Amazon Studios Good Night Oppy Voted Best in 7th Annual Critics’ Choice Documentary The Best Documentary award was presented Sunday night at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.
Overall, Good Night Obi took home five awards that night, including Best Director for Ryan White .
The Film Critics’ Choice Association also selected the top three documentaries for the first time. category. While Good Night Obi is the Gold Award Winner, the Silver Award is Love Fire , while the bronze award went to Navalny.
Actor and stand-up comedian Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) as event host, documentary Barbara Kopple ( Harlan County, USA, Upcoming Gumbo Alliance ) won the Pennebaker Award (formerly Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award) and Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble, The Way I See It) won the Critics’ Choice Impact prize.
The award recognizes “the best achievement in the annual release of a documentary in theater, television and major digital platforms, as voted by eligible CCA members”. The awards ceremony was broadcast live for the first time.
Entering the show, Love Fire led the nominations with seven nominations, followed by Good Night Oppy six. Another first, the Best Continuous Documentary and Best Limited Documentary Series awards were presented at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards (these awards were previously awarded at the Critics’ Choice Real TV Awards).
The full list of winners is below.
Best Documentary Feature 30Aftershocks (hoist)
30Automata (Making a Piece of Pie) Descendants (Netflix) Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary/Neon) (Silver) Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment)Good Night Obi (Amazon Studios)(Gold Award)38The Janes (HBO)
Moonlight Daydream (HBO/Neon)
Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures) (Bronze)
Sidney (Apple TV+ )
Best DirectorJudd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio – George Carlin’s America Dreams (HBO) Margaret Brown – The Descendants (Netflix) )Sara Dosa – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary/Neon)
Reginald Hardlin-Sidney (Apple TV+)30 38 Brett Morgan – Mo onage Daydream (HBO/Neon)Laura Poitras – All Beauty and Bleeding (HBO/Neon) )
Daniel Roher – Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)Ryan White – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios ) (WINNER)
Most Best First Documentary Feature Film Andrea Arnold – Cows (IFC Films) Lisa Hurwitz – A Slice of Pie Productions
Jono Mack Lauder – My Old School (Magnolia Pictures)30Amy Poehler – Dew West and Desi (Amazon Studios) Alex Pritz – Territory ( National Geographic Documentary)David Siev – Bad Axe (IFC Films) (WINNER)Bianca Stigter – Three Minutes: Extended (Neon)
Best Cinematography
Benjamin Bernhard, Riju Das – Everything That Breathes (HBO)
Magda Kowalczyk – Cow (IFC Films) Lucas Tucknott – McEnroe (Showtime)30 Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman, Sam Holling – Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker)
PHOTOGRAPHY TEAM – OUR GREAT NATIONAL PARK (Netflix) (WINNER) 30 Alex Pritz, Tangãi Uru-eu-wau-wau – Territory (National Geographic Documentary)
Best Editing Jabez Olssen – The Beatles: Get Back (Disney+)
30 Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary/Neon) Joe Beshenkovsky – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)30Helen Kearns, Rejh Cabrera – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)
Brett Morgan – Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon) (WINNER)
Landon Paige, Maya Daisy Hawke – Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures) Katharina Wartena – Three Minutes: Extended (Neon)
Best Score
Hummie Mann – The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)
Nicholas Godin – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary/Neon)
Blake Neely – Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios) (WINNER)
Max Avery Lichtenstein – The Janes (HBO)David Schwartz-Lucy and Desi (Amazon Studios) Marius de Vries, Matt Robertson – Navalny (HBO/CNN /Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best Commentary
Inside Out: Texas Wildlife Stories (Fin and Fur Movie) by The Masters
Performed by Matthew McConaughey
Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary) /neon)30 Written by Shane Boris, Erin Casper, Jocelyne Chaput, Sara Dosa by Miranda July
Good Night Obi (Amazon Studios)(WINNER) Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White *) Performed by Angela Bassett
Our Great Nation Garden (Netflix) by Barack Obama
Riotsville, USA (Magnolia Pictures)30 Written by Tobi Haslett Performed by Charlene Modest
Three Minutes: Extended (Neon) by Bianca Stigter
Performed by Helena Bonham Carter
Best Archives 38The Beatles: The Return (Disney+)30 LOVE FIRE (National Geographic Documentary/Neon) (WINNER)
Moonlight Daydream (HBO/Neon)
Nothing compares (showtime)
Riotsville, USA (Magnolia Pictures) Three Minutes: Extended (Neon)
Best History Documentary
Auto Machine (Slice Pie Productions)30 Descendants of (Netflix) (WINNER)The Janes (HBO)38 Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Peacock) )38 9 to 5 (Mighty Fine Entertainment) 30 Three Minutes: Extended (Neon) America and the Holocaust (PBS)
Best Biographical Documentary38 George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO) The Last Movie Star (HBO Max)Lucy and Desi ( Amazon Studios)
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (Peacock) )
El Salvador: The Shoemaker of Dreams (Sony Pictures Classics)
30Sidney (Apple TV+) (WINNER)
Premium (Netflix)
Best Music Documentary The Beatles: The Return (Disney+) (WINNER)3030 Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song (Sony Pictures Classics) If These Walls Could Sing (Disney Original Documentary) Louis Armstrong’s Black and Blue (Apple TV+)
Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)
Nothing Compares (Showtime) The Return of Tanya Tucker – Brandi Carlisle (Sony Pictures Classics)
Best Political Documentary 30 30Aftershocks (hoist) All Beauty and Bleeding (HBO/Neon)
Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment)30 The Janes (HBO) Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures) (WINNER)
Retrograde (National Geographic Documentary) Freedom Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (Netflix)
Best Science/Nature Documentary All That Breathes (HBO)Cow (IFC Films)
Love Fire (National Geographic Documentary/Neon)
Goodnight Obi (Amazon Works Room)(WINNER) Hate Bears (The New Yorker) Return to Space (Netflix )Territory (National Geographic Documentary)
Best Sports Documentary (Tie) Citizen Ash (Magnolia/HBO) (WINNER) 30Hockey Paradise (Greenwich Entertainment)30Kaepernick & America (Dark Star Pictures)McEnroe(Showtime)
Redemption Team (Netflix) Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu) (WINNER)
Best Short Documentary 3030 In the Garden (HBO)
30 Angola Did you hear us? The Voice from Plantation Prison (MTV Documentary) 30 The Standard Bearer (National Geographic Documentary) )
Four Seasons Documentary (MSNBC)
My Disability Roadmap (New York Times Op Docs)Nuisance Bear (The New Yorker) (WINNER)
Stranger at the Door (The New Yorker)
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES The Beatles: The Return (Disney+) (WINNER)Hostage (HBO)
The Last Movie Star (HBO Max)
The Lincoln Project (Showtime) )
Our Great National Park (Netflix)
America and the Holocaust (PBS)30 We need to talk about Cosby (Showtime)
Best Sustaining Documentary Series is 30 (ESPN) (WINNER)Masters (PBS) ) Cheers (Netflix)
Circus(Showtime)
Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix) Welcome to Wrexham (FX/Hulu)
