The Canadian film “Sugarcane” continued its impressive awards-season streak on Thursday, leading all films in nominations for the 18th annual Cinema Eye Honors.
The film from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, which looks into cases of abuse and forced separation in an Indigenous community, received six nominations, including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature. Mati Diop’s “Dahomey” and Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal and Rachel Szor’s “No Other Land” received five nominations.
“Sugarcane” is now the only film of 2024 to be nominated in the top nonfiction category at the Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards and Gotham Awards, and also to be included on the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards long list and DOC NYC’s short list of likely awards contenders.
Nominees in the Outstanding Nonfiction Feature category were “Sugarcane,” “Dahomey,” “No Other Land,” “Black Box Diaries,” “Daughters,” “Look Into My Eyes” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat.” About half the Cinema Eye nominees in that category typically go on to receive Oscar nominations for Best Documentary Feature, particularly in recent years as the Academy’s Documentary Branch has become more international and more adventurous in its tastes.
The Cinema Eye winner has gone on to win the documentary Oscar five times, including the last two years in a row with “20 Days in Mariupol” and “Navalny.”
For the first time, the nominees in Cinema Eye’s Nonfiction Feature category will include the entire creative team of each film.
Films that weren’t nominated in the top feature category but did receive multiple nominations in other categories included “Eno,” “Frida” and “Porcelain War.”
Cinema Eye was founded in 2007 in New York City to recognize all facets of nonfiction filmmaking. Winners will be announced at the Cinema Eye Honors ceremony on Jan. 9, 2025 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem, New York.
Here is the full list of this year’s nominees, including previously announced nominees and honorees in the Broadcast and Unforgettables categories.
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 Nominees
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
Shorts List Semifinalists (nominees to be announced in December)
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
Unforgettables Honorees
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
Harper Steele, Will and Harper
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
Previously announced categories:
Broadcast Film
Bread & Roses
Girls State
Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets
The Lady Bird Diaries
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.
Spermworld
Nonfiction Series
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court
The Enfield Poltergeist
The Luckiest Guy in the World
Ren Faire
Telemarketers
Anthology Series
Conan O’Brien Must Go
De La Calle
God Save Texas
High on the Hog Season 2
How To with John Wilson Season 3
Photographer
Broadcast Editing
Girls State
The Greatest Night in Pop
Ren Faire
The Saint of Second Chances
Telemarketers
Time Bomb Y2K
Broadcast Cinematography
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
The Enfield Poltergeist
Girls State
Photographer
Ren Faire
You Were My First Boyfriend