Ezra Edelman’s seven-hour “OJ: Made in America” was named the best documentary of 2016 at the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, which were held on Thursday night in New York City.
Another doc focusing on racial tension, Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” won the award for TV/streaming documentaries.
Edelman and DuVernay both won directing awards for their films. “OJ: Made in America” won two more awards to make it the most honored film of the night: It was named Best Sports Documentary, and its five-part ESPN airing was named Best Limited Documentary Series, giving it victories both as a TV series and a theatrical film.
“13th” was named Best Political Documentary, while Ron Howard’s “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years” was named Best Music Documentary.
Other winners include “Weiner” as Best First Documentary (Theatrical), “Tower” for Most Innovative Documentary and “30 for 30” for Best Ongoing Documentary Series.
The Best First Documentary (TV/Streaming) category resulted in a tie between “Everything Is Copy – Nora Ephron: Scripted and Unscripted” and “Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four.”
The awards were voted by members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and Broadcast Television Journalists Association, with members instructed not to vote in a category unless they had seen all the nominees. The BFCA and BTJA were hit with a handful of resignations earlier in the week after announcing a promotional partnership with Entertainment Weekly for the Critics’ Choice Awards.
The ceremony took place at BRIC in Brooklyn and was hosted by Penn Gillette.
The list of winners:
Best Documentary (Theatrical Feature): “OJ: Made in America”
Best Director (Theatrical Feature): Ezra Edelman – “OJ: Made in America”
Best Documentary (TV/Streaming) :”13th”
Best Director (TV/Streaming): Ava DuVernay – “13th”
Best First Documentary (Theatrical Feature): Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg – “Weiner”
Best First Documentary (TV/Streaming): (TIE) –
Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker – “Everything Is Copy – Nora Ephron: Scripted and Unscripted”
and Deborah Esquenazi – “Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four”
Best Political Documentary: “13th”
Best Sports Documentary: “OJ: Made in America”
Best Music Documentary: “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years”
Best Song in a Documentary: “I’m Still Here” from “Miss Sharon Jones!” – Written by Sharon Jones – Performed by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Best Limited Documentary Series: “OJ: Made in America”
Best Ongoing Documentary Series: “30 for 30″
Most Innovative Documentary: “The Tower”