‘Searching for Sugar Man’ Tops Cinema Eye Honors Nominations

Rock doc "Searching for Sugar Man" and mistaken-identity tale "The Imposter" lead all films with five nominations for Cinema Eye Honors

"Searching for Sugar Man" secured its second major documentary-award nomination on Friday afternoon, landing a nod for the Cinema Eye Honors' top award 11 days after earning the same from the International Documentary Association.

The film about the resurrection of '70s rocker Rodriguez was the only film to be nominated for best documentary by both the Cinema Eye Honors and the IDA, the two major organizations that honor non-fiction filmmaking.

Searching for Sugar ManOther nominees in the Cinema Eye category of Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Filmmaking are "5 Broken Cameras," "Detropia," "The Imposter," "Marina Abramovich: The Artist Is Present" and "Only the Young."

"Sugar Man" and "The Imposter" topped all films with five nominations each, while "Detropia," "Only the Young," "Room 237" and "Vivan las Antipodas!" each received four.

The Cinema Eye nominations were announced at a reception at the AFI Fest in Hollywood, the first time the six-year-old organization has made the announcement in Los Angeles.

This year, Cinema Eye instituted a change in the nominations process for its top award, Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking. In addition to taking votes from the Cinema Eye Nominations Committee, a group of 25 international film festival programmers specializing in documentaries, Cinema Eye also asked for votes from the year's eligible filmmakers. More than 60 of them submitted their five favorite non-fiction films of the year.

The Nominations Committee continued to handle noms in other categories.

Also read: 'Detropia': The Right Movie Right Now

Over its first five years, the Cinema Eye Honors twice gave its top honor to the film that went on to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. James Marsh's "Man on Wire" won in 2009, and Louie Psihoyos' "The Cove" the following year.

Last year's Cinema Eye winner was Banksy's "Exit Through the Gift Shop," which was nominated for an Oscar but did not win.

The Cinema Eye Honors were launched in 2007 by filmmaker and journalist A.J. Schnack and documentary programmer Thom Powers, who wanted to create documentary awards that would honor the entire creative team and all facets of nonfiction filmmaking.

The 2013 ceremony will take place on January 9, 2013 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York.

The nominations:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking

5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
Produced by Christine Camdessus, Serge Gordey, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

Detropia
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Produced by Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady and Craig Atkinson

The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton
Produced by Dimitri Doganis

Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers
Produced by Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff

Only the Young
Directed by Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims
Produced by Derek Waters

Searching for Sugar Man
Directed by Malik Bendjelloul
Produced by Simon Chinn

Outstanding Achievement in Direction

Detropia
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

The Law in These Parts
Ra'anan Alexandrowicz

Only the Young
Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims

Planet of Snail
Seungjun Yi

Tchoupitoulas
Bill Ross and Turner Ross

¡Vivan las Antipodas!
Victor Kossakovsky

Outstanding Achievement in Production

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Alison Klayman and Adam Schlesinger

Big Boys Gone Bananas!*
Margarete Jangård

The Imposter
Dimitri Doganis

Searching for Sugar Man
Simon Chinn

¡Vivan las Antipodas!
Heino Deckert

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography

Chasing Ice
Jeffrey Orlowski

The Imposter
Erik Alexander Wilson and Lynda Hall

Only the Young
Jason Tippet & Elizabeth Mims

Samsara
Ron Fricke

¡Vivan las Antipodas!
Victor Kossakovsky 

Outstanding Achievement in Editing

5 Broken Cameras
Véronique Lagoarde-Ségot and Guy Davidi

Detropia
Enat Sidi

How to Survive a Plague
T. Woody Richman, Tyler H. Walk, Jonathan Oppenheim

Room 237
Rodney Ascher

Tchoupitoulas
Bill Ross

Audience Choice Prize

5 Broken Cameras
Directed by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi

Beauty is Embarrassing
Directed by Neil Berkeley

Bully
Directed by Lee Hirsch

How to Survive a Plague
Directed by David France

The Imposter
Directed by Bart Layton

Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Directed by David Gelb

Kumaré
Directed by Vikram Gandhi

Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers

Searching for Sugar Man
Directed by Malik Bendjelloul

Trash Dance
Directed by Andrew Garrison

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Directed by Alison Klayman

How to Survive a Plague
Directed by David France

Marina Abramović The Artist is Present
Directed by Matthew Akers

Only the Young
Directed by Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims

Room 237
Directed by Rodney Ascher

Searching for Sugar Man
Directed by Malik Bendjelloul

The Waiting Room
Directed by Peter Nicks

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score

Detropia
Dial.81

The Imposter
Anna Nikitin

Into the Abyss
Mark De Gli Antoni

Room 237
Jonathan Snipes, William Hutson, The Caretaker (James Kirby)

¡Vivan las Antipodas!
Alexander Popov

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation

Beauty is Embarrassing
Neil Berkeley, Anthony Maiuri

Herman’s House
Nicolas Brault, Tom Hillman

Indie Game: The Movie
James Swirsky

Room 237
Carlos Ramos

Searching for Sugar Man
Oskar Gullstrand, Arvid Steen

Urbanized
Brooklyn Digital Foundry/John Szot

Spotlight Award

Argentinian Lesson
Directed by Wojciech Staroń

Bestiaire
Directed by Denis Côté

Downeast
Directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin

Meanwhile in Mamelodi
Directed by Benjamin Kahlmeyer

Vol Special (Special Flight)
Directed by Fernand Melgar

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking

Cutting Loose
Directed by Finlay Pretsell and Adrian McDowall

Family Nightmare
Directed by Dustin Guy Defa

Good Bye Mandima (Kwa Heri Mandima) 
Directed by Robert-Jan Lacombe

Into the Middle of Nowhere
Directed by Anna Francis Ewert

Paradise (Paraíso)
Directed by Nadav Kurtz

 

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