DC critics name 'Amy' best documentary

Second day in a row Asif Kapadia's film has been awarded a top critics' prize

Amy Winehouse in concert. Photo: Splash

This is shaping up to be a very good week for Asif Kapadia.

The director of Amy earned another distinction today as his film about Amy Winehouse was named best documentary of the year by the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

The honor came a day after the Los Angeles Film Critics Association named Amy best doc. 

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But as they say, you can't win 'em all.

Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence won Best Documentary over Amy at the IDA Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday. And Dark Horse was a surprise winner over Amy at the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday.

Amy and The Look of Silence appear at this stage to be the front runners for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. With some exceptions those two films have won most of the pre-Oscar awards, and both were named to the Oscar shortlist (wherein the Academy trimmed the original field of 124 docs down to 15 contenders). The Oscar nominations will be announced Thursday, January 14. The Oscar ceremony is set for Sunday, February 28.

Amy already holds the distinction of being one of the most successful documentaries of recent years. It has earned over $8 million at the box office in North America alone.

The film  is now available on iTunes,  Amazon Prime and on DVD.