Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature

The Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards. It is given to the director(s) of the film and since 2014 it is also given to the producers.^[1] It was first presented in 2000, with Marc Singer's Dark Days being the first recipient of the award.

Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary Feature
Presented by	Independent Spirit Awards
First awarded	Dark Days (2000)
Currently held by	Four Daughters (2023)
Website	spiritawards.com

Winners and nominees

2000s

Year	Film	Distributing company(s)	Director(s)
2000	Dark Days	Palm Pictures	Marc Singer
	The Eyes of Tammy Faye	Lionsgate Films	Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
	Long Night's Journey into Day	Seventh Art Releasing	Deborah Hoffmann and Frances Reid
	Paragraph 175	New Yorker Films	Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman
	Sound and Fury	Artistic License Films	Josh Aronson
2001	Dogtown and Z-Boys	Sony Pictures Classics	Stacy Peralta
	Go Tigers!	IFC Films	Kenneth A. Carlson
	LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton	Maysles Films Inc.	Deborah Dickson, Susan Froemke and Albert Maysles
	Promises	Cowboy Pictures	Carlos Bolado, B.Z. Goldberg, and Justine Shapiro
	Scratch	Palm Pictures	Doug Pray
2002	Bowling for Columbine	United Artists	Michael Moore
	The Cockettes	Strand Releasing	Bill Weber and David Weissman
	Devil's Playground	Cinemax	Lucy Walker
	How to Draw a Bunny	Artisan Entertainment	John W. Walter
	Stevie	Kartemquin Films	Steve James
2003	The Fog of War	Sony Pictures Classics	Errol Morris
	Mayor of the Sunset Strip	First Look Studios	George Hickenlooper
	My Architect	New Yorker Films	Nathaniel Kahn
	OT: Our Town	Film Movement	Scott Hamilton Kennedy
	Power Trip	Films Transit International	Paul Devlin
2004	Metallica: Some Kind of Monster	IFC Films	Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
	Bright Leaves	First Run Features	Ross McElwee
	Chisholm '72: Unbought & Unbossed	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment	Shola Lynch
	Hiding and Seeking: Faith and Tolerance After the Holocaust	First Run Features	Menachem Daum and Oren Rudavsky
	Tarnation	Wellspring Media	Jonathan Caouette
2005	Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	Magnolia Pictures	Alex Gibney
	Grizzly Man	Lionsgate Films	Werner Herzog
	La Sierra	Icarus Films	Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez
	Romántico	Kino International	Mark Becker
	Sir! No Sir!	Balcony Releasing	David Zeiger
2006	The Road to Guantánamo	Roadside Attractions	Michael Winterbottom
	A Lion in the House	PBS Distribution	Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
	My Country, My Country	Zeitgeist Films	Laura Poitras
	The Trials of Darryl Hunt	THINKFilm	Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg
	You're Gonna Miss Me	Palm Pictures	Keven McAlester
2007	Crazy Love	Magnolia Pictures	Dan Klores and Fisher Stevens
	Lake of Fire	THINKFilm	Tony Kaye
	Manufactured Landscapes	Zeitgeist Films	Jennifer Baichwal
	The Monastery	Koch-Lorber Films	Pernille Rose Grønkjær
	The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair	Truly Indie	Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein
2008	Man on Wire[2]	Magnolia Pictures	James Marsh
	The Betrayal	The Cinema Guild	Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
	Encounters at the End of the World	THINKFilm	Werner Herzog
	The Order of Myths	The Cinema Guild	Margaret Brown
	Up the Yangtze	Zeitgeist Films	Yung Chang
2009	Anvil! The Story of Anvil[3]	Abramorama	Sacha Gervasi
	Food, Inc.	Magnolia Pictures	Robert Kenner
	More than a Game	Lionsgate	Kristopher Belman
	October Country	Topic Studios	Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
	Which Way Home	HBO Films	Rebecca Cammisa

2010s

Year	Film	Director(s)	Producer(s)
2010	Exit Through the Gift Shop[4]	Banksy
	Marwencol	Jeff Malmberg
	Restrepo	Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
	Sweetgrass	Lucien Castaing-Taylor
	Thunder Soul	Mark Landsman
2011	The Interrupters[5]	Steve James	Steve James, Alex Kotlowitz
	An African Election	Jarreth J. Merz and Kevin Merz	Jarreth J. Merz
	Bill Cunningham New York	Richard Press	Philip Gefter
	The Redemption of General Butt Naked	Daniele Anastasion and Eric Strauss
	We Were Here	David Weissman
2012	The Invisible War[6]	Kirby Dick
	The Central Park Five	Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon
	How to Survive a Plague	David France
	Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present	Matthew Akers and Jeff Dupre
	The Waiting Room	Peter Nicks
2013	20 Feet from Stardom[7]	Morgan Neville	Gil Friesen, Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers
	The Act of Killing	Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn	Joshua Oppenheimer, Joram Ten Brink, Christine Cynn, Anne Köhncke, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Michael Uwemedimo, Anonymous
	After Tiller	Martha Shane and Lana Wilson
	Gideon's Army	Dawn Porter	Dawn Porter, Julie Goldman
	The Square	Jehane Noujaim	Karim Amer
2014	Citizenfour[8]	Laura Poitras	Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
	20,000 Days on Earth	Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard	Dan Bowen, James Wilson
	The Salt of the Earth	Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado	David Rosier
	Stray Dog	Debra Granik	Anne Rosellini
	Virunga	Orlando von Einsiedel	Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara
2015	The Look of Silence[9]	Joshua Oppenheimer	Signe Byrge Sørensen
	(T)error	Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe
	Best of Enemies	Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville
	Heart of a Dog	Laurie Anderson	Laurie Anderson, Dan Janvey
	Meru	Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
	The Russian Woodpecker	Chad Garcia	Mike Lerner, Ram Devineni, Chad Gracia
2016	O.J.: Made in America[10]	Ezra Edelman	Ezra Edelman, Deirdre Fenton, Libby Geist, Nina Krstic, Erin Leyden, Tamara Rosenberg, Connor Schell, Caroline Waterlow
	13th	Ava DuVernay	Howard Barish, Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick
	Cameraperson	Kirsten Johnson	Kirsten Johnson, Marilyn Ness
	I Am Not Your Negro	Raoul Peck	Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety, Hébert Peck
	Sonita	Rokhsareh Ghaemmaghami	Gerd Haag
	Under the Sun	Vitaly Mansky	Natalya Manskaya
2017	Faces Places[11]	Agnès Varda and JR	Rosalie Varda
	The Departure	Lana Wilson
	Last Men in Aleppo	Feras Fayyad	Kareem Abeed, Søren Steen Jespersen, Stefan Kloos
	Motherland	Ramona Diaz	Rey Cuerdo
	Quest	Jonathan Olshefski	Sabrina Schmidt Gordon
2018	Won't You Be My Neighbor?	Morgan Neville	Morgan Neville, Caryn Capotosto, Nicholas Ma
	Hale County This Morning, This Evening	RaMell Ross	RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes, Su Kim
	Minding the Gap	Bing Liu	Bing Liu, Diane Moy Quon
	Of Fathers and Sons	Talal Derki	Hans Robert Eisenhauer, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias N. Siebert
	On Her Shoulders	Alexandria Bombach	Hayley Pappas, Brock Williams
	Shirkers	Sandi Tan	Sandi Tan, Jessica Levin, Maya E. Rudolph
2019	American Factory	Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert	Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello
	Apollo 11	Todd Douglas Miller	Todd Douglas Miller, Thomas Petersen and Evan Krauss
	For Sama	Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts	Waad Al-Kateab
	Honeyland	Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov	Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov, Atanas Georgiev
	Island of the Hungry Ghosts	Gabrielle Brady	Alexander Wadouh, Samm Haillay, Alex Kelly, Gizem Acarla and Gabrielle Brady

2020s

Year	Film	Director(s)	Producer(s)
2020 [12]	Crip Camp	Nicole Newnham and James LeBrecht	Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht, Sara Bolder
	Collective	Alexander Nanau	Alexander Nanau, Hanka Kastelicová, Bernard Michaux, Bianca Oana
	Dick Johnson Is Dead	Kirsten Johnson	Kirsten Johnson, Katy Chevigny, Marilyn Ness
	The Mole Agent	Maite Alberdi	Marcela Santibáñez
	Time	Garrett Bradley	Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn
2021 [13]	Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)	Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson	David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel
	Ascension	Jessica Kingdon	Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell
	Flee	Jonas Poher Rasmussen	Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen
	In the Same Breath	Nanfu Wang	Nanfu Wang, Christopher Clements, Julie Goldman, Carolyn Hepburn, Jialing Zhang
	Procession	Robert Greene	Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, Douglas Tirola
2022 [14]	All the Beauty and the Bloodshed	Laura Poitras	Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons
	All That Breathes	Shaunak Sen	Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann
	A House Made of Splinters	Simon Lereng Wilmont	Monica Hellström
	Midwives	Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing	Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing, Mila Aung-Thwin, Ulla Lehmann, Bob Moore
	Riotsville, U.S.A.	Sierra Pettengill	Sierra Pettengill, Sara Archambault, Jamila Wignot
2023[15]	Four Daughters	Kaouther Ben Hania	Nadim Cheikhrouha
	Bye Bye Tiberias	Lina Soualem	Jean-Marie Nizan
	Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project	Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson	Tommy Oliver
	Kokomo City	D. Smith	Bill Butler and Harris Doran
	The Mother of All Lies	Asmae El Moudir	Asmae El Moudir

See also

• Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

References

1. "37 Years of Nominees and Winners" (PDF). FilmIndependent. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
2. Urban Cinefile INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS 2009-WINNERS
3. 'Anvil', '45365' Take Nonfiction at Spirit Awards|International Documentary Association
4. Independent Spirit winners and nominees 2011-Los Angeles Times
5. Film Independent Spirit Awards: Complete List of Winners|IndieWire
6. The Invisible War-Awards-IMDB
7. 2014 Independent Spirit Awards: 12 Years a Slave Takes Home Best Feature, Plus More Big Winners!|E! News
8. Spirit Awards 2015: Winners Complete List|Hollywood Reporter
9. Film Independent Spirit Awards 2016: Complete Winners List-US Magazine
10. 'O.J.: Made In America' Wins Independent Spirit Award For Best Documentary Feature|IndieWire
11. Independent Spirit Awards 2018 Winners: The Complete List|E! News
12. 2021 Independent Spirit Awards Winner's List|IndieWire
13. Spirit Awards Winners: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s ‘The Lost Daughter’ Wins Best Feature — Full List|IndieWire
14. Davis, Clayton (November 22, 2022). "Independent Spirit Awards Nominations: 'Everything Everywhere' Leads With Eight Noms". Variety. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
15. "Best Documentary Archives". Film Independent. Retrieved 2024-03-10.