Mars Rover’s documentary “Good Night Oppy” was named the best nonfiction film of 2022 at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which took place Sunday night at the Edison Ballroom in New York City.
Ryan White was named the best documentary filmmaker of the year for “Good Night Oppy” in a ceremony that consistently spread the love, with a dozen different films and film series winning awards and only “Good Night Oppy” and “The Beatles: Get Back”. more than just one prize.
“Get Back” won two, while “Good Night Oppy” took five, also including Best Science/Nature Documentary, Best Narrative and Best Original Score.
For the first time, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards also announced the second and third place finalists in the main category, with “Fire of Love” coming in second and “Navalny” coming in third.
David Siev won in the Best First Feature category for “Bad Axe”. Genre winners were “Fire of Love” for Archival Documentary, “Descendant” for Historical Document, “Navalny” for Political Document, “Sidney” for Biographical Document, “Good Night Oppy” for Science/Nature Document, and a tie. between “Citizen Ashe” and “Welcome to Wrexham” for the sports documentary. Peter Jackson’s three-part Disney+ series “The Beatles: Get Back” won Best Music Documentary about a group of theatrical documents, taking advantage of the rule CCDA that does not distinguish between film and television documentaries in many categories.
In the craft awards, “Our Great National Parks” won for cinematography and “Moonage Daydream” for editing.
In the documentary series categories, the winners were “The Beatles: Get Back” and “30 for 30.”
Since the Critics Choice Association split its nonfiction awards into a separate program in 2016, the CCDA winner has won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature twice, for 2019’s “OJ: Made in America” and “Summer of Soul” from last year. The other four times, the CCDA winner — “Jane,” “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” “Apollo 11” and “Dick Johnson Is Dead” — notably did not receive an Oscar nomination.
In general, Critics Choice voters tend to be closer to mainstream crowd-pleasing films than Oscar voters or documentary professionals in the Cinema Eye Honors and International Documentary Association. (Full disclosure: I am a voting member).
Sunday’s honorary awards went to Dawn Porter (Critics Choice Impact Award) and Barbara Kopple (Pennebaker Award).
Winners:
Best Documentary Feature: “Goodnight Oppy” (Amazon Studios)
Silver Medal Winner: “Fire of Love” (National Geographic Documentary Films/Neon)
Bronze Medal Winner: “Navalny” (HBO Max/CNN Films)
best director: Ryan White – “Goodnight Oppy” (Amazon Studios)
Best Documentary First Feature: David Siev – “Bad Axe” (IFC Films)
Best Photography: The Photography Team – “Our Great National Parks” (Netflix)
best editing: Brett Morgen – “Moonage Daydream” (HBO/Neon)
best score: Blake Neely – “Goodnight Oppy” (Amazon Studios)
best narration: “Goodnight Oppy” (Amazon Studios)
Written by Helen Kearns, Ryan White, played by Angela Bassett
Best Archival Documentary: “Fire of Love” (National Geographic/Neon Documentary Films)
Best Historical Documentary: “Descendant” (Netflix)
Best Biographical Documentary: “Sydney” (Apple TV+)
best music documentary: “The Beatles: Come Back” (Disney+)
Best Political Documentary: “Navalny” (HBO Max/CNN Films)
Best Science/Nature Documentary: “Goodnight Oppy” (Amazon Studios)
Best sports documentary: (TIE) “Citizen Ashe” (Magnolia/HBO) and “Welcome to Wrexham” (FX/Hulu)
Best Documentary Short: “The Annoying Bear” (The New Yorker)
Best Limited Documentary Series: “The Beatles: Come Back” (Disney+)
Best Ongoing Documentary Series: “30 for 30” (ESPN)
The Pennebaker Award: Barbara Kopple
Critics’ Choice Impact Award: Dawn Porter