You Can See Everything Wins Five Critics Choice Documentary Awards
The A24 film about Elizabeth Holmes's last 34 days of freedom took best documentary feature, director, cinematography, editing and score at the Edison Ballroom gala in New York.
Key points
- You Can See Everything won all five awards it was nominated for at the 11th Critics Choice Documentary Awards on Sunday, November 8, including best documentary feature.
- The A24 film follows the 34 days before Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes began her 11 year prison sentence for defrauding investors, TheWrap reported.
- The evening's second most honoured film was Once Upon a Time in Harlem, directed by David Greaves.
You Can See Everything won all five awards it was nominated for at the 11th Critics Choice Documentary Awards on Sunday, November 8, including best documentary feature. The gala took place at the Edison Ballroom in New York City and was hosted by Ross Mathews, the Critics Choice Association said. Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim won best director for the film. David Bolen won best cinematography, Adam Locke-Norton won best editing and Ari Balouzian won best score.
The A24 film follows the 34 days before Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes began her 11 year prison sentence for defrauding investors, TheWrap reported. It is a commercial success as well as a critical one. The film is set to pass 80 million dollars at the North American box office, Gazettely reported, a rare total for a documentary, and it has done so as a film that runs close to three hours.
The rest of the night
The evening's second most honoured film was Once Upon a Time in Harlem, directed by David Greaves. It won three awards: best first documentary feature, best historical documentary and best archival documentary. The film is released by Neon.
Two honorary awards closed the night. Ron Howard received the Critics Choice Impact Award, presented by Frank Oz. Jehane Noujaim received the Pennebaker Award, the association's lifetime honour for documentary filmmakers, presented by Chris Hegedus, the widow of D. A. Pennebaker.
A hit built the hard way
The sweep was not a coronation of the nominations leader. Ava DuVernay's 14th led the field with six nominations going into the night, one more than You Can See Everything carried. The Holmes film converted every one of its five. Its commercial run is just as unusual. The film has earned about 80 million dollars in North America after four weekends, Particle reported, a figure almost no documentary reaches, and it has done so at close to three hours long, a length that limits how many times a cinema can show it each day. A24 released the film, and its run is still going.
Why it matters
A clean sweep at the first major documentary awards of the season sets the early running for the Academy Awards, where documentary feature is often the least predictable race. The film's box office gives it a second claim on attention: voters and audiences rarely meet on a documentary at this scale. The association's own history still counsels patience. Critics Choice winners and Oscar winners in this category have lined up only sometimes, so Sunday's sweep is a signal, not a forecast. The next test is the awards circuit through December and the Oscar nominations in early 2027.