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Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.News Office Space.Some Hollywood insiders are blaming post-pandemic work-from-home policies—rather than rampant financialization and an overinvestment in stale intellectual-property tentpoles—for the industry’s recent decline.A coalition of human-rights groups have penned an open letter to Netflix demanding the renewal of its “Palestinian Stories” collection, which expired earlier this month after three years on the platform.Workers in RadicalMedia’s nonfiction division have launched a union drive, having collected an “overwhelming majority” of signature cards from the 65-person bargaining group. They plan to join the Writers Guild of America East.China will not have an Oscar entry this year, after the Academy deemed the documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru (2023) ineligible for the Best Foreign Picture award,...

Good Night Oppy, the moving story of the Mars rover that outlasted all expectations, was named Best Documentary Feature at the 2022 Critics Choice Documentary Awards. The film also earned Best Director (Ryan White), Best Score (Blake Neely), Best Narration, and Best Science/Nature Documentary awards.

The Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards selected David Siev’s Bad Axe as the Best First Documentary Feature and The Beatles: Get Back scored the Best Music Documentary award.

The CCDAs, hosted by Wyatt Cenac, took place on November 13, 2022 in New York City. This year marked the first time documentary fans were able to view the awards show live via the official Critics Choice Association’s website.

“Tonight was a whole new Doc Awards – hosting the ceremony in a new, bigger venue in Manhattan and streaming it live for the first time. We are thrilled to continue the celebration of so many groundbreaking and...

Click here to read the full article.

Amazon Studios and Amblin Entertainment’s Good Night Oppy was named best documentary feature at the seventh annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which were handed out Sunday night at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan.

Overall, Good Night Oppy won a total of five awards during the night, including best director for Ryan White.

For the first time, the Critics Choice Association also chose to recognize the top three documentaries in the documentary feature category. While Good Night Oppy was the gold prize winner, the silver prize went to Fire of Love, while the bronze prize went to Navalny.

Actor and stand-up comedian Wyatt Cenac (The Daily Show With Jon Stewart) served as host of the event, where documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County USA, the forthcoming Gumbo Coalition) received the Pennebaker Award (formerly known as the Critics Choice Lifetime Achievement Award) and Dawn Porter (John Lewis: Good Trouble,...

All eyes were on nonfiction films tonight when the Critics Choice Documentary Awards took place in New York City. The ceremony highlights the best feature, short, and television documentaries, pitting blockbusters like “The Beatles: Get Back” and “Moonage Daydream” against smaller Oscar contenders like “Descendant” and “Fire of Love.” The ceremony serves as an early battleground in the Best Documentary Feature race, so it’s a can’t-miss event for Oscar watchers.

One clear winner emerged throughout the night: “Good Night Oppy.” Ryan White’s documentary about NASA’s groundbreaking Opportunity rover won five of the top prizes: Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Score, Best Science/Nature Documentary, and Best Narration. Given that the Amazon-backed documentary was competing against the likes of Judd Apatow and Brett Morgen, the sweep made a bold statement as the Oscar race heats up.

On the episodic side, “The Beatles: Get Back” won Best...

Fire of Love and All That Breathes further established themselves as solid Oscar contenders, leading all comers as the IDA Documentary Awards nominations were announced today.

Fire of Love, about scientists Katia and Maurice Krafft, a French couple who risked their lives documenting volcanic eruptions, earned five IDA nominations, including Best Feature Documentary and Best Director for Sara Dosa. It was also recognized in the cinematography, editing, and writing categories.

All That Breathes, director Shaunak Sen’s poetic study of two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured birds of prey, was announced as the winner of the Pare Lorentz Award, an honor named for the pioneering filmmaker who made highly regarded work during the Great Depression. All That Breathes earned four other nominations, including Best Feature Documentary, Best Director, cinematography, and editing [see the full list of IDA Awards nominations below].

Two girls staying at a temporary shelter for neglected children in Eastern Ukraine in ‘A...

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the nominees for the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda). The winners will be revealed at a Gala Event on Sunday, November 13, 2022 at The Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, marking a change of venue and borough. The ceremony will be hosted by longtime event supporter, actor, and standup comedian Wyatt Cenac.

“Fire of Love” leads with seven nominations, including nods for Best Documentary Feature, Sara Dosa for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Science/Nature Documentary.

“Good Night Oppy” is recognized with six nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, Ryan White for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, and Best Science/Nature Documentary. Last year’s winner, “Summer of Soul,” went on to win the Oscar. See the full list of nominees below.

Best Documentary Feature

Aftershock (Hulu/Onyx Collective)

The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions...

The Critics Choice Documentary nominees have been announced.

Fire of Love secured seven total nominations, leading the pack, while Good Night Oppy managed six.

“This year’s nominees prove that documentaries of all lengths and formats are advancing nonfiction media like never before,” said Christopher Campbell, co-president of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch.

Scroll down to see the full list of nominations.

Best Documentary Feature

Aftershock (Hulu)

The Automat (A Slice of Pie Productions)

Descendant (Netflix)

Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)

Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down (Briarcliff Entertainment)

Good Night Oppy (Amazon Studios)

The Janes (HBO)

Moonage Daydream (HBO/Neon)

Navalny (HBO/CNN/Warner Bros. Pictures)

Sidney (Apple TV+)

Best Director

Judd Apatow, Michael Bonfiglio – George Carlin’s American Dream (HBO)

Margaret Brown – Descendant (Netflix)

Sara Dosa – Fire of Love (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)

Reginald Hudlin – Sidney (Apple TV+)

Brett Morgen – Moonage Daydream (HBO...

A scene from ‘Fire of Love’ (Credit: National Geographic Documentary Films / Neon)

Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love tops the list of the Seventh Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards with seven nominations. Director Ryan White’s Good Night Oppy follows close behind with six nominations. Both films earned spots in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Narration, and Best Science/Nature Documentary categories.

In addition, Fire of Love picked up a nomination in the Best Archival Documentary category.

“This year’s nominees prove that documentaries of all lengths and formats are advancing nonfiction media like never before,” stated Christopher Campbell, Co-President of the Critics Choice Association Documentary Branch. “And we are excited to celebrate the tremendous talents who contributed to all of these brilliant films and series.”

“We are also thrilled to witness an exemplary number of women filmmakers and female-focused subjects being represented, further...

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) has announced the nominees for their seventh annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards (Ccda), with National Geographic’s “Fire of Love,” director Sara Dosa’s film about volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, leading the pack with seven nominations, and Amazon Prime Video’s “Good Night Oppy,” director Ryan White’s chronicle of the triumphant Mars rover mission, following with six.

This year’s show, which honors the best achievements in nonfiction released in theaters, on TV, or on major digital platforms, as determined by the voting of qualified Cca members, comes with a couple changes this year. The gala event is moving to the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, and for the first time ever, the Awards will be live-streamed through Facebook Live and Instagram Live. Viewing links will be available on the Critics Choice Association website at 7:00 p.m. Et on Sunday, November 13.

In addition to the 17 awards categories,...

A phony pawn shop. A fake liquor store. A village made up of one faux storefront after another, like something from a Hollywood backlot. What was this strange, ersatz Main Street erected on an army base in Virginia in 1967? A place dubbed “Riotsville.”

Contemporary America has forgotten about it, but decades ago the U.S. military assembled a mock town where law enforcement and military personnel could engage in a sort of pantomime – rehearsing how to successfully suppress an urban riot. It wasn’t an abstract exercise. The training ground was constructed in direct response to revolts that had erupted in the Watts section of Los Angeles in 1965, and two years later in Newark and Detroit.

A scene from ‘Riotsville, U.S.A.’

The new documentary Riotsville, U.S.A., directed by Sierra Pettengill and written by Tobi Haslett, explores the building of this imitation urban flashpoint and what it...

"1967 had given the establishment proof that something was broken – and being born." Magnolia Pictures has finally unveiled an official trailer for this outstanding documentary film titled Riotsville, U.S.A., one of the best docs I've seen this entire year. This originally premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in January, and I listed it as one of my favorite films of the fest. Welcome to Riotsville, a fictional town built by the US military. Using all archival footage, the film explores the militarization of the police and creates a counter-narrative to the nation's reaction to the uprisings of the late '60s. It is an eye-opening look at how America has used violence to suppress progress and liberal ideas ever since the radical 60s. And it's scary af. Featuring writing by Tobi Haslett, and narration by Charlene Modeste. At Sundance this year, I wrote about how it's, "another important this-should-be-shown-everywhere...

As police brutality and the militarization of law enforcement continue to be debated in America, it’s increasingly important to investigate the way those issues have shaped the nation’s past. “Riotsville U.S.A.,” Sierra Pettengill’s documentary that explores the model towns that were set up in the 1960s to train police officers for violent confrontation with rioters, seeks to fill an essential gap in that discourse. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is currently gearing up for a September theatrical release, with the first trailer premiering exclusively on IndieWire today.

According to the official synopsis from Magnolia Pictures, “Riotsville, U.S.A.” tells the story of a turning point in American history where the protest movements of the late 1960s came into conflict with increasingly militarized police departments. Focusing on unearthed military training footage of Army-built model towns called “Riotsvilles,” where military and police were trained to respond...

The duo were speaking at the final Cph: Dox A Morning With… session in Copenhagen on Thursday (March 31).

Riotsville, USA director Sierra Pettengill and The Eclipse filmmaker Natasa Urban discussed the different ways documentaries can use historical archive footage in the final Cph: Dox A Morning With… session in Copenhagen on Thursday (March 31).

US professional archival researcher and filmmaker Pettengill said she felt compelled to make her film, about the full-scale town centre replicas built by the military in the 1960s for riot training, because they are “not part of our historical memory in the USA.”

Initially finding some intriguing...

Riotsville isn’t just a place. It’s an idea; a fiction written by the enforcers of order to “demonstrate the presence of a superior force.” Riotsville is portable and meant to be transplanted no matter the material conditions of what it may disturb. Riotsville is violence done to civilians in the name of maintaining their own civilized society. To put it bluntly: Riotsville is federally funded facism, and as director Sierra Pettengill’s urgent, meticulously collaged documentary outlines, it laid the foundation for the tactics and overwhelming funding of police brutality we see today.

Riotsville, USA is a documentary made entirely of archival footage from the 1960s, much of it helpfully recorded by the U.S. military. Guided by stark intertitles and a poetic narration written by scholar Tobi Haslett, the film takes a micro and macro view of the ‘60s as a flashpoint for blatant disregard of American...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWe're thrilled to announce Notebook magazine, a new biannual print-only publication dedicated to the art and culture of cinema, with original contributions by film artists, writers, curators, and archivists about a unique and eclectic array of cinematic subjects. Inside our pilot Issue 0 you'll find Apichatpong Weerasethakul reflecting on his personal journey and Wes Anderson on The French Dispatch and The New Yorker; explorations of moviegoing and odes to movie magazines; conversations between the cinema exhibitors of Milan's Cinema Beltrade and Dubai's Cinema Akil, as well as between directors Emma Seligman and Mike Leigh; movie posters from a milestone MoMA exhibition; sheet music handwritten by Nino Rota; new translations of writings by Yasujiro Ozu; and much more. This issue is printed in a limited edition and available for pre-order to Mubi subscribers only—get yours now,...