With more TIFF wrap ups, a bunch of theatrical releases, award show news and more, it’s been a bustling week for documentary lovers. At the top of the heap was the announcement that the Cinema Eye Honors is turning 10 this year, and to celebrate, the organization polled 110 key members of the documentary community and selected 10 filmmakers and 20 films that helped define Cinema Eye’s first decade. In partnership with the Museum of the Moving Image, Cinema Eye will be hosting a 10-week screening series of films from its first decade, beginning with four-time Cinema Eye Honoree and Academy Award winner Laura Poitras presenting her post-9/11 trilogy: MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY, THE OATH and CITIZENFOUR. A full schedule of the series will be announced at a later date.

Following the news that Poitras would be kicking off the Cinema Eye screening series, she made the major announcement that she’d be stepping down from The Intercept to focus on the expansion of Field of Vision at its new location, fieldofvision.org. Along with her co-founders AJ Schnack and Charlotte Cook, the trio released a simultaneous statement in which they revealed “our new website, announce a slate of international films, expanded collaborations, and a SecureDrop platform for sources to leak newsworthy video.” New films from Yung Chang, Emily Pederson, Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko, Braden King, Elizabeth Lo, Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke and Hito Steyerl, among others are in the pipeline, so keep your eyes peeled.

Tomorrow, the fall season of Stranger Than Fiction, which will celebrate the documentary work of Jonathan Demme with a 6-film retrospective, kicks off with his miraculous 1984 Talking Heads concert doc STOP MAKING SENSE! Demme himself will be on hand for a live post-screening Q&A. Season passes are still available here. As a primer to our upcoming retrospective, Demme appeared again on the latest episode of Thom Powers’ Pure Nonfiction podcast to talk about his concert films with Talking Heads, Neil Young and Justin Timberlake.

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Like so many in the business of film making, curating, critiquing or just consuming, I’m feeling a little overstimulated after 11 days of movie-going at the Toronto International Film Festival, but in a good way. I managed to catch 46 films of the 296 features on offer this year, 19 of which were docs, many of which were outstanding. I managed to log a trio of reviews over at IONCINEMA, while an avalanche of doc coverage was amassed at outlets like Nonfics, POV Magazine, and Cinema Scope, among countless others. Found in the mix was Amy Kaufman’s extensive takes on RATS and AMANDA KNOX, and Steven Zeitchik‘s review of BEFORE THE FLOOD, all for the LA Times, while The Guardian’s Benjamin Lee also ruminated on AMANDA KNOX.  At Realscreen, Jonathan Paul spoke with Errol Morris about his latest, THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, while Kevin Ritchie asked Werner Herzog about INTO THE INFERNO. At yesterday’s closing awards ceremony Raoul Peck’s I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO was given the People’s Choice Documentary Award, while Fisher Stevens’ BEFORE THE FLOOD and Steve James’ ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL were named the second and first runners up, respectively.

In the midst of the action, our own Thom Powers hosted TIFF’s annual one day Doc Conference, featuring live panels and discussions on a wide range of non-fiction filmmaking related topics. If you weren’t able to make it, most of the events are now available to stream on TIFF’s YouTube channel, including conversations with Steve James, Jonathan Demme and more. Meanwhile, VR made its prescence known at the festival this year with its POP VR event reports Realscreen’s Jonathan Paul. Looking at the many films that scored distribution at TIFF, Kate Erbland wrote an overview of the sales for IndieWire, including Magnolia’s pick up of I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO and Syndicado’s purchase of IN EXILE.

Here at Stranger Than Fiction, we’ve revealed that our Fall Season is devoted to the documentary work of Jonathan Demme. The series features a six film retrospective with live director Q&As at each screening, beginning on September 27th with his legendary Talking Heads concert doc, STOP MAKING SENSE. Season passes and individual screening tickets are available.

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STF devotes its 12^th year to a six-week retrospective of documentaries directed by Jonathan Demme. The director will attend each screening for a Q&A. “We’re honored to host Jonathan Demme as we trace the past three decades of his performance and profile films,” said STF Artistic Director Thom Powers. “Whether he’s capturing the artistry of the Talking Heads, Spalding Gray and Neil Young or the activism of Jean Dominique, Carolyn Parker and Jimmy Carter, Demme consistently delivers a thrilling cinematic experience.” Jonathan Demme’s documentary career is also being recognized at DOC NYC this fall, where he will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Visionaries Tribute Luncheon on Thurs. Nov. 10.

The season kicks off on September 27 with Demme’s acclaimed Talking Heads’ concert film STOP MAKING SENSE.  It continues with SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (Oct. 4) that introduced new audiences to monologist Spalding Gray; THE AGRONOMIST (Oct 11) about the Haitian radio journalist Jean Dominique; NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (Oct. 18) on musician Neil Young performing in Nashville; I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL (Oct. 25) on a resilient resident of New Orleans’ Lower Ninth as she rebuilds post Hurricane Katrina.  The season concludes on November 1 with JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS about the former president Jimmy Carter as he tours with a controversial book about Israel and Palestine.  The season is copresented by The New York Film Academy.

The regular STF fall season takes place at the IFC Center every Tuesday night for six weeks, starting September 27. Each event includes a discussion with the filmmaker or special guests, followed by a gathering at a nearby bar. Full season schedule appears below.

Tickets for Stranger Than Fiction screenings are $17 for the general public and $14 for IFC Center members. A Season Pass, good for admission to all 6 evenings is available for $75 ($60 for IFC members)

Stranger Than Fiction: Fall 2016 Season                  7:00pm Tuesdays at IFC Center, September 27 – November 1

Each show features a Q&A with the director or other special guests

Sept 27 – Opening Night: STOP MAKING SENSE (1984, 100 min)

Oct 4: SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA (1987, 85 min)

Oct 11: THE AGRONOMIST (2003, 91 min)

Oct 18: NEIL YOUNG: HEART OF GOLD (2006, 103 min)

Oct 25: I’M CAROLYN PARKER: THE GOOD, THE MAD, AND THE BEAUTIFUL (2011, 93 min)

Nov 1 – Closing Night: JIMMY CARTER MAN FROM PLAINS (2007, 126 min)

STF is delighted to welcome back the New York Film Academy. to copresent the Fall season.  New York Film Academy students learn to make films by making films. Many films.  Intensive, hands-on Conservatory and MFA programs in Documentary Filmmaking pair rigorous instruction with mentoring in order to support students as they work on a series of their own documentaries.  Short-term workshops follow the same intensive model.

Under the guidance of a world-class faculty, this approach has earned NYFA a slot on The Independent Magazine’s list of the 10 Best Academic Programs For Documentary Filmmakers.  Recent graduates of NYFA’s Documentary program have garnered an Academy Award-nomination, an Emmy Award, and top honors at Toronto, Sundance and other major festivals.  They have excelled in creative positions with Morgan Spurlock, Robert Redford, Alex Gibney, VICE on HBO, Rolling Stone, VICELAND, VICE, Fusion, Wall Street Journal, and many, many others.  Faculty hold at least five Academy Awards, six Academy Award nominations, and over a dozen Emmys.

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With forty films, a Golden Lion, three Primetime Emmys, and a Peabody award credited to his name, Frederick Wiseman has been selected as one of four individuals to receive honorary Oscars at this year’s Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Governors Awards gala. Barry Walsh of Realscreen reported that “the Honorary Award is given ‘to honor extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.'”

On the eve of the 2016 Telluride Film Festival, its hyper secretive program was revealed and IndieWire’s Eric Kohn combed through the A-list offerings, making special note of the latest from Errol Morris and Werner Herzog, as well as the Leonardo DiCaprio backed THE IVORY GAME and Doug Nichol’s essayistic doc, CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER. Glowing reviews of Herzog’s INTO THE VOLCANO and Richard Ladkani and Kief Davidson’s THE IVORY GAME from IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, and The Wrap’s Robert Abele, respectively. Shortly after the lineup announcement, Basil Tsiokos gave a rundown of the festival’s non-fiction offerings over at What (not) To Doc.

Tsiokos also outlined the Venice Film Festival‘s doc lineup, highlighting the world premiere of Terrence Malick’s first doc outing VOYAGE OF TIME: LIFE’S JOURNEY and Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, and Rick Barnes’ DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE, among many notable others. Having screened over the festival’s first weekend, Obaidah Zytoon and Andreas Dalsgaard’s THE WAR SHOW has already been dubbed “a deeply affecting documentary of the Syrian conflict” by Jay Weissberg of Variety, while Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian highly recommends Ulrich Seidl’s “brutal, illuminating” SAFARI with a four star review, and Vanessa Friedman and Nicolas Rapold wrote commending pieces on Francesco Carrozzini’s FRANCA: CHAOS AND CREATION and Sergei Loznitsa’s AUSTERLITZ for The New York Times.

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With Telluride, Venice and Toronto just days away from premiering brand new titles from the likes of Herzog, Malick, Morris, James and more, the fall festival fervor is beginning to mount, as both the New York Film Festival and the Camden International Film Festival have revealed their documentary lineups. Unsurprisingly, the offerings are A-list all around. From September 27-29, the International Documentary Association will host its Getting Real ’16 conference in Los Angeles, featuring keynotes from Ava DuVernay, Shola Lynch, and Steve James, as well as live conversations with Mark Cousins, Ezra Edelman, Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman. Interested parties can register for the event here.

A bit further down the pipeline, DOC NYC is prepping for their fall festivities by announcing that Jonathan Demme and Stanley Nelson will both receive Lifetime Achievement Awards and A&E IndieFilms’ Molly Thompson will take home the Leading Light Award from this year’s Visionaries Tribute, scheduled to take place November 10. Looking even further into the future, Anne Thompson has published her early doc Oscar predictions at IndieWire, listing GLEASON, LIFE, ANIMATED, OJ: MADE IN AMERICA, WEINER and ZERO DAYS as the current frontrunners. And while on the topic of honors and awards, the Library of Congress is currently accepting nominations for the 2016 National Film Registry.

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