“Dick Johnson Is Dead’s” Oscars chances are very much alive. The documentary just won big at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which are considered among the most accurate predictors of Academy Award nominations. Kirsten Johnson’s ode to her father won Best Documentary Feature and Johnson was named Best Director.
The Netflix title sees Johnson struggling to come to terms with her father’s mortality. In an effort to simultaneously keep Dick Johnson alive forever and help her cope with his inevitable demise, she decides to make a movie about him dying, staging elaborate, inventive death scenes and recording them.
“This film is evidence of how desperately I don’t want my dad to die,” Johnson told us ahead of the film’s world premiere at Sundance. “My greatest wish is that it opens the space for anyone who watches it to think about our shared territory of what it means to love and to question how in the world we can face dying.”
Other films to land Critics Choice Documentary Awards this year include Dawn Porter’s “John Lewis: Good Trouble,” a tribute to the late civil rights leader and politician, and Alison Ellwood’s “The Go Gos,” a portrait of the most successful female rock band of all time. The former won Best Historical/Biographical Film and the latter tied for Best Music Documentary.
“Boys State,” Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ look inside an American Legion-sponsored program that sees a thousand Texas high school seniors gathering to build their own state government, was named Best Political Documentary, and “My Octopus Teacher,” Pippa Ehrlich’s exploration of the friendship between a man and an octopus, scored the honor for Best Science/Nature Documentary. Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk’s “Athlete A,” an investigation into world of elite competitive gymnastics and the sexual abuse scandal that rocked USA Gymnastics, tied for Best Sports Documentary. The award for Best First Documentary Feature went to Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. SOUL!,” a celebration of America’s first “Black Tonight Show.”
Head over to The Hollywood Reporter for the complete list of winners.
