Last week the doc community gathered in NYC for the annual Cinema Eye Honors to recognize yet another great year in documentary film.  The Camden International Film Festival was there as a proud sponsor of the Awards show for the 2nd straight  year.  The Cinema Eye Honors have quickly become an extremely important event that recognizes craft in the art of documentary filmmaking, (It’s the only awards show to recognize cinematography and score in documentary film) and this year marked an expansion to highlight international works that are still quite unknown to the general American audiences (as programmers, we are always hoping and looking to find ways to change that!).  2010 has been coined as one of the best years for documentary film and it’s events like this that prove that that statement is actually quite true.  Dozens of films were nominated by a panel of international documentary programmers from various festivals and voted on by a large pool of filmmakers and industry.

Congrats to all the films and filmmakers nominated, and congrats to the winners! It’s important to note that several films that took home awards were overlooked by the Academy, including THE OATH (Best Direction), LAST TRAIN HOME (Best Cinematography, Best Production) LA DANSE and ARMADILLO.  One of our favorite films from 2010, MARWENCOL (which decided to forgo an Oscar run) was also nominated, and Director Jeff Malmberg took home an award for Best Debut Feature.  It’s also important to note that EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP took home the top prize (Best Feature) at Cinema Eye…and with Oscar nominations being announced today, does it stand a chance to win the big one in February?  Time will tell.

Below are some photos of the CIFF sponsored Nominees Reception at the luxurious Hudson Bar in Manhattan.  We’d like to thank Vistas for coming all the way from Maine to play and our co-sponsors for the event, Maine Distilleries (Cold River Gin and Vodka) and our supportive media sponsor, maine. magazine.  It’s always nice to be able to bring a little bit of the motherland to the big apple!