10th Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards Program Booklet
November 9, 2025
New York City
WELCOME TO THE 10TH ANNUAL CRITICS CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDS!
The Critics Choice Association is truly honored to be hosting you all here at the Edison Ballroom for our 10th anniversary as we celebrate the finest in documentary filmmaking and nonfiction television over the past year. Whether this is your first time at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards or you’ve been here any time over the past decade with other films, we are so excited that so many incredible storytellers could get together in this room tonight.
We have a new master of ceremonies this year, Aasif Mandvi, and we are very grateful to him and our esteemed presenters for helping to make this evening so special.
Once again, we celebrate the legacy of the legendary documentarian D A Pennebaker, by presenting our career award, named in his honor, to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, presented by Penny’s partner, Chris Hegedus. We are also very excited to recognize the cultural and historical imprint of Ken Burns, who receives this year’s Critics Choice Impact Award.
Of course, we have to acknowledge the volunteers on our Nominating Committee, who watched countless hours of documentaries and selected our nominees, and all the voting CCA members who chose tonight’s winners.
This evening would also not be possible without the generous support of our Catalyst Sponsors, National Geographic, Netflix, Starz, and Milagro. And, once again, NatGeo and the CCA are inviting everyone to keep the party going at Bond 45 after all the awards are handed out!
Special thanks to the great Bob Bain and his talented team, led by Andrea Regalado, Benn Fleishman, Danny Sanchez, Patrick Doody, Candice Clark, and Robin Reinhardt, for turning our awards presentation into an entertaining event honoring the documentary community. We also thank Critics Choice CEO Joey Berlin, our friends at LDM/PR and Apex PR, and everyone else who made this evening possible. David Freedman and Laura Mandel did a lot of heavy lifting, aided mightily by Dera Freund, Josh Orenstein, Lisa Waters, and the gang at the Edison.
Finally, thanks to all the studios and networks and production companies and distribution platforms and everyone in the room tonight who make it possible for our honorees to do their thing, and to the publicists for bringing their work to our attention. We are so proud, for a decade now, to be able to honor the best of the best.
Christopher Campbell VP of Documentary Critics Choice Association
The Critics Choice Association would like to thank our host
AASIF MANDVI
CCDA NOMINEES NETFLIX
THANKS THE CRITICS CHOICE ASSOCIATION AND PROUDLY CONGRATULATES OUR
BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
BEST SPORTS DOCUMENTARY
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BEST DIRECTOR
PETRA COSTA
BEST NARRATION
PETRA COSTA
ALESSANDRA OROFINO, NELS BANGERTER, DAVID BARKER, TINA BAZ
BEST POLITICAL DOCUMENTARY
BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY
BEST LIMITED DOCUMENTARY SERIES
BEST SCIENCE/ NATURE DOCUMENTARY
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BEST DIRECTOR
GEETA GANDBHIR
BEST EDITING
VIRIDIANA LIEBERMAN
BEST SCORE LAURA HEINZINGER
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BEST HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY
BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES
BEST TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARY
THE PENNEBAKER AWARD HEIDI EWING & RACHEL GRADY
The Critics Choice Association is delighted to present the Pennebaker Award to Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, two filmmakers who have rewritten what observational documentary can do, one intimate portrait at a time. This award for lifetime achievement is named for the great D A Pennebaker, one of the visionaries who first showed that documentarians could simply watch and listen, and let reality speak for itself.
From the very beginning, Ewing and Grady’s work has embodied that same spirit. Take their early feature “The Boys of Baraka,” which follows a group of young boys from Baltimore sent to a boarding school in Kenya. The film lets the children’s lives unfold in full, without judgment or overly heavy narration. It’s a simple and profound demonstration of documentary as quiet observation, exploring big issues through the lens of real lives. It set the tone for their career.
Then came “Jesus Camp,” a look inside an evangelical Christian summer camp with kids learning to “take back America for Christ”. This film put Ewing and Grady on the map. They kept their cameras steady as the kids and the camp community did their thing, and trusted viewers to draw their own conclusions. It’s an approach that echoes Pennebaker’s ethos of letting subjects lead the story.
In “One of Us” they dug even deeper into personal lives, following people escaping the Hasidic community in Brooklyn. With patience and compassion and without flashy editorializing, they brought viewers into hidden worlds with the kind of access and humility that Pennebaker inspired.
Their latest documentary, “Folktales,” offers three teens at a folk high school in Arctic Norway bonding with sled dogs and learning survival while finding themselves, far from the highpressure digital world. This is an emotionally grounded and powerful film that confirms Ewing and Grady’s commitment to observing with heart.
With the Pennebaker Award, the Critics Choice Association celebrates Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s lasting contributions to the art form. For two decades they have created films that allow the camera to wander, the subject to breathe, and the viewer to engage. They have carried forward Pennebaker’s legacy, showing us what documentary films can achieve when they focus on honesty, patience and respect for the human moment. Here’s to the stories they’ve told, and all those yet to come.
THE IMPACT AWARD KEN BURNS
We are thrilled to name legendary documentarian Ken Burns the recipient of the Critics Choice Impact Award, a distinction that recognizes filmmakers who have illuminated our shared story and sparked meaningful dialogue that inspires reflection and action.
Few storytellers have left as indelible a mark on the cultural landscape as Burns, who in his nearly 50-year career has reshaped the art of documentary filmmaking and enhanced our collective understanding of the American experience.
Since his Academy Award-nominated debut in 1981 with “Brooklyn Bridge,” Burns has built a body of work that serves as a national mirror. With his groundbreaking 1990 series “The Civil War” he transformed the very idea of a history documentary, engaging tens of millions of viewers as he pulled the Civil War out of textbooks and into living rooms in a way that invited reflections on freedom, race, and memory.
With “Baseball,” Burns used America’s pastime to shine a spotlight on how sports are woven into the nation’s social fabric, playing a central role in its history. That helped fans and non-fans alike recognize how the game has contributed to the American story.
In “Jazz,” Burns celebrated one of America’s great art forms while exploring issues of race and cultural expression. The series traced how jazz music evolved as entertainment in the form of a living conversation about the rhythms of change.
Then came “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea,” where Burns invited us to see the nation’s wilderness as an integral part of its heritage, and as a focus for activism and community building. The series spurred interest in conservation, and educational programs like “Untold Stories,” reminding us that public lands belong to all of us.
With his feature documentary “The Central Park Five,” co-directed by his daughter Sarah Burns and sonin-law David McMahon, Burns shifted public perception about social injustices, amplified the voices of the wrongly convicted, and exposed systemic flaws.
“The U.S. and the Holocaust,” which he co-directed with longtime collaborators Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein, shows how his work is always in constant conversation with history, with his audience, and with itself. Through this powerful film, Burns continued to engage with important and uncharted questions about America’s role in the world.
Now we have “The American Revolution,” his latest. It’s a bold six-part series taking a fresh look at the founding of our nation, setting the myths aside to explore its contradictions, and prompting new discussions about freedom and the project of nation-building.
Through each of these works and many more, Burns has encouraged teachers to bring his films into classrooms, and communities to host public screenings and dialogues. His work consistently shows how great documentaries can lead to insight, then empathy and change.
So tonight we celebrate Ken Burns, a master storyteller whose craft meets purpose. With the Critics Choice Impact Award, we honor his remarkable talent for creating documentary films that keep pushing America toward a deeper understanding of itself.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Apocalypse in the Tropics
Deaf President Now! Apple TV
BEST DIRECTOR
Mstyslav Chernov
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Frontline Features/The Associated Press
Nyle DiMarco & Davis Guggenheim Deaf President Now! Apple TV
Andrew Jarecki & Charlotte Kaufman The Alabama Solution
Petra Costa Apocalypse in the Tropics Netflix
Geeta Gandbhir The Perfect Neighbor Netflix
Raoul Peck
Orwell: 2+2=5
BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Art for Everybody
Tremolo Productions
My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost
Seeds
Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror
Margot Station
Grand Theft Hamlet
BEST EDITING
BEST NARRATION
2000 Meters to Andriivka
Written by Mstyslav Chernov
Performed by Mstyslav Chernov
Frontline Features / The Associated Press
The Americas
Written by Michael Gunton, Holly Spearing, Steve Cole, Kathryn Jeffs, Matt Richards, Giles Badger, Victoria Buckley, Alex Griffiths, Hannah Hoare, Poppy Riddle, Gillian Taylor, Nikki Waldron, Evie Wright, Charlotte Bostock, Victoria Bobin, & Ingrid Kvale
Performed by Tom Hanks NBC
Octopus!
Written by Gabriel Bisset-Smith
Performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Prime Video
The American Revolution
Written by Geoffrey C. Ward
Performed by Peter Coyote PBS
Apocalypse in the Tropics
Written by Petra Costa
Co-Writers: Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, David Barker, Tina Baz
Performed by Petra Costa Netflix
Orwell: 2+2=5
Written by George Orwell, Adapted by Raoul Peck
Performed by Damian Lewis Neon
BEST SCORE
Alexei Aigui
Laura
Sam
Kris
Paweł Szymański
BEST ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTARY
One to One: John & Yoko
Orwell: 2+2=5
The Perfect Neighbor
Riefenstahl
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Ben Bernhard
Architecton A24
Elizabeth Lo Mistress Dispeller
Oscilloscope
Brittany Shyne Seeds
Interior Films
Jean Dakar
The Tale of Silyan
National Geographic
Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo & Tor Edvin Eliassen
Folktales
Magnolia Pictures
Toby Strong, Doug Anderson (Underwater Photography) Ocean with David Attenborough (National Geographic
The American Revolution
Cover-Up
Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015
Number One on the Call Sheet
Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time National Geographic
Riefenstahl Kino Lorber
John Candy: I Like Me Prime Video
Mr. Scorsese Apple TV
Pee-wee as Himself
HBO Max
My Mom Jayne: A Film by Mariska Hargitay
HBO Max
Stiller & Meara: Nothing is Lost Apple TV
Love + War
BEST MUSIC DOCUMENTARY
Becoming Led Zeppelin
Billy Joel: And So It Goes
Bono: Stories of Surrender Apple
Ladies & Gentlemen… 50 Years of SNL Music
It’s
Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)
Sony Pictures Classics
TV
Never Over, Jeff Buckley HBO Max, Magnolia Pictures
