‘Girls State,’ ‘Ren Faire’ Lead Cinema Eye Honors Broadcast Nominations

The  Apple TV+ documentary “Girls State” and the HBO doc series “Ren Faire” led all projects in nominations in the Cinema Eye Honors broadcast categories, which were announced on Thursday in Los Angeles.

“Girls State” was nominated in the Broadcast Film category and also for its editing and cinematography. “Ren Faire” was also nominated in those last two categories, as well as for Nonfiction Series.

Other broadcast films and series with multiple nominations included Netflix’s “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Apple’s “The Enfield Poltergeist,” HBO’s “Telemarketers” and National Geographic’s “Photographer.”

At its annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch at Redbird in downtown Los Angeles, the New York-based organization also announced the Audience Choice Award Long List, 16 films that will compete for the audience-voted award; 11 semi-finalists in the short doc category; and “The Unforgettables,” its annual list of the year’s most interesting documentary subjects.

The Audience Choice Award contenders include “Black Box Diaries,” “Daughters,” “Eno,” “Frida,” “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” “No Other Land,” “Piece by Piece,” “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” “Sugarcane,” “Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” and “Will & Harper.”

The Unforgettable honorees, who will be presented with special medallions for the first time this year, include several of the subjects of those nominated films, including Shiori Ito from “Black Box Diaries,” Brian Eno from “Eno,” Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham from “No Other Land,” Lhakpa Sherpa from “Mountain Queen” and Harper Steele from “Will & Harper.”

Several of them, including Ito and Adra and Abraham are both the subjects and the filmmakers of their movies.

With the announcement of the Cinema Eye long list, three awards bodies for nonfiction film – the Cinema Eye Honors, the IDA Documentary Awards and the Critics Choice Documentary Awards – have released lists of between 10 and 20 of the year’s most notable docs, and the DOC NYC film festival has announced its “Short List” of 15 likely awards movies.

Only two films, “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” and “Sugarcane,” have appeared on all four lists. An additional four films – “Black Box Diaries,” “Daughters,” “No Other Land” and “Will & Harper” – have appeared on three lists, and “Dahomey,” “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” “Frida,” “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” “Porcelain War,” “Queendom” and “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” have appeared on two.

In the doc-shorts category, only three films appeared on both the Cinema Eye and IDA lists: the New York Times Op-Docs films “Instruments of a Beating Heart” by Ema Ryan Yamazaki and “A Move” by Elahe Esmaili and the New Yorker film “The Medallion” by Ruth Hunduma.

The Cinema Eye Honors were established in 2007 to award all facets of nonfiction filmmaking. It will announce the rest of its nominations, including all its feature-film categories, on Nov. 14, with the 18th annual Cinema Eye honors ceremony taking place on Jan. 9, 2025 at the New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem.

The full list of nominees and honorees:

Broadcast Film Nominees          
“Bread & Roses,” Sahra Mani (Apple TV+)
“Girls State,” Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss (Apple TV+)
“Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets,” Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson (HBO)
“The Lady Bird Diaries,” Dawn Porter (Hulu)
“Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.” Jeremy O. Harris (HBO)
“Spermworld,” Lance Oppenheim (FX)

Nonfiction Series Nominees
“America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Greg Whiteley and Chelsea Yarnell (Netflix)
“Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court,” Dawn Porter (Showtime)
“The Enfield Poltergeist,” Jerry Rothwell (Apple TV+)
“The Luckiest Guy in the World,” Steve James (ESPN)
“Ren Faire,” Lance Oppenheim (HBO)
“Telemarketers,” Adam Bhala Lough and Sam Lipman-Stern (HBO)

Anthology Series Nominees
“Conan O’Brien Must Go,’ Executive Producers Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross (HBO)
“De La Calle,” Executive Producers Nick Barili, Jared Andrukanis, Picky Talarico, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Amanda Culkowski, Bruce Gillmer, Craig H. Shepherd (Paramount+)
“God Save Texas,” Executive Producers Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Elizabeth Rogers, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller (HBO)
“High on the Hog Season 2,” Executive Producers Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Craig Piligian, Sarba Das, Fabienne Toback, Karis Jagger, Jessica B. Harris, Stephen Satterfield, Michele Barnwell (Netflix)
“How To with John Wilson Season 3,” Executive Producers Nathan Fielder, John Wilson, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking (HBO)
“Photographer,” Executive Producers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhely, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman, Betsy Forhan (National Geographic)

Broadcast Editing Nominees
“Girls State,” Edited by Amy Foote (Apple TV+)
“The Greatest Night in Pop,” Edited by Nic Zimmerman, Will Znidaric, David Brodie (Netflix)
“Ren Faire,” Edited by Max Allman, Nicholas Nazmi (HBO)
“The Saint of Second Chances.” Edited by Alan Lowe, Jeff Malmberg, Miles Wilkerson (Netflix)
“Telemarketers,” Edited by Christopher Passig (HBO)
“Time Bomb Y2K,” Edited by Marley McDonald, Maya Mumma (HBO)

Broadcast Cinematography Nominees
“America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders,” Director of Photography Jonathan Nicholas (Netflix)
“The Enfield Poltergeist,” Director of Photography Ruben Woodin Deschamps, Carmen Pellon Brussosa, David Katznelson (Apple TV+)
“Girls State,” Director of Photography – Nominees to be Determined (Apple TV+)
“Photographer,” Director of Photography Michael Crommett, Rita Baghdadi, Peter Hutchens, Melissa Langer, Pauline Maroun (National Geographic)
“Ren Faire,” Director of Photography Nate Hurtsellers (HBO)
“You Were My First Boyfriend,” Director of Photography Brennan Vance, J. Bennett (HBO)

Shorts List Semifinalists
“Contractions,” Lynne Sachs / NY Times Op-Docs
“Eternal Father,” Ömer Sami / New Yorker
“I Am Ready, Warden,” Smriti Mundhra / MTV Documentary Films
“Incident,” Bill Morrison / New Yorker
“Instruments of a Beating Heart,” Ema Ryan Yamazaki / NY Times Op-Docs
“Love in the Time of Migration,” Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas / LA Times
“Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World,” Julio Palacio / Netflix
“The Medallion,” Ruth Hunduma / New Yorker
“A Move,” Elahe Esmaili / NY Times Op-Docs
“The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” Molly O’Brien / Netflix
“A Swim Lesson,” Rashida Jones and Will McCormack / POV

Audience Choice Award Long List
“Black Box Diaries,” Shiori Ito
“Copa 71,” Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine
“Daughters,” Natalie Rae and Angela Patton
“Eno,” Gary Hustwit
“Frida,” Carla Gutiérrez
“Grand Theft Hamlet,” Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
“Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa,” Lucy Walker
“No Other Land,” Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
“Piece by Piece,” Morgan Neville
“Porcelain War,” Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,” Benjamin Ree
“Secret Mall Apartment,” Jeremy Workman
“Skywalkers: A Love Story,” Jeff Zimbalist
“Sugarcane,” Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story,” Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
“Will & Harper,” Josh Greenbaum

The Unforgettables
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”