‘American Doctor’ and ‘You Can See Everything’ Lead Cinema Eye Honors With Seven Nominations Each

Po Si Teng's “American Doctor” and Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's “You Can See Everything” lead the 20th annual Cinema Eye Honors with seven nominations each, the organization announced.

The A24 film about Elizabeth Holmes also made Cinema Eye history. “You Can See Everything” is the first film nominated simultaneously for Nonfiction Feature, Direction, Editing, Production, Cinematography, Original Score and the Audience Choice Prize.

Sara Dosa's “Time and Water” follows with six nominations. Neon's recent acquisition “NAZA” earned five. Its directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, won at the 2025 Cinema Eye Honors for “No Other Land,” which then took the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Cinema Eye is often read as a bellwether for that Oscar race.

Who leads the individual counts?

Poh Si Teng holds the most individual nominations this year: five. Fielder and Oppenheim received four apiece for “You Can See Everything.”

Jimmy Chin earned three nominations for “Everest: The Side,” moving him into third place on the all-time list with 14 total nods. Chin's film, co-directed with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, also appears in the Nonfiction Feature field.

Among distributors, HBO, National Geographic and Netflix tied with 12 nominations each across all categories. Neon followed with nine. A24 and Watermelon Pictures took seven each.

What happened with audience voting?

A first round of voting drew tens of thousands of ballots from nonfiction fans worldwide to set the Audience Choice nominees. The track record is notable: the last eight Best Documentary Feature Oscar winners — “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” “No Other Land,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “Navalny,” “Summer of Soul,” “My Octopus Teacher,” “American Factory” and “Free Solo” — were all first contenders for the Audience Choice Prize.

Second-round voting to determine this year's winner opens in December, alongside the shorts nominees announcement on Monday, December 14.

Which films are up for Nonfiction Feature?

The category lists eight contenders, and for the second year the named nominees include each film's entire creative team — directors, producers, editors, cinematographers, composers, sound designers, visual designers and significant on-screen participants.

• “American Doctor,” directed by Poh Si Teng
• “My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile,” directed by Julia Loktev
• “NAZA,” directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
• “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” directed by William Greaves and David Greaves
• “Rehearsals for a Revolution,” directed by Pegah Ahangarani
• “To Hold a Mountain,” directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić
• “Time and Water,” directed by Sara Dosa
• “You Can See Everything,” directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim

The Direction category mirrors the feature list closely, adding Michal Marczak's “Closure,” John Wilson's “The History of Concrete,” Jeff Malmberg's “The Bend in the River” and Colin Monie's “Everybody to Kenmure Street.”

In craft categories, “Time and Water” dominates the score field, where Daniel Pemberton competes for “Musk” and Dan Deacon for “The Oldest Person in the World.” Suad Bushnaq's score for “American Doctor” and Ari Balouzian's for “You Can See Everything” also contend. Mark Mangini, the veteran sound designer, is nominated for “NAZA.”

What else did Cinema Eye announce?

Steve James' “Hoop Dreams” will receive this year's Legacy Award, given to a classic nonfiction film that continues to inspire working filmmakers. The honor joins previously announced Unforgettables Honorees, Broadcast nominees and the Shorts List.

The Shorts List features new work from Laura Poitras (“They're Here”), Bill Morrison (“Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon”), Yoruba Richen (“Free Joan Little”) and Teboho Edkins (“an open field”), among ten titles.

Broadcast nominees span streamers and public television. Questlove's “Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That's the Weight of the World” (HBO Max), Spike Lee and Geeta Gandbhir's “Katrina: Come Hell and High Water” (Netflix), Margaret Brown's “The Yogurt Shop Murders” (HBO Max) and Rebecca Miller's “Mr. Scorsese” (Apple TV) all contend. Series nominees include “Limitless: Live Better Now” Season Two, “Tucci in Italy” Season Two and “Untold” Volume Six.

On-screen contenders include Billie Jean King (“Give Me the Ball”), E. Jean Carroll (“Ask E. Jean”) and Amy Goodman (“Steal This Story, Please!”), plus Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa from “American Doctor.”

When does it all happen?

Cinema Eye returns to the Times Center in New York City — home of its second and third editions — for the 20th Awards Ceremony on Monday, January 11, 2027. Cinema Eye Week, with events for nominees and honorees, begins Friday, January 8.

Key dates:

• Wednesday, December 2: Shorts List Screenings, DCTV, New York
• Saturday, December 5: Shorts List Screenings, Vidiots, Los Angeles
• Monday, December 14: Shorts Nominees Announced and Final Audience Choice Voting Opens
• Friday, January 8: Cinema Eye Week begins in New York City
• Monday, January 11: 20th Annual Cinema Eye Honors Awards Ceremony

With two films tied at seven nominations and a field stacked with past Oscar winners, the January 11 ceremony will offer the clearest signal yet of which documentary leads this season's awards race.