawsuit against the NYPD, alleging the illegal and continued use of quotas. Crime + Punishment is a film about the 12 brave NYPD officers who are standing up to their department. Documentaries are becoming increasingly important in these troubled times, shining a light on the people who are doing everything to make a difference in the world. This doc won a Special Jury Award at Sundance for Social Impact - and from the looks it definitely deserved it.

With the extended national conversation of police brutality and corruption comes a documentary examining the very inner-workings of a prominent department by the officers themselves. “Crime + Punishment” is a hard-hitting documentary, set to appear on Hulu this coming August.

The documentary premiered at Sundance Film Festival garnering the Special Jury Prize for Social Impact and was nominated for Grand Jury Prize. Directed by Stephen Maing, the documentary centers around a group of black and Latino officers of the NYPD, as they expose the system of quotas within their own department.

Continue reading ‘Crime + Punishment’ Trailer: Hulu Original Doc Examines Policing Quotas And The NYPD at The Playlist.

After winning the Impact Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Stephen Maing’s documentary “Crime + Punishment” will hit theaters (care of Hulu and IFC Films) later this summer, a gut punch of a look inside the New York Police Department. The film is billed as a “galvanizing documentary that goes behind the scenes and undercover to expose racism, corruption, and intimidation within the New York Police Department.”

“Crime + Punishment” benefits from Maing’s eye-popping access, which allows him to dig deeply — and personally — into a story that remains fraught and relevant as ever. The film was executive produced by Laura Poitras.

Maing shot the film between 2014 and 2017 and follows “the efforts of the NYPD 12, a band of minority officers who speak out against the continued use of arrest and summons quotas — an illegal practice that overwhelmingly targets young black and Hispanic men. Putting their careers on the line,...

Sundance has long delivered a few Oscar documentary contenders each year, most recently with “Last Men in Aleppo,” “Icarus” and Strong Island.” This year, the festival introduced a plethora of leading hopefuls, led by Morgan Neville’s heart-tugging portrait of the late PBS children’s host Fred Rogers, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (Metascore: 83), which Focus Features scooped up last summer; it goes into release June 8. The Sundance audience was in tears, slayed by a portrait of a beloved cultural figure who tried to do good. At Sundance, Oscar-winner Neville (“Twenty Feet From Stardom”) told me that he hopes this movie about a well-meaning conservative Republican Presbyterian minister will reach a wider swath than the usual liberal moviegoer. Count on it. This zeitgeist-hitter will be hard to beat.

Two other well-reviewed Sundance biodocs could emerge from the HBO broadcast realm: Susan Lacy biography “Jane Fonda in Five Acts” and...

If there’s a common theme weaved throughout the 2018 Nashville Film Festival, it’s a strong sense of diversity. With submissions from more than 135 countries and female filmmakers making up more than 40% of the film bracket, in addition to several films led by African-Americans and those who defy gender norms, filmmakers from wide-ranging backgrounds are turning to the Nashville Film Festival as an outlet to share their voices.

“The storytelling has gotten deeper,” artistic director Brian Owens says of the 2018 festival, which runs May 10-19 at Regal Hollywood Stadium 27. “These films really address the now, all the way through the program. There really seems to be an urgency that wasn’t there before. It’s a reflection of the times.”

This sense of urgency is mirrored in the festival’s numerous documentaries, a category in which the presence of women is prominent across a variety of socially conscious films. “Dark Money” is one example,...

For the best in new American independent cinema, Brooklyn’s BAMcinémaFest continually curates the finest selection from previous festivals, as well as new premieres.. They’ve now unveiled this year’s slate for the festival running from June 20-July 1, including some of my favorite films of the year thus far as well as highly-anticipated festival favorites and the world premieres of Michael Koresky, Jeff Reichert & Farihah Zaman’s Feast of the Epiphany, Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn’s Two Plains & a Fancy, and Aaron Schimberg’s Chained for Life.

“We are proud to present work that is compelling, defiant, and ultimately thrilling,”says Gina Duncan, Bam’s Associate Vice President of Cinema. “It feels appropriate to celebrate the tenth BAMcinemaFest with a line-up of films and filmmakers whose energy and adventurousness hints at something profound taking root. I can’t wait to see what it bears.” See the lineup below and for more information,...

Bam has announced the lineup for the 10th annual BAMcinemaFest, which takes place June 20–July 1. The festival will open with Boots Riley’s “Sorry to Bother You” and end with Josephine Decker’s “Madeline’s Madeline,” with Debra Granik’s “Leave No Trace,” Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade,” and many more playing in between.

In a message shared exclusively with IndieWire, Riley said he is “beyond honored and excited to have ‘Sorry to Bother You’ open BAMcinemaFest — especially on their 10th year anniversary. This festival is definitely one that celebrates new notions in film. Knowing the artistry and prestige that has occupied this spot previously, I am trying not to let it go to my head. You may see me act a little fancier after this. I will be holding all of my drinks with one pinky up — even bottles of water.”

Other standouts include Robert Greene’s “Bisbee ’17,” Gus Van Sant...

Chicago – Documentaries are often the most compelling filmmaking, because truth is always stranger. The Chicago Media Project presents its third annual Doc 10, a weekend festival of 11 (10+1!) prominent documentaries that often end up either making a national statement or getting nominated for awards. It all takes place at the Davis Theatre in the Lincoln Square neighborhood from April 5th-8th, 2018. For more information, including schedule and tickets, click here.

’Won’t You Be My Neighbor’ Opens Doc 10

Photo credit: DOC10.org

The Opening Night film is the highly anticipated “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” the profile of Fred “Mr.” Rogers, who hosted “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” on PBS, which nurtured two generations of children over five decades. The ten other documentaries, playing at various times over the weekend are... “Rbg,” “The King” (Closing Night), “Bisbee ’17,” “Love Means Zero,” “Crime + Punishment,” “306 Hollywood,” “On Her Shoulders,” “Devil’s Freedom,” “The Other Side of Everything...

Maya Arulpragasam — the controversial musician known as M.I.A. and the subject of Stephen Loveridge’s new documentary “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” — was shellshocked after the film’s Sundance world premiere, and not in the good way. “It’s so long,” she told the sold-out crowd, mere seconds after watching the movie for the first time. Then, turning to her understandably ashen director without even the slightest hint of a smile, she just said: “I’m surprised people didn’t walk out.” If anyone had, they would have missed one of the festival’s defining moments.

The Q&A that followed was one for the ages. For 20 rivetingly awkward minutes, Arulpragasam poked at the man who had made a movie out of her life, bending each of the broad questions she was asked back to her supposed collaborator. Despite knowing the outspoken iconoclast since meeting her in art school in the ’90s, Loveridge didn...