Procession Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and the Oscar Shortlist
It has been both thrilling and heartwarming to see the reception and reviews that Procession has had since its Telluride debut and subsequent pickup by Netflix. And now it is an Independent Spirit Award Nominee for Best Documentary, as well as making a place on the Oscars Feature Documentary Shortlist.
Jihad Rehab to Premiere at Sundance
In other exciting news, Jihad Rehab will have its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. The film follows several men who were once detained in Guantanamo as they enter the world’s first rehabilitation center for extremists. It tackles numerous tough and complex topics about the nature of good and evil and ideology and repentance, and it has been an equally complex creative challenge to bring the world of those concepts and topics to life through sound. Directed by Meg Smaker, I look forward to people being able to watch and think about this unique documentary feature.
Five Cinema Eye Nominations
In other awards news, Procession, Rebel Hearts and Tina were nominated for a combined five Cinema Eye awards this year. Procession was nominated for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Score, Rebel Hearts was nominated for Graphic Design/Animation, and Tina was nominated for Broadcast Film. It’s always an honor to see projects I’ve been a part of nominated for the Cinema Eyes, which is the longest standing awards platform dedicated to the art and craft of documentary filmmaking.
Other Awards and End of Year Roundup
It’s been an exciting close to the year as numerous projects from 2021 have been making awards roundups or best-of lists.
Procession, Tina, and Changing the Game were all nominated for Critics Choice Awards. Procession was also runner-up for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards for Best Documentary, as well as the runner-up for the National Society of Film Critics for Best Documentary as well.
Rebel Hearts made the IDA Shortlist, while Tina and Procession were both nominated for IDA Awards.
Rebel Hearts also won Best Song from the Hollywood Music in Media Awards for Rufus Wainwright’s ‘Secret Sister’ end credits track.
This year projects also were fortunate to grace a ton of Best-Movies lists, including Procession ranking as the top documentary of the year for the Los Angeles Times list, as well as #1 for the Wrap (with Tina being an honorable mention). 2021 projects also made the best-of lists for Vox, Polygon, Paste Magazine, Esquire, The New Yorker, Indiewire, Variety, and others!
Indiewire Influencers Article
And finally, in incredible end-of-year news, I was fortunate enough to be featured in Indiewire’s prestigious Influencers list, for this year’s Art-of-Nonfiction special. It felt amazingly special to get to chat at length about the art of documentary sound and my career thus far and seeing the article published moved me to tears. It feels amazing to be listed alongside such nonfiction titans as Tabitha Jackson and Steve James. Also included in this year’s list was Robert Greene and his filmmaking team for Procession, which also had kind words about me and my collaboration with Robert on the film, as well as giving an incredible in-depth look a the filmmaking process for that unique creation.
It was an incredible honor to be featured and included by Indiewire this way, and it also gave me a chance to pause and reflect on a career filled with wonderful people and wonderful projects and take a moment from the constant deadline sprints to simply cherish everything that has happened along the way.
2021 was a difficult year for so many, much like 2020 was before. And one of the lessons I’ve been learning in these unceasing pandemic times was to take more time to pause, reflect, and enjoy the small triumphs, kindnesses, and joys along the way in both work and life. I think they are more important than ever in these trying times. I’m grateful for the projects that have come along my path and the work that has been holding steady through the storms, but I’m also grateful to the friends, peers, and co-collaborators that have all lent various hands along the way. Filmmaking, as in life, takes a village in order to succeed, and I am eternally grateful for the many people I’ve had the good fortune to work alongside of this year, especially all the talented sound editors who have been a part of my teams.
As the calendar year is poised to flip to 2022 it seems like many of the same challenges lay before us in the upcoming year once again, but as I finish looking back over the year behind me in this post I feel heartwarmed and grateful for all that has been accomplished (and was accomplished safely and healthily), and I look forward to working with collaborators new and old to meet the new goals of 2022.
Signing off on 2021 with a heart full of gratitude,
Lawrence
