Peabody Awards: 20 Documentaries Nominated for Prestigious Media Honors

Nominees include Sea of Shadows, The Silence of Others, The Edge of Democracy and Oscar winners American Factory and Learning to Skateboard In a Warzone... [Full List]

The prestigious Peabody Awards has announced its nominees for broadcast and digital media, a list that includes 20 documentaries.

Among the contenders for the annual honors are American Factory, the Oscar-winning feature documentary directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, and the Oscar-winning documentary short, Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl), directed by Carol Dysinger. Also nominated were several documentaries that earned Oscar nominations this year and last, including For Sama (directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts), Petra Costa's The Edge of Democracy and Hale County This Morning, This Evening, directed by RaMell Ross. [Full list below]
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Peabody is proud to champion this year’s nominees who inspire our connection, provoke our thinking and delight our senses.

--From the Peabody Awards

"The nominees were chosen by unanimous vote of 19 jurors," the Peabody Awards noted in a press release, "from nearly 1,300 entries from television, radio/podcasts and the web in entertainment, news, documentary, children’s and public service programming." 

Six of the documentary nominees aired as part of the PBS nonfiction series POV: América, Inventing Tomorrow, Midnight Traveler, Roll Red Roll, The Distant Barking of Dogs, and The Silence of Others. 

The recognition for Inventing Tomorrow, about young people creating innovative solutions to environmental problems, was the latest honor for director Laura Nix. Earlier this year she earned an Oscar nomination for her documentary short Walk, Run Cha-Cha. 

Two documentaries about controversial figures in the entertainment industry were recognized with Peabody Awards nominations: Leaving Neverland, the two-part film by Dan Reed that detailed accusations of pedophilia against the late Michael Jackson, and Surviving R. Kelly, executive produced by Tamra Simmons among others,  a six-part series about sexual abuse allegations against the eponymous R&B singer.

Sea of Shadows, an eco-thriller about the endangered vaquita whale directed by Richard Ladkani, also made the list, as did The Silence of Others, directed by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, about the struggle in Spain to confront the legacy of the Franco dictatorship. The Distant Barking of Dogs, by Simon Lereng Wilmont, tells the story of a boy growing up in the shadow of war in Ukraine between government forces and Russian-backed rebels.

Overall, the Peabody Awards nominated 60 projects across multiple categories.

“Peabody is proud to champion this year’s nominees who inspire our connection, provoke our thinking and delight our senses," Peabody's executive director Jeffrey P. Jones said in a statement. "From the communal strength of black women to the eminence of science to the conviction of those who speak up, these stories and their creators celebrate the diversity of human experience and of our democracy. Amidst the challenges of our present moment, we can find empathy, entertainment and truth in these nominees.”

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Related: 
>The Silence of Others directors on terror under Generalisimo Francisco Franco: 'They would leave dead people by the streets'
​>Sea of Shadows exposes illegal trade in 'cocaine of the sea': 'This is organized crime attacking our planet'
​>The Distant Barking of Dogs director on lives lived in the shadow of war: 'Brutality, but also such beauty'

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Thirty winners will be selected from among the 60 nominees. The Peabody Awards has not announced a date for its annual ceremony; the event was originally scheduled for June 18 in Los Angeles, but was postponed in light of the COVID-19 crisis.

The Peabody Awards, founded in 1940 and based at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, "honor the most powerful, enlightening and invigorating stories in television, radio and digital media." 

The full list of this year's 60 nominees (recognizing projects released in 2019):

DOCUMENTARIES
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· “16 Shots” SHOWTIME Documentary Films in association with Topic, Impact Partners, and Chicago Media Project (SHOWTIME)

· “American Factory” Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media for Netflix (Netflix)

· “Apollo 11” CNN Films (CNN)

· “For Sama” FRONTLINE, Channel 4 News, ITN Productions, Channel 4 (PBS)

· “Independent Lens: HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING” A production of Idiom Film, LLC and Louverture Films, in association with Field of Vision (PBS)

· “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)” Grain Media for A&E IndieFilms Network (A&E)

· “Leaving Neverland” Amos Pictures and HBO Documentary in association with Channel Four (HBO)

· “One Child Nation” Next Generation in co-production with ITVS, WDR/ARTE, Motto Pictures and Pumpernickel Films in association with Chicago Media Project and Chicken & Egg Pictures (Prime Video)

· “POV: América” Lifelike Docs, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

· “POV: Inventing Tomorrow” Fishbowl Films, Motto Pictures, 19340 Productions, Shark Island Institute, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios, IQ190 Productions, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

· “POV: Midnight Traveler” Old Chilly Pictures LLC, American Documentary | POV, Independent Television Service (PBS)

· “POV: Roll Red Roll” Sunset Park Pictures, Artemis Rising, Fork Films, Doc Society, Multitude Films, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

· “POV: The Distant Barking of Dogs” Final Cut for Real, Mouka Filmi, STORY, Bayerischer Rundfunk, ARTE, American Documentary | POV (PBS)

· “POV: The Silence of Others” Semilla Verde Productions, Lucernam Films, American Documentary | POV, Independent Television Service, Latino Public Broadcasting, El Deseo (PBS)

· “Sea of Shadows” Terra Mater Factual Studios in association with Appian Way, Malaika Pictures, The Wild Lens Collective for National Geographic Documentary Films (National Geographic)

· “Surviving R. Kelly” Bunim/Murray Productions and Kreativ Inc. for Lifetime (Lifetime)
· “The Edge of Democracy” A Busca Vida Filmes Production in association with Violet Films for Netflix (Netflix)

· “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality” HBO Documentary Films and Kunhardt Films (HBO)

· “Warrior Women” Co-production of Castle King, LLC and ITVS in association with Vision Maker Media (WORLD Channel)
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· “Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics And Men” SHOWTIME Documentary Films presents A Mass Appeal Production in association with Endeavor Content (SHOWTIME)

ENTERTAINMENT

· “Chernobyl” HBO Miniseries and SKY in association with Sister, The Mighty Mint, and Word Games (HBO)

· “David Makes Man” Page Fright and Outlier Productions in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television (OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network)

· “Dickinson” Apple / wiip / Anonymous Content / Tuning Fork Productions / Sugar 23 Productions (Apple TV+)

· “Fleabag” All3Media International Limited and Amazon Studios (Prime Video)

· “Float” Pixar Animation Studios (Disney+)

· “Good Omens” BBC Worldwide Limited and Amazon Studios (Prime Video)

· “Our Boys” HBO in association with Keshet Media Group and MoviePlus Productions (HBO)

· “Ramy” Hulu, A24 Television (Hulu)

· “Stranger Things” Monkey Massacre Productions & 21 Laps Entertainment (Netflix)

· “Succession” HBO Entertainment in association with Project Zeus, Hyperobject Industries, and Gary Sanchez Productions (HBO)

· “Unbelievable” Timberman-Beverly Productions, Sage Lane Productions, Escapist Fare, Katie Couric Media, and CBS Television Studios for Netflix (Netflix)

· “Watchmen” HBO in association with White Rabbit, Paramount, Warner Bros. Television and DC (HBO)

· “When They See Us” Participant Media, Tribeca Productions, Harpo Films, Array Filmworks for Netflix (Netflix)

NEWS

· “A Different Kind of Force: Policing Mental Illness” (NBC News)

· “American Betrayal” NBC News, Engel Unit (NBC/MSNBC)

· “Capitol Hill Controversy” NewsChannel 5 Investigates (WTVF-TV)

· “Coal’s Deadly Dust” FRONTLINE, NPR (PBS)

· “Flint’s Deadly Water” FRONTLINE with Five O’Clock Films (PBS/WGBH)

· “Police. Arrest” PCCW NowTV (Now News)

· “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel: Raced to Death—The Plight of the American Thoroughbred” Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

· “The Hidden Workforce: Undocumented in America” (CNN)

· “The Invisibles” NBC5/KXAS-TV & Telemundo 39 (NBC5/KXAS-TV)

· “Unwarranted” (WBBM-TV)

PODCAST/RADIO

· “70 Million” Lantigua Williams & Co.

· “Dolly Parton’s America” Osm Audio and WNYC Studios (WNYC)

· “Finding Fred” Co-produced by iHeartMedia and Fatherly in partnership with Transmitter Media (iHeartMedia)

· “Gangster Capitalism: The College Admissions Scandal” C13Originals, a division of Cadence 13 (C13Originals)

· “Gospel Roots of Rock and Soul” (WXPN)

· “Have You Heard George’s Podcast?” BBC Sounds/George the Poet Ltd. (BBC Sounds)

· “Headlong: Running From COPS” Pineapple Street Studios, Topic Studios (Stitcher)

· “In The Dark: The Path Home” American Public Media (APM Reports)

· “Silencing Science” Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX (Public radio, Reveal)

· “Stonewall OutLoud” (StoryCorps)

· “The Catch and Kill Podcast with Ronan Farrow” Pineapple Street Studios, Glass Cannon Inc. (Pineapple Street Studios)

· “The Refuge” Auricle Productions, Montana Public Radio, Pulitzer Center (Montana Public Radio)

PUBLIC SERVICE

· “Border Hustle” The Texas Tribune and TIME

· “Detained” The Marshall Project in partnership with The Guardian

· “Long Island Divided” Newsday

CHILDREN’S & YOUTH

· “Molly of Denali” WGBH Educational Foundation, Atomic Cartoons (PBS Kids)

· “Treasure Island 2020” Gen-Z Media (BYUradio)