'RBG' wins Best Political Documentary, 'Won’t You Be My Neighbor?' Best Documentary

I concluded 'The Commandant's Own' and 'The President's Own' for a musical Veterans Day 2018 by telling my readers to "Stay tuned for a report on the winners of Best Political Documentary nominees at the 2018 Critics' Choice Documentary Awards."  I begin with my prediction for Best Political Documentary.

Out of this field, the most nominated entries are "Dark Money" and "Hitler's Hollywood" with four nominations each. "Dark Money" earned nominations for Best Documentary, Best Director for Kimberly Reed, and Best Editing in addition to Best Political Documentary.  The nominations for "Hitler’s Hollywood" are Best Documentary, Best Political Documentary, Best Director for Rüdiger Suchsland, and Most Innovative Documentary.  For this award, I suspect the contest will end up being between these two and "RBG," which is the third nominee for Best Political Documentary also nominated for Best Documentary.

"RBG" won this award.  I was rooting for it and wasn't surprised, as Box Office Mojo shows "RBG" being currently the second highest grossing documentary of 2018 with $14,017,361.  The critics do pay attention to box office.  In addition, the press release also reported on its other award.

Host Bill Nye lead the celebration of this year’s honorees for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary  — Scotty Bowers (Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood), Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG), Alex Honnold (Free Solo), Joan Jett (Bad Reputation), Quincy Jones (Quincy), David Kellman and Bobby Shafran (Three Identical Strangers), John McEnroe (John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection) and Leon Vitali (Filmworker).

To celebrate these awards for both the movie and Ginsberg herself, I am sharing RBG - Official Trailer

At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon. But without a definitive Ginsburg biography, the unique personal journey of this diminutive, quiet warrior's rise to the nation's highest court has been largely unknown, even to some of her biggest fans – until now. RBG is a revelatory documentary exploring Ginsburg 's exceptional life and career from Betsy West and Julie Cohen, and co-produced by Storyville Films and CNN Films.

Congratulations and good luck on earning more nominations for the film.  In particular, I am rooting for it to earn an Oscar nod for Best Documentary Feature.

Now to review my predictions for Best Documentary.

Based on the number of nominations, "Free Solo" looks like the favorite for this award.  However, Box Office Mojo identifies the three most popular based on ticket receipts.  "Won’t You Be My Neighbor?" the biography of Fred Rogers, earned $22,609,437 to be the top grossing documentary of 2018 so far.  "RBG" is currently in second among documentaries with $14,017,361, while "Three Identical Strangers" is close behind at $12,320,845.*  Because of that, I think the contest is really among these four movies plus "Minding the Gap," which is on Hulu, so it doesn't have a box office to compare, unless the winner of the next category sneaks past them.

The award went to "Won’t You Be My Neighbor?" along with Best Director for Morgan Neville and the award for Best Editing.  At least I sort of called Best Documentary, as I thought box office would be a major factor, but I completely blew my predictions for Best Director.

Based on the number of nominations and type of nominations, I think this will be among Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi for "Free Solo," Bing Liu for "Minding the Gap," and Chapman Way and Maclain Way for "Wild Wild Country" with Chin and Vasarhelyi favored.

Um, no.  At least I spared myself the embarrassment of calling Best Editing wrong, as I did not make a prediction for that award.

Again, I am celebrating "Won’t You Be My Neighbor?" winning Best Documentary, Best Director, and Best Editing by sharing WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? - Official Trailer [HD].

From Academy Award® -winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom), Won’t You Be My Neighbor? takes an intimate look at America’s favorite neighbor: Mister Fred Rogers. A portrait of a man whom we all think we know, this emotional and moving film takes us beyond the zip-up cardigans and the land of make-believe, and into the heart of a creative genius who inspired generations of children with compassion and limitless imagination.

Oh, my, that trailier left me in tears.  I can't imagine what the movie itself would do.

Follow over the jump for the rest of the winners along with a comparison to my predictions when I made them.

The most nominated film was "Free Solo" with six nominations and one honor.  It ended up winning Best Sports Documentary, Most Innovative Documentary, and Best Cinematography.  Out of all three categories, I only made a prediction for Best Cinematography — "I think the favorite is 'Free Solo.'"  Good thing I was right.  It is also the documentary currently most active at the box office.  On October 21, it had earned $2,924,644 to be the sixth highest grossing documentary of 2018.  As of today, it has grossed $8,121,788 to pass "Fahrenheit 11/9" for fourth.  Congratulations!

The press release reported "The award for Best Limited Documentary Series went to The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling."  I am not surprised.  As I wrote in the nominations post:

I've already written that "Flint Town" and "The Fourth Estate" are unlikely to prevail over Emmy winner "Wild Wild Country," but I also have to add that all three are competing against another Emmy winner, "The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling."  The only good news for either is that journalists are voting for this award, not show business professionals, so the electorate might respond better to good reporting, which the first three nominees showcase, over the portrayal of a popular dead entertainer, which the Emmy electorate rewarded.

The critics agreed with the Television Academy on this one, although I was hoping otherwise.

For Best Ongoing Documentary Series, I predicted "I suspect the sympathy vote for Bourdain is likely to continue, so I consider his show to be the favorite."  It was, as the press release reported "The Best Ongoing Documentary Series award went to Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown."  Congratulations!

When it came to Best First Time Director, I half called it right.

Bing is the only one of this field also nominated for Best Director, so I think he's the clear favorite.  With that out of the way, I am calling my readers' attention to two other nominees, "Science Fair" and "The Sentence."  I like the first because I teach science, while the second is a more serious film that examines the effects of mandatory minimum sentencing.  Both public education and prisons are functions of government and the laws that govern both are political issues.

"There was a tie for Best First Time Director between Bing Liu for Minding the Gap and Cristina Costantini and Darren Foster for Science Fair."  I expected the first, while the second came as a pleasant surprise.  Congratulations to both.

I thought "Whitney" would earn Best Music Documentary based on its box office, but instead the press release read "Quincy took home the award for Best Music Documentary."  Looks like I know what music I'll be posting on Booman Tribune for the next Midweek Cafe and Lounge.

Finally, the press release noted that "During the awards show, filmmaker Michael Moore was honored with the Critics’ Choice Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Robert De Niro."  Moore used this opportunity to finish something he started 15 years ago.  Watch Michael Moore Finishes Oscar Speech 15 Years Later.

Michael Moore finally finishes his 2003 Oscars speech at the 3rd Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards.

Good thing he did this for the lifetime achievement award.  "Fahrenheit 11/9" was not going to beat "RBG."

Enough of the critics, for now.  Tomorrow, I plan on writing about the winners of the 2018 People's Choice Awards.  Stay tuned.