Ezra Edelman’s seven-hour O.J.: Made in America and Ava Duvernay’s 13th lapped the field at the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. Both won the Best Documentary and Best Director prizes — for film and TV, respectively — with O.J. winning four trophies and 13th nabbing three. They both came into tonight’s ceremony in Brooklyn with a leading five noms apiece, tied with Gleason, which came away empty-handed.
Edelman’s project about football legend-turned TV personalily-turned murder defandant essentially is a multi-part ESPN miniseries, but it got a minimal theatrical release to qualify for awards season. At TCA in May, the filmmaker described the project as “also a story about the city of Los Angeles and race going back to the ’50s and ’60s.”
Duvernay’s docu about racial inequality in the justice system opened the New York Film Festival in late September but debuted on Netflix day-and-date with its theatrical run. The film explores the history of race relations through the prism of prisons and the preponderance of young black and Latino men who make up a large part of their populations.
Other winners at tonight’s awards include Ron Howard’s The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years and Josh Kriegman & Elyse Steinberg’s Weiner .
Here is the complete list of winners at the inaugural Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards:
Best Documentary (Theatrical Feature)
O.J.: Made in America
Best Director (Theatrical Feature)
Ezra Edelman – O.J.: Made in America
Best Documentary (TV/Streaming)
13th
Best Director (TV/Streaming)
Ava DuVernay – 13th
Best First Documentary (Theatrical Feature)
Jack Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg – Weiner
Best First Documentary (TV/Streaming)
(TIE)
Jacob Bernstein and Nick Hooker – Everything Is Copy — Nora Ephron: Scripted and Unscripted
Deborah Esquenazi – Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four
Best Political Documentary
13th
Best Sports Documentary
O.J.: Made in America
Best Music Documentary
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
Best Song in a Documentary
“I’m Still Here” – Miss Sharon Jones – Written by Sharon Jones – Performed by Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Best Limited Documentary Series
O.J.: Made in America
Best Ongoing Documentary Series
30 for 30
Most Innovative Documentary
The Tower
