Acclaimed Documentarian Barbara Kopple to Receive The Pennebaker Award Presented by Chris Hegedus

For the Very First Time, the Ceremony Will Be Live-Streamed Through Facebook Live and Instagram Live at 7:00 PM ET on Sunday, November 13

Los Angeles, CA (Monday, October 17,  2022) — The Critics Choice Association (CCA) has announced the nominees for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCDA). The winners will be revealed at a Gala Event on Sunday, November 13, 2022 at The Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, marking a change of venue and borough. The ceremony will be hosted by longtime event supporter, actor, and standup comedian Wyatt Cenac.

Fire of Love leads with seven nominations, including nods for Best Documentary Feature, Sara Dosa for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Science/Nature Documentary.

Good Night Oppy is recognized with six nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, Ryan White for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, and Best Science/Nature Documentary. 

Cenac is an Emmy-winning, WGA-winning, and Grammy-nominated performer, writer, and producer. From 2008 to 2012, he was a writer and popular correspondent on the hit late-night Comedy Central series The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, where he earned three Emmy Awards and one Writer’s Guild Award.

For the very first time, the Awards will be live-streamed through Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Viewing links will be available on the Critics Choice Association website at 7:00 PM ET on Sunday, November 13.

The Critics Choice Association is honoring the year’s finest achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV, and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified CCA members. 

This year, two categories – Best Ongoing Documentary Series and Best Limited Documentary Series – that have traditionally been included in the Critics Choice Real TV Awards will now be presented at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

In addition to the 17 award categories listed below, a most prestigious honor – The Pennebaker Award (formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award) – will be presented to esteemed documentarian Barbara Kopple. The award is named for Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award winner D A Pennebaker, who passed away in 2019. The award will be presented to Kopple by Pennebaker’s producing partner and wife, Chris Hegedus.

Kopple, a director of documentaries, narrative TV, and film, is a two-time Academy Award winner and ten-time Emmy Award nominee. Her most recent project is the forthcoming documentary Gumbo Coalition, which premieres at DOC NYC as the Centerpiece Presentation in November 2022. 

Kopple produced and directed Harlan County USA and American Dream, both winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.  Her other films include Miss Sharon Jones!, Desert One, The House of Steinbrenner, Woodstock:  Now and Then, Shut Up and Sing, Havoc, A Conversation with Gregory Peck, My Generation, Wild Man Blues, Running From Crazy, Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson, This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, and many more.  

For the second year in a row,  the Critics Choice Documentary Awards welcomes back National Geographic Documentary Films as the Presenting Sponsor.

The Catalyst Sponsor for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards is Peacock, with more sponsor announcements forthcoming.

“This year’s nominees prove that documentaries of all lengths and formats are advancing nonfiction media like never before,” said Christopher Campbell, Co-President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “And we are excited to celebrate the tremendous talents who contributed to all of these brilliant films and series.” 

Carla Renata, Co-President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch added, “We are also thrilled to witness an exemplary number of women filmmakers and female-focused subjects being represented, further solidifying the Critics Choice Documentary Awards’ commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion within the documentary landscape.”

Last year at the Sixth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) received the award for every category in which it was nominated, including the evening’s most prestigious award for Best Documentary Feature, as well as Best Director (TIE), Best First Documentary Feature, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Music Documentary. Subsequently, the film took home the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

The nominees for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards Presented by National Geographic Documentary Films are:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Aftershock (Hulu/Onyx Collective)
The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
Descendant (Netflix)
Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment/CNN Films/TIME Studios)
Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
The Janes (HBO Documentary Films)
Moonage Daydream (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Navalny (CNN Films/HBO Max/Warner Bros. Pictures)
Sidney (Apple TV+)

BEST DIRECTOR

Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO Documentary Films)
Margaret Brown – Descendant (Netflix)
Sara Dosa – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Reginald Hudlin – Sidney (Apple TV+)
Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Laura Poitras – All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Daniel Roher – Navalny (CNN Films/HBO Max/Warner Bros. Pictures)
Ryan White – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)

BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Andrea Arnold – Cow (IFC Films)
Lisa Hurwitz – The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
Jono McLeod – My Old School (Magnolia Pictures)
Amy Poehler – Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
Alex Pritz – The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)
David Siev – Bad Axe (IFC Films)
Bianca Stigter – Three Minutes: A Lengthening (SUPER)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Benjamin Bernhard, Riju Das – All That Breathes (HBO Documentary Films/Sideshow)
Magda Kowalczyk – Cow (IFC Films)
Lucas Tucknott – McEnroe (Showtime Documentary Films)
Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Sam Holling – Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
The Cinematography Team – Our Great National Parks (Netflix)
Alex Pritz, Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau – The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)

BEST EDITING

Jabez Olssen – The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon) 
Joe Beshenkovsky – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO Documentary Films)
Helen Kearns, Rejh Cabrera – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Langdon Page, Maya Daisy Hawke – Navalny (CNN Films/HBO Max/Warner Bros. Pictures)
Katharina Wartena – Three Minutes: A Lengthening (SUPER)

BEST SCORE

Hummie Mann – The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
Nicolas Godin – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Blake Neely – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Max Avery Lichtenstein – The Janes (HBO Documentary Films)
David Schwartz – Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
Marius de Vries, Anna Drubich, Matt Robertson – Navalny (CNN Films/HBO Max/Warner Bros. Pictures)

BEST NARRATION

Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story (Fin and Fur Films) Written by Ben Masters, Performed by Matthew McConaughey

Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon) Written by Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Sara Dosa and Performed by Miranda July

Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios) Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White Performed by Angela Bassett

Our Great National Parks (Netflix) Performed by Barack Obama

Riotsville, U.S.A. (Magnolia Pictures) Written by Tobi Haslett Performed by Charlene Modeste

Three Minutes: A Lengthening (SUPER) Written by Bianca Stigter Performed by Helena Bonham Carter

BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY

The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Moonage Daydream (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Nothing Compares (Showtime Documentary Films)
Riotsville, U.S.A. (Magnolia Pictures)
Three Minutes: A Lengthening (SUPER)

BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY

The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
Descendant (Netflix)
The Janes (HBO Documentary Films)
Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Peacock)
Still Working 9 to 5 (Mighty Fine Entertainment)
Three Minutes: A Lengthening (SUPER)
The U.S. and the Holocaust (Florentine Films/WETA)

BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY

George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO Documentary Films)
The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max/CNN Films)
Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios)
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Peacock)
Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams (Sony Pictures Classics)
Sidney (Apple TV+)
Sr. (Netflix)

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song (Sony Pictures Classics)
If These Walls Could Sing (Disney Original Documentary)
Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues (Apple TV+)
Moonage Daydream (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Nothing Compares (Showtime Documentary Films)
The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile (Sony Pictures Classics)

BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY

Aftershock (Hulu/Onyx Collective)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Neon/HBO Documentary Films)
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment/CNN Films/TIME Studios)
The Janes (HBO)
Navalny (HBO Max/CNN Films/Warner Bros. Pictures)
Retrograde (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Winter on Fire Production)

BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY

All That Breathes (HBO Documentary Films/Sideshow)
Cow (IFC Films)
Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
Return to Space (Netflix)
The Territory (National Geographic Documentary Films)

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY

Citizen Ashe (HBO Max/CNN Films)
Hockeyland (Greenwich Entertainment)
Kaepernick & America (Dark Star Pictures) 
McEnroe (Showtime Documentary Films)
The Redeem Team (Netflix)
Welcome to Wrexham (FX)

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY

38 at the Garden (HBO Documentary Films)
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices From a Plantation Prison (MTV Documentary Films)
The Flagmakers (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Four Seasons Total Documentary (MSNBC)
My Disability Roadmap (The New York Times Op Docs)
Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
Stranger at the Gate (The New Yorker)

BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES

The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
Hostages (HBO Documentary Films)
The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max/CNN Films) 
The Lincoln Project (Showtime Documentary Films)
Our Great National Parks (Netflix)
The U.S. and the Holocaust (Florentine Films/WETA)
We Need to Talk About Cosby (Showtime Documentary Films)

BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

30 for 30 (ESPN)
American Masters (PBS)
Cheer (Netflix)
The Circus (Showtime Documentary Films)
Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix)
Welcome to Wrexham (FX)

About the Critics Choice Awards

The Critics Choice Documentary Awards are an offshoot of the Critics Choice Awards, which are bestowed annually by the CCA to honor the finest in cinematic and television achievement. Historically, the Critics Choice Awards are the most accurate predictor of Academy Award nominations.

The Critics Choice Awards ceremony will be held on January 15, 2023 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, CA, and will be broadcast live on the CW.

About the Critics Choice Association (CCA) 

The Critics Choice Association is the largest critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing more than 580 media critics and entertainment journalists. It was established in 2019 with the formal merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association, in recognition of the intersection between film, television, and streaming content. For more information, visit: www.CriticsChoice.com.

To learn more about the Critics Choice Documentary Awards and see the full list of nominees, visit the Critics Choice Association website.