Third Annnual Cinema Eye Noms Announced

Acclaimed dolphin-hunt documentary The Cove leads the third-annual Cinema Eye Honors with seven award nominations, followed by Burma VJ, a Danish film about anti-government uprisings led by monks in 2007, and October Country, a portrait of co-director Donal Mosher’s family, with five nominations each. Also nominated in the Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking category were Food, Inc. and Loot.

The Cinema Eye Honors have quickly established themselves as a venue for the recognition of solid work in documentary cinema, including contributions by typically unsung collaborators in the field — there are separate categories for direction, editing, graphic design, and cinematography. I attended the first-ever Cinema Eye awards presentation in 2008, where I was introduced to Manda Bala, the edgy, aggressive debut film by director Jason Kohn, among other singular but under-promoted achievements. And Beth Marchant covered last year’s proceedings.

This year’s awards have been pushed forward a couple of months, perhaps to better mesh with typical awards-season movie madness. They are slated to be handed out January 15 at the Times Center in New York. Online independent-film distributor Indiepix is the founding sponsor and co-producer of the awards. HBO Documentary Films and Sheffield Doc/Fest have joined as sponsors this year. A full list of nominees follows.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking
BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Østergaard
Produced by Lise-Lense Møller
THE COVE
Directed by Louie Psihoyos
Produced by Paula DuPre Pesman
and Fisher Stevens
FOOD, INC.
Directed by Robert Kenner
Produced by Robert Kenner and
Elise Pearlstein
LOOT
Directed and Produced by Darius
Marder
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Directed and Produced by Michael
Palmieri and Donal Mosher

Outstanding Achievement in Direction
Agnès Varda
THE BEACHES OF AGNES
John Maringouin
BIG RIVER MAN
Outstanding
Achievement in
Direction (cont’d)
Anders Østergaard
BURMA VJ
Darius Marder
LOOT
Michael Palmieri and Donal
Mosher
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Terence Davies
OF TIME AND THE CITY

Outstanding Achievement in Production
Maria Florio, Molly Hassell and
Molly Lynch
BIG RIVER MAN
Richard Parry and Vaughan
Smith
BLOOD TRAIL
Lise-Lense Møller
BURMA VJ
Paula DuPre Pesman and Fisher
Stevens
THE COVE
RJ Cutler, Eliza Hindmarch and
Sadia Shepard
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography
Bill Ross and Turner Ross
45365
Brook Aitken
THE COVE
Michael Palmieri
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Deborah Stratman
O’ER THE LAND
Yaron Orbach
UNMISTAKEN CHILD

Outstanding Achievement in Editing
Bill Ross
45365
Janus Billeskov-Jansen and
Thomas Papapetros
BURMA VJ
Geoff Richman
THE COVE
Brad Fuller and Fernando Villena
EVERY LITTLE STEP
David Smith
SOUL POWER
Josh Altman and Ondi Timoner
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation
Christophe Vallaux
THE BEACHES OF AGNES
The Team at Bigstar
FOOD, INC.
Kate Anderson
IT MIGHT GET LOUD
Nominees TBD
RIP – A REMIX MANIFESTO
Patrick Lichty
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD

Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score
Rich Ragsdale
BIG RIVER MAN
Joshua Ralph
THE COVE
Mark Adler
FOOD, INC.
Danny Grody, Donal Mosher,
Michael Palmieri and Kenric
Taylor
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Joel Goodman
VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR
Ben Decter and Marco
d’Ambrosio
WE LIVE IN PUBLIC

Outstanding Achievement in an International Feature Film
BURMA VJ
Directed by Anders Østergaard
Produced by Lise-Lense Møller
MUGABE AND THE WHITE
AFRICAN
Directed by Lucy Bailey and
Andrew Thompson
Produced by Elizabeth Morgan
Hemlock and David Pearson
OF TIME AND THE CITY
Directed by Terence Davies
Produced by Roy Boulter and Sol
Papadopoulos
OLD PARTNER
Directed by Chung-ryoul Lee
Produced by Young-jae Goh
ROUGH AUNTIES
Directed by Kim Longinotto
Produced by Teddy Liefer and
Paul Taylor
THOSE WHO REMAIN
Directed by Carlos Hagerman and
Juan Carlos Rulfo
Produced by Carlos Hagerman,
Juan Carlos Rulfo and Nicolas
Vale

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film
45365
Directed by Bill Ross and Turner
Ross
THE COVE
Directed by Louie Psihoyos
LOOT
Directed by Darius Marder
OCTOBER COUNTRY
Directed by Michael Palmieri and
Donal Mosher
THE WAY WE GET BY
Directed by Aron Gaudet

Spotlight Award
BECAUSE WE WERE BORN
Directed by Jean-Pierre Duret and
Andrea Santana
BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO
Directed by Jessica Oreck
EPISODE 3: ENJOY POVERTY
Directed by Renzo Martens
THE SOUND OF INSECTS: RECORD
OF A MUMMY
Directed by Peter Liechti
TRIMPIN: THE SOUND OF
INVENTION
Directed by Peter Esmonde

Audience Choice Prize
ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL
Directed by Sascha Gervasi
THE COVE
Directed by Louie Psihoyos
EVERY LITTLE STEP
Directed by Adam del Deo and
James D. Stern
FOOD, INC.
Directed by Robert Kenner
GOOD HAIR
4 Directed by Jeff Stilson
THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE
Directed by RJ Cutler
TYSON
Directed by James Toback
VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer