‘CITIZENFOUR’ Sweeps The 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors”

‘Citizenfour’ Sweeps the 8th Annual Cinema Eye Honors

Indiewire – January 7, 2015

By Nigel M. Smith

Laura Poitras’ acclaimed Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour” swept the 8th annual Cinema Eye Honors tonight at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, picking up four awards including Outstanding Nonfiction Feature and Outstanding Direction. This marks the second time in Cinema Eye history that a film won four awards. The first film to do so was Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir.” Poitras also made Cinema Eye history as the first person to win the Outstanding Direction award twice. She previously won for “The Oath” in 2011.

The Nick Cave documentary “20,000 Days on Earth” followed with two wins for Outstanding Cinematography and Musical Score. Alan Hicks’ “Keep On Keepin’ On” won the Audience Choice Prize, and the Nonfiction Short Film award went to Lucy Walker’s “The Lions Mouth Open.”

Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sam Green hosted this year’s event, with an audio assist from “Serial” podcast host Sarah Koenig, who served as announcer for this year’s proceedings. Presenters included documentary legends Albert Maysles, DA Pennebaker, Steve James, Alan Berliner and Jennie Livingston and Jonathan Oppenheim, the director and editor of this year’s Legacy Award winner “Paris is Burning.”

Cinema Eye was founded in 2007 to recognize excellence in artistry and craft in nonfiction filmmaking and remains the only international nonfiction award to recognize a film’s entire creative team. The film nominees are determined by top documentary programmers from festivals all over the world. The television award nominees were selected by a nominations committee of film critics and writers.

A full list of this year’s winners follows:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
Citizenfour
Directed by Laura Poitras
Produced by Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky

Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Laura Poitras
Citizenfour

Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Mathilde Bonnefoy
Citizenfour

Outstanding Achievement in Production
Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky
Citizenfour

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography (tie)
Erik Wilson
20,000 Days on Earth

Franklin Dow and Orlando von Einsiedel
Virunga

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Films Made for Television
The Price of Gold
Directed by Nanette Burstein
Produced by Libby Geist
For ESPN/30 for 30: John Dahl, Connor Schell, Bill Simmons

The Weinstein Company”Keep On Keepin’ On”
Audience Choice Prize
Keep On Keepin’ On
Directed by Alan Hicks
Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
Finding Vivian Maier
Directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Nick Cave and Warren Ellis
20,000 Days on Earth

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation (tie)
Syd Garon
Jodorowsky’s Dune

Heather Brantman & Tim Fisher
Particle Fever

Spotlight Award
1971
Directed by Johanna Hamilton

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking
The Lion’s Mouth Opens
Directed by Lucy Walker

Heterodox Award
Boyhood
Directed by Richard Linklater

Legacy Award
Paris is Burning
Directed by Jennie Livingston