Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards: ‘O.J.: Made In

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 Jack 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

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