‘Won’t You Be My Neighbor?’ Wins Top Honors At Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards
The winners for the third annual Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards were announced Saturday with Morgan Neville’s Won’t You Be My Neighbor? taking the top honor of Best Documentary. The winners were determined by members of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA).
The Mr. Rogers documentary also nabbed Best Director for Neville as well as Best Editing. The nail-biting rock climbing documentary directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi also won three awards including Best Sports Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary, and Best Cinematography.
Hosted by Bill Nye at BRIC in Brooklyn, the ceremony also honored Michael Moore with the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, which was presented by Robert De Niro. In addition, Joe Berlinger renowned documentarian Stanley Nelson was honored with the Critics’ Choice Impact Award. Berlinger earned the same honor last year.
Other winners of the evening included the Ruth Bader Ginsbug pic RBG, Rashida Jones’ Netflix docu Quincy, chronicling the life of her legendary father Quincy Jones as well as Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown for Best Ongoing Documentary Series. There was also a tie for Best First Time Director between Bing Liu for Minding the Gap and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster for Science Fair. The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards also introduced the Catalyst Sponsorship, a program for industry leaders to support the event.
Here’s the complete list of winners:
Best Documentary: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Best Limited Documentary Series: The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling
Best Ongoing Documentary Series: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
Best Director: Morgan Neville for Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
Best First Time Director: TIE: Bing Liu for Minding the Gap, and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster for Science Fair
Best Political Documentary: RBG
Best Sports Documentary: Free Solo
Best Music Documentary: Quincy
Most Innovative Documentary: Free Solo
Best Cinematography: Free Solo
Best Editing: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?