Russian activist and former presidential candidate Alexey Navalny (Shutterstock photo)
CNN Wins First Oscar for ‘Navalny’ Documentary Now Streaming on HBO Max
March 13, 2023
CNN won its first Oscar in its near 43-year history at the 95th Academy Awards March 12 in Los Angeles, where original CNN Films movie Navalny won Best Documentary Feature Film.
The doc, which aired on CNN and is currently streaming on HBO Max (both owned by Warner Bros. Discovery), explores the attempted assassination of Alexey Navalny, the enigmatic Russian anti-corruption campaigner and former presidential candidate (against Vladimir Putin) currently imprisoned in Russia.
Doc director Daniel Roher methodically records the meticulous research and analysis that unmasked Navalny’s would-be killers, and why they sought to kill the man Putin apparently considers a serious threat to his power. Interweaving interviews with Navalny, his family, and contemporaneous eyewitnesses to key events with other records, the doc follows the investigation into the assassination plot, and includes reporting from the investigative news organization, Bellingcat, and CNN.
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“[The doc], first and foremost, is about the passion, drive, and inspiring heroism of Alexey Navalny, who even as we celebrate this award continues to languish in a penal colony,” Amy Entelis, EVP, talent and content development for CNN Worldwide, said in a statement.
The documentary premiered at 2022 Sundance Film Festival where it received the U.S. Documentary Audience and Festival Favorite Awards. The film was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures. It has been honored with a BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, a PGA Award for Outstanding Producers of Documentary Motion Picture, a DuPont-Columbia Award, two Cinema Eye Honors for Outstanding Production and the Audience Choice Prize, along with a Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Political Documentary.
Navalny marked CNN Films’ first win and second Academy Award nomination for Documentary Feature Film, following the 2019 nomination of RBG.