2021 Critics Choice Documentary Awards: ‘Ascension,’ ‘Summer of Soul’ are the top nominees

October 18, 2021

The following is a press release from the Critics Choice Association:

The Critics Choice Association(CCA) has announced the nominees for the Sixth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (CCDA). The winners will be revealed at a Gala Event on Sunday, November 14, 2021, at BRIC in Brooklyn, NY.

The Critics Choice Associationwill once again be honoring the year’s finest achievements in documentaries released in theaters, on TV and on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified CCA members. 

This year, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards proudly has its first Presenting Sponsor, National Geographic Documentary Films. 

Features by two first-time documentarians, Ascension and Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) lead this year’s nominations with six each. 

Ascension is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Jessica Kingdon for Best Director, Best First Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Score.

Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson for Best Director, Best First Documentary Feature, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary and Best Music Documentary.

Recognized with five nominations each are Becoming Cousteau and The Rescue. 

The nominations for Becoming Cousteau are Best Documentary Feature, Liz Garbus for Best Director, Best Narration, Best Archival Documentary and Best Science/Nature Documentary. 

The Rescue is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin for Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Score.

“This has been and continues to be a fantastic year for documentary storytelling. And the number of first-time feature documentarians in the mix of nominees, alongside proven veterans, shows that nonfiction cinema continues to have a very bright future,” said Christopher Campbell, President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “Our world, from its most amazing wonders to its greatest challenges, is being reflected back on the screen so immediately and creatively by today’s filmmakers, and it’s a tremendous honor for us to recognize all of their achievements.” 

Last year at the Fifth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Dick Johnson is Dead took home the CCA’s top award for Best Documentary as well as the Best Director award for Kirsten Johnson.

My Octopus Teacher took home the awards for Best Science and Nature Documentary and Best Cinematography. The film later received many more accolades and awards, including an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

In addition to the 14 award categories and one honor listed below, a most prestigious honor – The Pennebaker Award (formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award) – will be presented to esteemed documentarian R.J. Cutler. This award is named for Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award winner D.A. Pennebaker, who passed away in 2019. The award will be presented to Cutler by Pennebaker’s producing partner and wife, Chris Hegedus.

R.J. Cutler is the award-winning producer/director whose work includes some of the most acclaimed documentaries of the last thirty years. His most recent film, the Apple Original Film cinema verité documentary Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry, is nominated for Best Music Documentary.

The nominees for the Sixth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards Presented by National Geographic Documentary Films are:

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Attica (Showtime)
• Becoming Cousteau (Picturehouse/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• The Crime of the Century (HBO Documentary Films)
• A Crime on the Bayou (Augusta Films/Shout! Studios)
• Flee (Neon)
• Introducing, Selma Blair (Discovery+)
• The Lost Leonardo (Sony Pictures Classics)
• My Name is Pauli Murray (Amazon Studios)
• Procession (Netflix)
• The Rescue (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)

BEST DIRECTOR 

• Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin – The Rescue (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Liz Garbus – Becoming Cousteau (Picturehouse/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Jessica Kingdon – Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry – Attica (Showtime)
• Jonas Poher Rasmussen – Flee (Neon)
• Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson – Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)
• Edgar Wright – The Sparks Brothers (Focus Features)

BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

• Jessica Beshir – Faya Dayi (Janus Films)
• Rachel Fleit – Introducing, Selma Blair (Discovery+)
• Todd Haynes – The Velvet Underground (Apple TV+)
• Jessica Kingdon – Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Kristine Stolakis – Pray Away (Netflix)
• Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson – Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)
• Edgar Wright – The Sparks Brothers (Focus Features)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 

• Jessica Beshir – Faya Dayi (Janus Films)
• Jonathan Griffith, Brett Lowell and Austin Siadak – The Alpinist (Roadside Attractions)
• David Katznelson, Ian Seabrook and Picha Srisansanee – The Rescue (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Jessica Kingdon and Nathan Truesdell – Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Nelson Hume and Alan Jacobsen – The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (Bleecker Street Media)
• Emiliano Villanueva – A Cop Movie (Netflix)
• Pete West – Puff: Wonders of the Reef (Netflix)

BEST EDITING 

• Francisco Bello, Matthew Heineman, Gabriel Rhodes and David Zieff – The First Wave  (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Jeff Consiglio – LFG (HBO Max and CNN Films)
• Bob Eisenhardt – The Rescue (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz – The Velvet Underground (Apple TV+)
• Jessica Kingdon – Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Joshua L. Pearson – Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)
• Julian Quantrill – The Real Charlie Chaplin (Showtime)

BEST NARRATION

• 9/11: Inside the President’s War Room (Apple TV+)/Jeff Daniels, Narrator
• Becoming Cousteau (Picturehouse/National Geographic Documentary Films)/Vincent Cassel, Narrator; Mark Monroe and Pax Wassermann, Writers
• The Crime of the Century (HBO Documentary Films)/ Alex Gibney, Narrator; Alex Gibney, Writer
• The Neutral Ground (PBS)/CJ Hunt, Narrator; CJ Hunt, Writer
• The Real Charlie Chaplin (Showtime); Pearl Mackie, Narrator; Oliver Kindeberg, Peter Middleton and James Spinney, Writers
• Val (Amazon Studios); Jack Kilmer, Narrator; Val Kilmer, Writer
• The Year Earth Changed (Apple TV+)/David Attenborough, Narrator

BEST SCORE

• Jongnic Bontemps – My Name is Pauli Murray (Amazon Studios)
• Dan Deacon – Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• Alex Lasarenko and David Little – The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (Bleecker Street Media)
• Cyrus Melchor – LFG (HBO/CNN)
• Daniel Pemberton – The Rescue (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Rachel Portman – Julia (Sony Pictures Classics)
• Dirac Sea – Final Account (Focus Features)

BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY 

• Becoming Cousteau (Picturehouse/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• The Real Charlie Chaplin (Showtime)
  The Real Right Stuff (Disney+)
• Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street (HBO Documentary Films)
• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)
• Val (Amazon Studios)
• The Velvet Underground (Apple TV+)

BEST HISTORICAL OR BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY

• Attica (Showtime)
• A Crime on the Bayou (Augusta Films/Shout! Studios)
• Fauci (Magnolia Pictures/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Final Account (Focus Features)
• Julia (Sony Pictures Classics)
• My Name is Pauli Murray (Amazon Studios)
• No Ordinary Man (Oscilloscope)
• Val (Amazon Studios)

BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY 

• Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry (Apple TV+)
• Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James (Showtime)
• Listening to Kenny G (HBO Documentary Films)
• The Sparks Brothers (Focus Features)
• Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)
• Tina (HBO Documentary Films)
• The Velvet Underground (Apple TV+)

BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY

• The Crime of the Century (HBO Documentary Films)
• Enemies of the State (IFC Films)
• Four Hours at the Capitol (HBO Documentary Films)
• Influence (StoryScope, EyeSteelFilm)
• Mayor Pete (Amazon Studios)
• Missing in Brooks County (Giant Pictures)
• Nasrin (Hulu)
• Not Going Quietly (Greenwich Entertainment)

BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY

• Becoming Cousteau (Picturehouse/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Fauci (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• The First Wave (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52 (Bleecker Street Media)
• Playing with Sharks (National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Puff: Wonders of the Reef (Netflix)
• The Year Earth Changed (Apple TV+)

BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY 

• The Alpinist (Roadside Attractions)
• Changing the Game (Hulu)
• The Day Sports Stood Still (HBO)
• Kevin Garnett: Anything is Possible (Showtime)
• LFG (HBO Max/CNN Films)
• Tiger (HBO)

BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY 

• Audible (Netflix)
• Borat’s American Lockdown (Amazon Studios)
• Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis (Netflix)
• Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol (The New York Times)
• The Doll (Jumping Ibex)
• The Last Cruise (HBO Documentary Films)
• The Queen of Basketball (The New York Times)
• Snowy (TIME Studios)

MOST COMPELLING LIVING SUBJECTS OF A DOCUMENTARY (HONOR)

• Ady Barkan – Not Going Quietly (Greenwich Entertainment)
• Selma Blair – Introducing, Selma Blair (Discovery+)
• Pete Buttigieg – Mayor Pete (Amazon Studios)
• Anthony Fauci – Fauci (Magnolia Pictures/National Geographic Documentary Films)
• Ben Fong-Torres – Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres (StudioLA.TV)
• Val Kilmer – Val (Amazon Studios)
• Ron and Russell Mael – The Sparks Brothers (Focus Features)
• Rita Moreno – Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go For It (Roadside Attractions)
• Valerie Taylor – Playing With Sharks: The Valerie Taylor Story (Disney+)

About the Critics Choice Awards

The Critics Choice Documentary Awards are an off-shoot of The Critics Choice Awards, which are bestowed annually by CCA to honor the finest in cinematic and television achievement. Historically, the Critics Choice Awards are the most accurate predictor of the Academy Award nominations.

The Critics Choice Awards ceremony will be held on January 9, 2022 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Century City, CA and will be broadcast live on The CW.

About the Critics Choice Association (CCA) 

The Critics Choice Association is the largest critics organization in the United States and Canada, representing almost 500 media critics and entertainment journalists. It was established in 2019 with the formal merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association, recognizing the intersection between film, television, and streaming content. For more information, visit: www.CriticsChoice.com.