As part of Screen International’s guide to the films to watch this awards season, we round up some of the key documentary contenders.
Black Box Diaries
Dir. Shiori Ito
Journalist and filmmaker Ito relates the investigation of her own sexual assault – and the case’s political impact in her native Japan – in this Sundance premiere, which went on to win the human rights award at CPH:DOX and two big prizes at Zurich. MTV Documentary Films picked up US rights, with sister platform Paramount+ set to stream domestically.
Dahomey
Dir. Mati Diop
Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and Senegal’s submission for this year’s international feature Oscar, Diop’s non-fiction foray charts the return of African royal treasures from Paris to Benin in what the Senegalese-French director of Atlantics describes as a “fantasy documentary”. The film was picked up by Mubi for North America, the UK and other territories.
Daughters
Dirs. Natalie Rae, Angela Patton
In Sundance crowdpleaser Daughters, first-time feature director Rae and activist Patton follow four girls and their incarcerated fathers as they prepare for an emotional father-daughter dance staged as part of the fatherhood programme at a Washington DC jail. Winner of Sundance’s festival favourite and US documentary audience award prizes, the film was acquired by Netflix, which reportedly beat out several other bidders, a week after its Park City premiere.
Frida
Dir. Carla Gutierrez
The life story of Frida Kahlo is told using the Mexican artist’s own diaries, letters and essays, with animation based on her art, in this new bio-doc, winner of the US documentary editing award when it premiered at Sundance. Gutierrez, a Primetime Emmy award-nominated editor for RBG, makes her directing debut on the Imagine and Storyville production from Amazon MGM Studios; Prime Video streams worldwide.
Mountain Queen: The Summits Of Lhakpa Sherpa
Dir. Lucy Walker
Embraced by audiences at Toronto 2023 and snapped up at the festival by Netflix, Mountain Queen centres on the first Nepali woman to summit Everest and survive, her life as a single mother in the US, and her return for a 10th attempt on the peak. British-American director Walker was Oscar-nominated in 2011 for feature documentary Waste Land and in 2012 for short The Tsunami And The Cherry Blossom.
No Other Land
Dirs. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
This hot-button Berlinale premiere won the festival’s documentary and Panorama audience awards and has since been a high-profile fixture on the festival circuit. Made by a Palestinian-Israeli team over the four years leading up to the current Israel-Hamas conflict, it documents a West Bank community’s struggle against displacement by Israeli forces. The film has sold to a number of European territories, and will open at Film at Lincoln Center in New York for a one-week run, but currently lacks formal US distribution.
Porcelain War
Dirs. Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
Launched at Sundance where it won the Grand Jury Prize for US Documentary, this debut feature from Bellomo (who has a background in visual effects) and Leontyev went on to a big festival sweep including Hot Docs and Karlovy Vary. The cinematic essay captures the outbreak of war in Ukraine and its aftermath, focusing on artisan porcelain maker Leontyev who continues to create with his artist wife Anya Stasenko, even as his focus shifts to training recruits for battle. Picturehouse is set to release in the US, beginning in New York on November 22.
The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin
Dir. Benjamin Ree
Ree follows The Painter And The Thief (2020) with this portrait of a Norwegian family whose assessment of their seemingly lonely, isolated son Mats changed radically after his degenerative muscular disease killed him at the age of 25. This Sundance double prize-winner reveals a young man who, they discover, achieved profound connection with fellow online gamers. Its five Critics’ Choice Documentary awards nominations include for best director and documentary feature.
Soundtrack To A Coup D’Etat
Dir. Johan Grimonprez
Belgian multimedia artist and documentary maker Grimonprez intertwines jazz and politics to examine colonial power dynamics in Africa and the 1961 assassination of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba. With a soundtrack including music from Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone and Duke Ellington, the film premiered at Sundance and won the festival’s special jury award for cinematic innovation. Kino Lorber is distributing in the US, with public library service Kanopy streaming.
Sugarcane
Dirs. Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie
First-time director NoiseCat and journalist-filmmaker Kassie won the US documentary directing award when their film premiered at Sundance this year, helping Sugarcane secure a worldwide sale to National Geographic (whose sister platforms Disney+ and Hulu will stream). With NoiseCat’s own father at its centre, the film – which leads the Critics’ Choice Documentary awards with eight nominations – looks at the abuse of children at residential schools run by the Catholic Church of Canada and its effect on Indigenous communities.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
Dirs. Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
The actor who played the Man of Steel on the big screen before being paralysed in a horse-riding accident in 1995 is the subject of this bio-doc, bought by Warner Bros Discovery (home of the Superman franchise) for a reported $15m following its Sundance premiere. Warner Bros is giving the film a global theatrical release, and sister platform Max is set to stream. Directors Bonhôte and Ettedgui previously teamed on Bafta-nominated fashion documentary McQueen.
Will & Harper
Dir. Josh Greenbaum
Another popular Sundance premiere bought by Netflix, Will & Harper follows comedy star Will Ferrell and former Saturday Night Live writer Harper Steele as they renew their friendship on an American heartland road trip following the latter’s decision to come out as a trans woman. Greenbaum directs after working with Ferrell on feature comedies Strays and Barb And Star Go To Vista Del Mar.
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