2017 DOC NYC Awards are Announced
Three juries selected films from each of the festival’s Viewfinders, Metropolis and Shorts sections to recognize for their outstanding achievements in form and content. Festival audiences voted for the DOC NYC Audience Award, and a panel of industry professionals voted to select the winner of this year’s DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award, given to a work-in-progress. The winner of last year’s DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award, Naila and the Uprising from director Julia Bacha, had its World Premiere at the 2017 festival with a sold out screening in the festival’s largest venue, the SVA Theatre.
Viewfinders Competition: The jury selected from among eight films in this section, chosen by the programmers for their distinct directorial visions.
Grand Jury Prize Winner: The Stranger, directed by Nicole N. Horanyi, follows a 25-year-old single mother who meets the man of her dreams on Facebook, but she soon discovers that the charming, worldly man has secrets.
Jurors’ statement: “For its multilayered approach to storytelling and challenge to the definition of nonfiction the Viewfinders jury awards The Stranger by filmmaker Nicole N. Horanyi.”
Jurors: Doug Block, filmmaker; Alissa Wilkinson, VOX film critic; Debra Zimmerman, Women Make Movies executive director.
Films featured in the Viewfinders section: The Judge, dir. Erika Cohn; Love, Cecil, dir. Lisa Immordino Vreeland; Love Means Zero, dir. Jason Kohn; Mole Man, dir. Guy Fiorita; Naila and the Uprising, dir. Julia Bacha; Silas, dir. Anjali Nayar; The Stranger, dir. Nicole N. Horanyi; This is Congo, dir. Daniel McCabe.
Metropolis Competition: The jury selected from among seven films in this section, which showcases films that exemplify the diverse range of stories in New York City.
Grand Jury Prize Winner: Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, directed by James Crump, is a portrait of the most influential fashion illustrator of 1970s New York and Paris, known for discovering talents such as Pat Cleveland and Grace Jones.
Jurors’ statement: “For rescuing a vital figure in the fashion industry from the background of New York in the 1970s, when the joy and diversity of a new creative vision helped the city emerge from darkness, the Metropolis jury awards Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco by filmmaker James Crump.”
Jurors: Mystelle Brabbée, Nantucket Film Festival executive director; Marian Masone, Art Basel film programmer; Andrew Rossi, filmmaker.
Films featured in the Metropolis section: Antonio Lopez 1970: Sex Fashion & Disco, dir. James Crump; Cradle of Champions, dir. Bartle Bull; The Iron Triangle, dirs. Prudence Katze and William Lehman; Miracle on 42nd Street, dir. Alice Elliot; Oh, Rick!, dirs. Dustin Sussman and Aaron Rosenbloom; Still Waters, dir. Peter Gordon; Vigilante: The Incredible True Story of Curtis Sliwa and the Guardian Angels, dir. David Wexler.
Both Viewfinders and the Metropolis Grand Jury Prize winners receive a deliverables package provided by Technicolor PostWorks New York as well as a one-week theatrical, awards-qualifying run at the IFC Center in 2018.
Shorts Competition: All short films featured in the festival, aside from the specially curated DOC NYC U section, were eligible for this jury prize.
Grand Jury Prize Winner: Traffic Stop, directed by Kate Davis, exposes a problematic police force using dashcam footage as a forensic recounting of a routine traffic stop turned brutal assault of Breaion King.
Jurors’ statement: “For its powerful portrait of a woman at the center of one of America’s most important current issues, the Shorts jury awards Traffic Stop by filmmaker Kate Davis.”
Special Mention: Winter’s Watch, directed by Brian Bolster, about a hotel caretaker embracing the solitude of the off-season.
Jurors: Mridu Chandra, Tribeca Film Institute IF/Then director; Dominic Davis, Rooftop Films programmer; Meghan Oretsky, Vimeo curator.
The 2017 winning Short film qualifies for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.
Audience Award: Determined by audience voting at the primary screening of each film in the Metropolis and Viewfinders competitions.
Winner: Oh, Rick!, directed by Dustin Sussman and Aaron Rosenbloom, profiles comedian Rick Crom, the long-running emcee at Greenwich Village’s Comedy Cellar, and features Ray Romano, Colin Quinn, Sarah Silverman and Wanda Sykes.
The winner of the DOC NYC Audience Award receives a screening as part of the IFC Center’s Stranger Than Fiction screening series in 2018.
DOC NYC PRO Pitch Perfect Award: Recognizes the best pitch given during DOC NYC PRO’s Pitch Perfect Day, based on the pitch itself, as well as the viability of the project, and is determined by industry professionals taking part in the daylong pitch event.
Winner: Blue Code of Silence, directed by Magnus Skatvold and Gregory Mallozzi, tells the forty-year-old story of when policeman Bob Leuci brought down New York City’s most corrupt police unit, but at a grave personal cost.
The winner of the Pitch Perfect Award receives an edit suite at Wheelhouse Creative for eight weeks, a one-year membership at ScreeningRoom, and credit with POND5.
The festival is made possible by Major Sponsors A&E IndieFilms, Amazon Studios, HBO Documentary Films, History Films, Netflix; Supporting Sponsors Discovery, ImageNation Abu Dhabi, National Geographic Documentary Films, Showtime Documentary Films; Leading Media Sponsors New York magazine, WNET; Signature Sponsors Bloomberg Philanthropies, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, Participant Media, Technicolor PostWorks NY, The Yard.
Additional support comes from Event Sponsors Chicago Media Project, Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, Ford Foundation | JustFilms, Fox, Rothschild LLP, Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, Impact Partners, MTV, NEON, The Orchard, POND5, Sundance Now, SVA MFA Social Documentary Film, Vulcan Productions.
Friends of the Festival include Agile Ticketing, Blue Point Brewing, Bluecoat Gin, Brooklyn Roasting Company, Cinépolis Chelsea, Essentia, Few Spirits, Fox Searchlight, Kickstarter, Kino Lorber, Posteritati, ScreeningRoom, Variant, Writers Guild of America East, Wheelhouse Creative and Zico.
DOC NYC is produced and presented by IFC Center, a division of AMC Networks.
Complete DOC NYC program information can be found at: www.docnyc.net
MEDIA CONTACT:
Susan Norget Film Promotion
susan@norget.com, 212-431-0090
