The Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual award given by the International Press Academy. 
  Winners and nominees
 1990s
  2000s
    | Year | Film | Director(s) | 
  | 2000 [4]
 | Reckless Indifference | William Gazecki | 
  | Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies | Hugh Munro Neely | 
  | Dark Days | Marc Singer | 
  | The Eyes of Tammy Faye | Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato | 
  | Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport | Mark Jonathan Harris | 
  | One Day in September | Kevin Macdonald | 
  | 2001 [5][6]
 | In Cane for Life (A Vida em Cana) | Jorge W. Atalla | 
  | Calle 54 | Fernando Trueba | 
  | My Voyage to Italy (Il mio viaggio in Italia) | Martin Scorsese | 
  | Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures | Jan Harlan | 
  | 2002 [7]
 | The Kid Stays in the Picture | Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen | 
  | Biggie and Tupac | Nick Broomfield | 
  | Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore | 
  | The Cockettes | Bill Weber, David Weissman | 
  | Dogtown and Z-Boys | Stacy Peralta | 
  | 2003 [8]
 | Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony | Lee Hirsch | 
  | Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki | 
  | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | Errol Morris | 
  | Lost in La Mancha | Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe | 
  | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | 
  | Stevie | Steve James | 
  | 2004 [9]
 | Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock | 
  | Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids | Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman | 
  | The Fuente Family: An American Dream | James Orr | 
  | Lightning in a Bottle | Antoine Fuqua | 
  | Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald | 
  | Tupac: Resurrection | Lauren Lazin | 
  | 2005 [10]
 | Mad Hot Ballroom | Marilyn Agrelo | 
  | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Alex Gibney | 
  | Favela Rising | Matt Mochary, Jeff Zimbalist | 
  | March of the Penguins (La marche de l'empereur) | Luc Jacquet | 
  | Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro | 
  | New York Doll | Greg Whiteley | 
  | 2006 [11][12]
 | Deliver Us from Evil | Amy Berg | 
  | An Inconvenient Truth | David Guggenheim | 
  | Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple | Stanley Nelson | 
  | Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man | Lian Lunson | 
  | The U.S. vs. John Lennon | David Leaf, John Scheinfeld | 
  | The War Tapes | Deborah Scranton | 
  | 2007 [13][14]
 | Sicko | Michael Moore | 
  | The 11th Hour | Nadia Conners, Leila Conners | 
  | Darfur Now | Ted Braun | 
  | The King of Kong | Seth Gordon | 
  | Lake of Fire | Tony Kaye | 
  | No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson | 
  | 2008 [15]
 | Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer | Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden | 
  | Man on Wire | James Marsh | 
  | Encounters at the End of the World | Werner Herzog | 
  | Pray the Devil Back to Hell | Gini Reticker | 
  | Religulous | Larry Charles | 
  | Waltz with Bashir (Vals im Bashir) | Ari Folman | 
  | 2009 [16][17]
 | Every Little Step | James D. Stern, Adam Del Deo | 
  | The Beaches of Agnès | Agnès Varda | 
  | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | 
  | It Might Get Loud | Davis Guggenheim | 
  | The September Issue | R.J. Cutler | 
  | Valentino: The Last Emperor | Matt Tyrnauer | 
 
 2010s
    | Year | Film | Director(s) | 
  | 2010 [18]
 | Restrepo | Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington | 
  | Behind the Burly Q | Leslie Zemeckis | 
  | Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer | Alex Gibney | 
  | Countdown to Zero | Lucy Walker | 
  | A Film Unfinished | Yael Hersonski | 
  | Inside Job | Charles Ferguson | 
  | Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work | Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg | 
  | Sequestro | Jorge Wolney Atalla Junior | 
  | The Tillman Story | Amir Bar-Lev | 
  | Waiting for "Superman" | Davis Guggenheim | 
  | 2011 [19][20]
 | Senna | Asif Kapadia | 
  | American: The Bill Hicks Story | Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas | 
  | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Werner Herzog | 
  | The Interrupters | Steve James | 
  | My Perestroika | Robin Hessman | 
  | One Lucky Elephant | Lisa Leeman | 
  | Pina | Wim Wenders | 
  | Project Nim | James Marsh | 
  | Tabloid | Errol Morris | 
  | Under Fire: Journalists in Combat | Martyn Burke | 
  | 2012 [21][22]
 | Chasing Ice | Jeff Orlowski | 
  | Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry | Alison Klayman | 
  | The Central Park Five | Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon | 
  | The Gatekeepers | Dror Moreh | 
  | Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present | Matthew Akers | 
  | The Pruitt-Igoe Myth | Chad Freidrichs | 
  | Searching for Sugar Man | Malik Bendjelloul | 
  | West of Memphis | Amy J. Berg | 
  | 2013 [23][24]
 | Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | 
  | 20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville | 
  | The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer | 
  | After Tiller | Martha Shane, Lana Wilson | 
  | American Promise | Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson | 
  | Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie | Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger | 
  | Sound City | Dave Grohl | 
  | The Square | Jehane Noujaim | 
  | Stories We Tell | Sarah Polley | 
  | Tim's Vermeer | Teller | 
  | 2014 [25][26]
 | Citizenfour | Laura Poitras | 
  | Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq | Nancy Buirski | 
  | Art and Craft | Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman | 
  | Finding Vivian Maier | John Maloof, Charlie Siskel | 
  | Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me | James Keach | 
  | Jodorowsky's Dune | Frank Pavich | 
  | Keep on Keepin' On | Alan Hicks | 
  | Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles | Chuck Workman | 
  | Red Army | Gabe Polsky | 
  | Virunga | Orlando von Einsiedel | 
  | 2015 [27]
 | Amy | Asif Kapadia | 
  | The Look of Silence | Joshua Oppenheimer | 
  | Becoming Bulletproof | Michael Barnett | 
  | Best of Enemies | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville | 
  | Cartel Land | Matthew Heineman | 
  | Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief | Alex Gibney | 
  | He Named Me Malala | Davis Guggenheim | 
  | The Hunting Ground | Kirby Dick | 
  | National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead | Douglas Tirola | 
  | Where to Invade Next | Michael Moore | 
  | 2016 [28]
 | 13th | Ava DuVernay | 
  | The Beatles: Eight Days a Week | Ron Howard | 
  | The Eagle Huntress | Otto Bell | 
  | Fire at Sea | Gianfranco Rosi | 
  | Gleason | Clay Tweel | 
  | The Ivory Game | Richard Ladkani, Kief Davidson | 
  | Life, Animated | Roger Ross Williams | 
  | O.J.: Made in America | Ezra Edelman | 
  | Tower | Keith Maitland | 
  | Zero Days | Alex Gibney | 
  | 2017 [29][30]
 | Chasing Coral | Jeff Orlowski | 
  | City of Ghosts | Matthew Heineman | 
  | Cries from Syria | Evgeny Afineevsky | 
  | Ex Libris: The New York Public Library | Frederick Wiseman | 
  | Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS | Sebastian Junger, Nick Quested | 
  | Human Flow | Ai Weiwei | 
  | Icarus | Bryan Fogel | 
  | Kedi | Ceyda Torun | 
  | Legion of Brothers | Greg Barker | 
  | 2018 [31]
 | Minding the Gap | Bing Liu | 
  | Crime + Punishment | Stephen Maing | 
  | Free Solo | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | 
  | RBG | Betsy West, Julie Cohen | 
  | Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle | 
  | Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville | 
  | 2019 [32]
 | 63 Up | Michael Apted | 
  | The Apollo | Roger Ross Williams | 
  | Apollo 11 | Todd Douglas Miller | 
  | The Cave | Feras Fayyad | 
  | Citizen K | Alex Gibney | 
  | For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts | 
  | Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov | 
  | One Child Nation | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang | 
 
 2020s
    | Year | Film | Director(s) | 
  | 2020 [33][34]
 | Collective | Alexander Nanau | 
  | Acasă, My Home | Radu Ciorniciuc | 
  | Circus of Books | Rachel Mason | 
  | Coup 53 | Rachel Mason | 
  | Crip Camp | Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht | 
  | The Dissident | Bryan Fogel | 
  | Gunda | Viktor Kossakovsky | 
  | MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | 
  | A Most Beautiful Thing | Mary Mazzio | 
  | The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw | 
  | 2021 [35]
 | Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Amir "Questlove" Thompson | 
  | Ascension | Jessica Kingdon | 
  | Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road | Brent Wilson | 
  | Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | 
  | Introducing, Selma Blair | Rachel Fleit  | 
  | Julia | Julie Cohen and Betsy West | 
  | Procession | Robert Greene | 
  | The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin | 
  | Val | Leo Scott and Ting Poo | 
  | The Velvet Underground | Todd Haynes | 
  | 2022 [36]
 | Fire of Love | Sara Dosa | 
  | All That Breathes | Shaunak Sen | 
  | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | 
  | Descendant | Margaret Brown | 
  | Good Night Oppy | Ryan White | 
  | Moonage Daydream | Brett Morgen | 
  | The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile | Kathlyn Horan | 
  | The Territory | Alex Pritz | 
  | Young Plato | Declan McGrath, Neasa Ní Chianáin | 
  | 2023 [37][38]
 | Bad Press | Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler | 
  | 20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov | 
  | American Symphony | Matthew Heineman | 
  | Close to Vermeer | Suzanne Raes | 
  | Lakota Nation vs. United States | Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli | 
  | Little Richard: I Am Everything | Lisa Cortés | 
  | Love to Love You, Donna Summer | Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano | 
  | Stamped from the Beginning | Roger Ross Williams | 
  | 2024 [39]
 | Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story | Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui | 
  | The Bloody Hundredth | Laurent Bouzereau and Mark Herzog | 
  | Dahomey | Mati Diop | 
  | Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes | Nanette Burstein | 
  | I Am: Celine Dion | Irene Taylor | 
  | No Other Land | Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor | 
  | Porcelain War | Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev | 
  | Sugarcane | Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie | 
 Multiple wins
  See also
  References
   - ^ "Satellite Awards 1998". IMDb. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "1999 3rd Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on February 1, 2008. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Feiwell, Jill (January 16, 2000). "'Hollow' nabs quartet of Golden Satellites". Variety. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2001 5th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on June 26, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Berkshire, Geoff (December 17, 2001). "'Moulin Rouge' in orbit, topping Satellite noms". Variety. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2002 6th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on June 26, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2003 7th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on June 26, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2004 8th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on June 26, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2005-A 9th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards - January 2005". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2005-B 10th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards - December 2005". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on July 15, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (December 1, 2006). "Satellite Awards nominate seven dramas". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Sneider, Jeff (December 18, 2006). "'Departed,' 'Dreamgirls' win at Satellite Awards". Variety. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2007 12th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Maxwell, Erin (December 17, 2007). "Satellite Award winners announced". Variety. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2008 13th Annual SATELLITE™ Awards". International Press Academy. Archived from the original on July 18, 2011. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (November 30, 2009). "'Nine,' 'Red Cliff' Lead Satellite Nominations". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (December 21, 2009). "'Hurt Locker,' 'Nine' top Satellite Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (February 16, 2015). "Satellite Awards: Complete Winners List". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards 2011". International Press Academy. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (December 18, 2011). "'The Descendants' Takes Top Prize from Satellite Awards". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (December 3, 2012). "Satellite Awards Nominates 10 Films for Best Motion Picture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (December 16, 2012). "'Silver Linings Playbook' Wins Five Satellite Awards, Including Best Picture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (December 2, 2013). "'12 Years a Slave' Tops Satellite Award Nominations". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Kilday, Gregg (February 23, 2014). "Satellite Awards: '12 Years a Slave' Wins Best Motion Picture". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (December 1, 2014). "'Birdman' Leads Satellite Awards Nominations". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Pond, Steve (February 16, 2015). "Satellite Awards: Complete Winners List". TheWrap. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards (2015)". International Press Academy. IPA. December 2, 2015. pressacademy.com. Retrieved December 2, 2015. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards 2016". International Press Academy. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "'Dunkirk,' 'The Shape of Water' Lead Satellite Award Nominations". TheWrap. November 30, 2017. Retrieved December 1, 2017. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards 2017". International Press Academy. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards 2018". International Press Academy. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "Satellite Awards 2019". International Press Academy. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "'One Night in Miami' and 'Nomadland' Lead Nominations for 25th Satellite Awards". Vimooz. February 1, 2021. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ Anderson, Erik (February 15, 2021). "Satellite Awards winners: 'Nomadland,' 'Forty-Year Old Version' top film prizes; 'Schitt's Creek,' 'Better Call Saul' take TV". Awards Watch. Retrieved October 15, 2021. 
- ^ "2021 Nominees". International Press Academy. December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 5, 2021. 
- ^ "The International Press Academy Announces Winners for the 27th Annual Satellite™ Awards". International Press Academy. March 3, 2023. Retrieved March 15, 2023. 
- ^ "IPA Reveals Nominations for the 28th Satellite Awards". International Press Academy. December 18, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2024. 
- ^ "The International Press Academy Announces Winners for the 28th Annual SATELLITE Awards". International Press Academy. March 3, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2024. 
- ^ "IPA Reveals Winners for the 29th Satellite Awards". Satellite Awards. January 26, 2025. Archived from the original on February 16, 2025. Retrieved January 26, 2025. 
  External links
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| Current Awards (Film)
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| Current Awards (Television)
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| Retired Awards (Film)
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| Retired Awards (Television)
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| Retired Awards (New Media)
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| Honorary Awards |  | 
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| Ceremonies |  | 
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