So far, “The Act of Killing” is shaping up to be the most celebrated documentary of this awards season. Joshua Oppenheimer’s sobering one-off about Indonesian genocide has yet to miss a stop on the circuit: it landed a number of top nods last week for the IDA Awards, and has also landed Best Documentary nods at the Gotham Awards and European Film Awards. Today, it extended its streak with five top nods for the Cinema Eye Awards, which stand alongside the IDAs as the most significant documentary-centered ceremony of the season.
With nominations for Best Documentary, Director, Editing, Production and the Audience Award, “Killing” has the most important bases covered. (It remains to be seen whether the Academy can handle its more gutsily avant garde qualities.) The most-nominated film, however, is “Cutie and the Boxer,” a study of married Japanese-American artists preparing an exhibition together as they assert their own creative identities; it netted six nods, including Best Documentary and Debut Feature. Rewarded with the directing prize at Sundance, it also received a special mention at the recent London Film Festival.
Aside from “The Act of Killing,” the only film to appear on both the IDA and Cinema Best Documentary Feature lists is Sarah Polley’s tricky family memoir “Stories We Tell” — another buzz title angling for Oscar consideration this year. The top category is rounded out by abortion study “After Tiller” and the brooding, experimental “Leviathan,” a wordless vision of commercial fishing in the North Atlantic with a near-hypnotic command of sound and image.
Meanwhile, popular favorite “20 Feet from Stardom,” which is possibly a little too sunnily mainstream for these award, made its presence felt with a nomination in the Audience Award, where “Blackfish” and “The Square” also found favor, while “Cutie” and “Killing” each showed up again. In the TV category, meanwhile, Alex Gibney’s Emmy-winning (and, last year, Oscar-shortlisted) “Mea Maxima Culpa” goes up against Sebastian Junger’s moving portrait of the late Tim Hetherington, with whom he collaborated three years ago on “Restrepo.”
Nominations were determined by a range of expert juries; winners will be announced in New York City on an unconfirmed date in early January.
The full list of nominations is on the next page.
Best Documentary Feature
“The Act of Killing”
“After Tiller”
“Cutie and the Boxer”
“Leviathan”
“Stories We Tell”
Best Director
Joshua Oppenheimer, “The Act of Killing”
Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, “After Tiller”
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, “Leviathan”
Tinatin Gurchiani, “The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear”
Sarah Polley, “Stories We Tell”
Best Editing
Janus Billeskov Jansen, “The Act of Killing”
Alain Berliner, “First Cousin Once Removed”
Nels Bangerter, “Let the Fire Burn”
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, “Leviathan”
Francisco Bello, “Our Nixon”
Best Achievement in Production
Signe Byrge Sørensen, “The Act of Killing”
Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, “After Tiller”
Anthony Arnove, Brenda Coughlin and Jeremy Scahill, “Dirty Wars”
Michael Haslund-Christensen, “Expedition to the End of the World”
Karim Amer, “The Square”
Best Cinematography
Zachary Heinzerling, “Cutie and the Boxer”
Richard Rowley, “Dirty Wars”
Janice D”avila, Will Etchebehere and Miguel Vassy, “Elena”
Martin Much, “Expedition to the End of the World”
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel, “Leviathan”
Lotfy Nathan, “12 O”Clock Boys”
Best Made-for-Television Documentary
“The Crash Reel”
“Gideon”s Army”
“Homegoings”
“Inventing David Geffen”
“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”
“Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington”
Audience Choice Award
“The Act of Killing”
“Blackfish”
“The Crash Reel”
“Cutie and the Boxer”
“Muscle Shoals”
“Rafea: Solar Mama”
“Sound City”
“The Square”
“Stories We Tell”
“20 Feet From Stardom”
Best Debut Feature
Martha Shane and Lana Wilson, “After Tiller”
Zachary Heinzerling, “Cutie and the Boxer”
Jason Osder, “Let the Fire Burn”
Tinatin Gurchiani, “The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear”
Ilian Metev, “Sofia’s Last Ambulance”
Lotfy Nathan, “12 O”Clock Boys”
Best Original Score
Sam Retzer and Tim Boland, “A Band Called Death”
Jeff Beale, “Blackfish”
Yasuaki Shimizu, “Cutie and the Boxer”
Mads Heldtberg, “Expedition to the End of the World”
Jeremy Turner, “Narco Cultura”
Bradford Cox, “Teenage Score”
Best Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation
Art Jail, “Cutie and the Boxer”
Rick Cikowski and Brandon Dumlao, “Far Out Isn”t Far Enough”
Brandon Blommaert and Fred Casia, “The Fruit Hunters”
Brian Oakes, “Inequality for All”
Margot Tsakiri-Scanatovits and Daniel Chester, “Maidentrip”
Maryanne Butler and Marc Smith, “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks”
Spotlight Award
“Bending Steel”
“Fuck for Forest”
“Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction”
“The Last Station”
“The Search for Emak Bakia”
“Valentine Road”
Best Documentary Short
“Da Vinci”
“Death of a Prisoner”
“Outlawed in Pakistan”
“Reindeer Director”
“SLOMO”
“A Story for the Modlins”