2021 Cinema Eye Honors nominees: ‘Time,’ ‘Collective,’ ‘Gunda’

By John Benutty

Cinema Eye Honors (CEH) announced the nominees for its 14th annual awards on December 10, raising the profile of three contenders in the Documentary Feature Oscar derby. Garrett Bradley‘s “Time,” Victor Kossakovsky‘s “Gunda,” and Alexander Nanau‘s “Collective” all reaped bids for Best Documentary Feature, Direction and Editing.

“Time” leads the CEH’s nominees with six overall, including Debut, Score and Audience Choice. “Gunda” added Cinematography to its tally for four overall, equal to the four for “Collective” which added Production. The other two films nominated for Feature are Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss‘s “Boys State” and Kirsten Johnson‘s “Dick Johnson Is Dead.”

In the last five years the group has matched with the academy’s documentary branch on three nominees, including a nomination and win last year for the eventual Oscar champ “American Factory.” With that precedent in mind, we might expect three of CEH’s five nominees to go on to be Oscar nominated in February.

The CEH nominees mirror in part, what we’ve already seen from the International Documentary Association (IDA) and Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCDA) nominees, as well as the short list for DOC NYC Film Festival this year. “Time” and “Gunda” are the only films to be recognized by all four of the groups.

While all five of the CEH nominees were short-listed by DOC NYC, “Collective” was further recognized with an IDA nomination while “Dick Johnson Is Dead” was cited by CCDA and “Boys State” missed both.

Notably missing from the CEH list are other high-profile films including Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht‘s “Crip Camp” which was cited by all of DOC NYC, CCDA and IDA prior to the CEH announcement. Gianfranco Rosi‘s “Notturno” and Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw‘s “The Truffle Hunters” each earned three nominations from CEH, but missed in the top category, the former of which was nominated in Direction.

Cinema Eye Honors winners will be announced virtually on Tuesday, March 9, 2021.

PREDICT the 2021 Oscar nominations through March 15

Full list of feature film nominations below:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Boys State
Collective
Dick Johnson is Dead
Gunda
Time

BEST DIRECTION
Alexander Nanau for “Collective”
Kirsten Johnson for “Dick Johnson is Dead”
Victor Kossakovsky for “Gunda”
Gianfranco Rosi for “Notturno”
Garrett Bradley for “Time”

BEST EDITING
Boys State
City Hall
Collective
Gunda
MLK/FBI
Time

BEST PRODUCTION
76 Days
Collective
The Dissident
Notturno
A Thousand Cuts
Welcome to Chechnya

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Gunda
My Octopus Teacher
Notturno
Stray
The Truffle Hunters

BEST ORIGINAL MUSIC SCORE
Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets
Bulletproof
The Mole Agent
The Reason I Jump
Time
The Truffle Hunters

BEST GRAPHIC DESIGN OR ANIMATION
Coded Bias
Feels Good Man
My Psychedelic Love Story
Slay the Dragon
The Social Dilemma

BEST DEBUT FEATURE FILM
Feels Good Man
Mr Soul!
Softie
Some Kind of Heaven
Stray
Time

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Huntsville Station
John Was Trying to Contact Aliens
A Love Song for Latasha
See You Next Time
Then Comes the Evening

AUDIENCE CHOICE
Boys State
Crip Camp
Dick Johnson is Dead
I Am Greta
John Lewis: Good Trouble
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
The Social Dilemma
Time
The Truffle Hunters

SPOTLIGHT AWARD
Acasa, My Home
The Earth is Blue as an Orange
Jacinta
Landfall
Mayor
Through the Night