4th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards
# 4th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards

The 4th Critics' Choice Documentary Awards were presented on November 10, 2019. at the BRIC in Brooklyn, New York, honoring the finest achievements in documentary filmmaking and non-fiction television, the ceremony was hosted by Jonathan Scott. The nominees were announced in October 14, 2019, with The Biggest Little Farm leading the nominations with seven.

## Special awards

At the ceremony, director Michael Apted received "The Landmark Award", and filmmaker Frederick Wiseman was presented as the recipient for "The D A Pennebaker Award" (previously called the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award).

## Winners and nominees

| Best Documentary Feature Apollo 11 (Neon) American Factory (Netflix) The Biggest Little Farm (Neon) The Cave (National Geographic) Honeyland (Neon) The Kingmaker (Showtime) Knock Down the House (Netflix) Leaving Neverland (HBO) Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics) One Child Nation (Amazon Studios) They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.) | Best Director Peter Jackson – They Shall Not Grow Old Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert – American Factory Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts – For Sama John Chester – The Biggest Little Farm Feras Fayyad – The Cave Todd Douglas Miller – Apollo 11 Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang – One Child Nation |
| - | - |
| Best First Documentary Feature Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov – Honeyland Midge Costin – Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound A.J. Eaton – David Crosby: Remember My Name Pamela B. Green – Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché Richard Miron – For the Birds Garret Price – Love, Antosha | Most Innovative Documentary They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.) Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics) Cold Case Hammarskjöld (Magnolia) Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix) Screwball (Greenwich) Serendipity (Cohen Media) |
| Best Archival Documentary Apollo 11 (Neon) Amazing Grace (Neon) Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics) Mike Wallace Is Here (Magnolia) Pavarotti (CBS Films) Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix) They Shall Not Grow Old (Warner Bros.) What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (HBO) | Best Short Documentary Period. End of Sentence. (Netflix) The Chapel at the Border (Atlantic Documentaries) Death Row Doctor (The New York Times Op-Docs) In the Absence (Field of Vision) Lost World Mack Wrestles (ESPN) The Polaroid Job (The New York Times Op-Docs) Sam and the Plant Next Door (The Guardian) The Unconditional The Waiting Room (The Guardian) |
| Best Political Documentary American Factory (Netflix) The Edge of Democracy (Netflix) Hail Satan? (Magnolia) The Kingmaker (Showtime) Knock Down the House (Netflix) One Child Nation (Amazon Studios) | Best Sports Documentary Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics) Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable (Entertainment Studios) Diego Maradona (HBO) Rodman: For Better or Worse (ESPN) The Spy Behind Home Plate (Ciesla Foundation) What's My Name: Muhammad Ali (HBO) |
| Best Biographical Documentary Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am (Magnolia) David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics) The Kingmaker (Showtime) Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich) Love, Antosha (Lurker Films) Mike Wallace Is Here (Magnolia) Pavarotti (CBS Films) | Best Science/Nature Documentary Apollo 11 (Neon) Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Kino Lorber) Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classic) The Biggest Little Farm (Neon) The Elephant Queen (Apple) Honeyland (Neon) Penguins (Disney) Sea of Shadows (National Geographic) |
| Best Narration Western Stars – Bruce Springsteen, narrator and writer Anthropocene: The Human Epoch – Alicia Vikander, narrator; Jennifer Baichwal, writer The Biggest Little Farm – John Chester, Molly Chester, narrators; John Chester, writer The Edge of Democracy – Petra Costa, narrator; Petra Costa, Carol Pires, David Barker, Moara Passoni, writers The Elephant Queen – Chiwetel Ejiofor, narrator; Mark Deeble, writer For Sama – Waad Al-Kateab, narrator and writer Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People – Adam Driver, narrator; Oren Rudavsky and Bob Seidman, writers One Child Nation – Nanfu Wang, narrator and writer | Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary Dr. Amani Ballor – The Cave David Crosby – David Crosby: Remember My Name Tracy Edwards – Maiden Imelda Marcos – The Kingmaker Hatidze Muratova – Honeyland Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin – Knock Down the House Linda Ronstadt – Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice Dr. Ruth Westheimer – Ask Dr. Ruth |
| Best Music Documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Greenwich) Amazing Grace (Neon) David Crosby: Remember My Name (Sony Pictures Classics) Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Abramorama) Pavarotti (CBS Films) Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Netflix) Western Stars (Warner Bros.) | Best Score Matt Morton – Apollo 11 Jeff Beal – The Biggest Little Farm Matthew Herbert – The Cave Plan 9 – They Shall Not Grow Old H. Scott Salinas – Sea of Shadows Eicca Toppinen – Aquarela |
| Best Cinematography John Chester – The Biggest Little Farm Ben Bernhard and Viktor Kossakovsky – Aquarela Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma – Honeyland Nicholas de Pencier – Anthropocene: The Human Epoch Muhammed Khair Al Shami, Ammar Suleiman, and Mohammad Eyad – The Cave Richard Ladkani – Sea of Shadows | Best Editing Todd Douglas Miller – Apollo 11 Georg Michael Fischer and Verena Schönauer – Sea of Shadows Jabez Olssen – They Shall Not Grow Old Amy Overbeck – The Biggest Little Farm Lindsay Utz – American Factory Nanfu Wang – One Child Nation |

## Films by multiple nominations and wins

| Nominations | Film |
| - | - |
| 7 | The Biggest Little Farm |
| 6 | They Shall Not Grow Old |
| 6 | Apollo 11 |
| 5 | The Cave |
| 5 | One Child Nation |
| 5 | Honeyland |
| 4 | American Factory |
| 4 | The Kingmaker |
| 4 | David Crosby: Remember My Name |
| 4 | Aquarela |
| 4 | Sea of Shadows |
| 4 | Maiden |
| 3 | Pavarotti |
| 3 | Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice |
| 3 | Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese |
| 3 | Knock Down the House |
| 3 | Anthropocene: The Human Epoch |
| 2 | The Edge of Democracy |
| 2 | The Elephant Queen |
| 2 | Western Stars |
| 2 | What's My Name: Muhammad Ali |
| 2 | Love, Antosha |
| 2 | Amazing Grace |
| 2 | Mike Wallace Is Here |
| 2 | For Sama |
| Wins | Film |
| 5 | Apollo 11 |
| 2 | American Factory |
| 2 | Honeyland |
| 2 | Maiden |
| 2 | They Shall Not Grow Old |
| 2 | Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice |
