Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act Of Killing.

New Directors/New Films '13 docs The Act Of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer and Stories We Tell by Sarah Polley took top prizes at the 7th annual Cinema Eye Honors last night in New York. Cinema Eye honors non-fiction work from the past year. Polley received the Outstanding Director award at the event for Stories, while The Act Of Killing won Outstanding Feature.

Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, a portrait of the relationship between two New York artists, received three honors, including Outstanding Debut for Heinzerling, Outstanding Graphics and Animation for Art Jail and Outstanding Original Score for Yasuaki Shimizu.

HBO Documentary Films’ The Crash Reel, directed by Lucy Walker, was named the first recipient of the Cinema Eye Television Award, designed to recognize collaborations between filmmakers and broadcasters.

Dave Grohl’s Sound City won the Audience Choice Prize, voted on by the public. More than 44,000 votes were cast for the award, a record-busting total (the previous high was just over 10,000) for the category. In a video acceptance, Grohl danced to Abba’s Dancing Queen to express his excitement.

This year’s Legacy Award was presented to the landmark 1976 film Harlan County, USA, about a brutal coal strike in Kentucky. The Legacy Award is intended to honor “classic films that inspire a new generation of filmmakers and embody the Cinema Eye mission: excellence in creative and artistic achievements in nonfiction films.” Director Barbara Kopple accepted the award on behalf of the film.

Josh Fox received Cinema Eye’s “Hell Yeah” Prize, given for his two HBO Documentary Films, Gasland and Gasland II, which spotlights the environmental repercussions of hydraulic fracking, an issue that was largely unheard of prior to the first Gasland film’s debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. The Hell Yeah Prize is a periodic award, given to filmmakers who have “created works of incredible craft and artistry that also have significant, real-world impact.”


Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell.

The following is a complete list of Cinema Eye Honors winners for 2014:

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking – The Act of Killing, Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, Produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen Presented by Steve James

Outstanding Achievement in Direction – Sarah Polley, Stories We Tell, Presented by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Outstanding Achievement in Editing – Nels Bangerter, Let the Fire Burn

Audience Choice Prize – Sound City, Directed by Dave Grohl

Outstanding Achievement in Production – Signe Byrge Sørensen, The Act of Killing

Outstanding Nonfiction Film for Television – The Crash Reel, Directed by Lucy Walker, Produced by Julian Cautherley and Lucy Walker
 for HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer Sheila Nevins and Supervising Producer Sara Bernstein


Zachary Heinzerling's Cutie and the Boxer.

Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Short Filmmaking – A Story for the Modlins, Directed by Sergio Oksman

Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography – Lucien Castaing-Taylor and VĂ©rĂ©na Paravel, Leviathan

Heterodox Award – Post Tenebras Lux, Directed by Carlos Reygadas

Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score – Yasuaki Shimizu, Cutie and the Boxer

Spotlight Award – The Last Station, Directed by Cristian Soto and Catalina Vergara

Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Animation – Art Jail, Cutie and the Boxer

Outstanding Achievement in a Debut Feature Film – Zachary Heinzerling, Cutie and the Boxer

Legacy Award – Harlan County, USA, Directed and Produced by Barbara Kopple

Hell Yeah Prize – Josh Fox, Gasland and Gasland, Part 2