# Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film

The Satellite Award for Best Documentary Film is an annual award given by the International Press Academy.

## Winners and nominees
### 1990s

| Year | Film | Director(s) |
| 1997 | 4 Little Girls | Spike Lee |
| 1997 | Fast, Cheap & Out of Control | Errol Morris |
| 1997 | Hype! | Doug Pray |
| 1997 | Shooting Porn | Ronnie Larsen |
| 1997 | Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist | Kirby Dick |
| 1998 | Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life | Michael Paxton |
| 1998 | The Cruise | Bennett Miller |
| 1998 | The Farm: Angola, USA | Liz Garbus, Wilbert Rideau, Jonathan Stack |
| 1998 | Kurt & Courtney | Nick Broomfield |
| 1998 | Public Housing | Frederick Wiseman |
| 1999 | Buena Vista Social Club | Wim Wenders |
| 1999 | 42: Forty Two Up | Michael Apted |
| 1999 | American Movie | Chris Smith |
| 1999 | Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | Errol Morris |
| 1999 | Return with Honor | Freida Lee Mock, Terry Sanders |
| 1999 | The Source | Chuck Workman |

### 2000s

| Year | Film | Director(s) |
| 2000 | Reckless Indifference | William Gazecki |
| 2000 | Captured on Film: The True Story of Marion Davies | Hugh Munro Neely |
| 2000 | Dark Days | Marc Singer |
| 2000 | The Eyes of Tammy Faye | Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato |
| 2000 | Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport | Mark Jonathan Harris |
| 2000 | One Day in September | Kevin Macdonald |
| 2001 | In Cane for Life (A Vida em Cana) | Jorge W. Atalla |
| 2001 | Calle 54 | Fernando Trueba |
| 2001 | My Voyage to Italy (Il mio viaggio in Italia) | Martin Scorsese |
| 2001 | Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures | Jan Harlan |
| 2002 | The Kid Stays in the Picture | Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen |
| 2002 | Biggie and Tupac | Nick Broomfield |
| 2002 | Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore |
| 2002 | The Cockettes | Bill Weber, David Weissman |
| 2002 | Dogtown and Z-Boys | Stacy Peralta |
| 2003 | Amandla!: A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony | Lee Hirsch |
| 2003 | Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki |
| 2003 | The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara | Errol Morris |
| 2003 | Lost in La Mancha | Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe |
| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh |
| 2003 | Stevie | Steve James |
| 2004 | Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock |
| 2004 | Born into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids | Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman |
| 2004 | The Fuente Family: An American Dream | James Orr |
| 2004 | Lightning in a Bottle | Antoine Fuqua |
| 2004 | Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald |
| 2004 | Tupac: Resurrection | Lauren Lazin |
| 2005 | Mad Hot Ballroom | Marilyn Agrelo |
| 2005 | Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Alex Gibney |
| 2005 | Favela Rising | Matt Mochary, Jeff Zimbalist |
| 2005 | March of the Penguins (La marche de l'empereur) | Luc Jacquet |
| 2005 | Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro |
| 2005 | New York Doll | Greg Whiteley |
| 2006 | Deliver Us from Evil | Amy Berg |
| 2006 | An Inconvenient Truth | David Guggenheim |
| 2006 | Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple | Stanley Nelson |
| 2006 | Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man | Lian Lunson |
| 2006 | The U.S. vs. John Lennon | David Leaf, John Scheinfeld |
| 2006 | The War Tapes | Deborah Scranton |
| 2007 | Sicko | Michael Moore |
| 2007 | The 11th Hour | Nadia Conners, Leila Conners |
| 2007 | Darfur Now | Ted Braun |
| 2007 | The King of Kong | Seth Gordon |
| 2007 | Lake of Fire | Tony Kaye |
| 2007 | No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson |
| 2008 | Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer | Robbie Cavolina, Ian McCrudden |
| 2008 | Man on Wire | James Marsh |
| 2008 | Encounters at the End of the World | Werner Herzog |
| 2008 | Pray the Devil Back to Hell | Gini Reticker |
| 2008 | Religulous | Larry Charles |
| 2008 | Waltz with Bashir (Vals im Bashir) | Ari Folman |
| 2009 | Every Little Step | James D. Stern, Adam Del Deo |
| 2009 | The Beaches of Agnès | Agnès Varda |
| 2009 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos |
| 2009 | It Might Get Loud | Davis Guggenheim |
| 2009 | The September Issue | R.J. Cutler |
| 2009 | Valentino: The Last Emperor | Matt Tyrnauer |

### 2010s

| Year | Film | Director(s) |
| 2010 | Restrepo | Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington |
| 2010 | Behind the Burly Q | Leslie Zemeckis |
| 2010 | Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer | Alex Gibney |
| 2010 | Countdown to Zero | Lucy Walker |
| 2010 | A Film Unfinished | Yael Hersonski |
| 2010 | Inside Job | Charles Ferguson |
| 2010 | Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work | Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg |
| 2010 | Sequestro | Jorge Wolney Atalla Junior |
| 2010 | The Tillman Story | Amir Bar-Lev |
| 2010 | Waiting for "Superman" | Davis Guggenheim |
| 2011 | Senna | Asif Kapadia |
| 2011 | American: The Bill Hicks Story | Matt Harlock, Paul Thomas |
| 2011 | Cave of Forgotten Dreams | Werner Herzog |
| 2011 | The Interrupters | Steve James |
| 2011 | My Perestroika | Robin Hessman |
| 2011 | One Lucky Elephant | Lisa Leeman |
| 2011 | Pina | Wim Wenders |
| 2011 | Project Nim | James Marsh |
| 2011 | Tabloid | Errol Morris |
| 2011 | Under Fire: Journalists in Combat | Martyn Burke |
| 2012 | Chasing Ice | Jeff Orlowski |
| 2012 | Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry | Alison Klayman |
| 2012 | The Central Park Five | Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon |
| 2012 | The Gatekeepers | Dror Moreh |
| 2012 | Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present | Matthew Akers |
| 2012 | The Pruitt-Igoe Myth | Chad Freidrichs |
| 2012 | Searching for Sugar Man | Malik Bendjelloul |
| 2012 | West of Memphis | Amy J. Berg |
| 2013 | Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite |
| 2013 | 20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville |
| 2013 | The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer |
| 2013 | After Tiller | Martha Shane, Lana Wilson |
| 2013 | American Promise | Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson |
| 2013 | Évocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie | Seth Kramer, Daniel A. Miller, Jeremy Newberger |
| 2013 | Sound City | Dave Grohl |
| 2013 | The Square | Jehane Noujaim |
| 2013 | Stories We Tell | Sarah Polley |
| 2013 | Tim's Vermeer | Teller |
| 2014 | Citizenfour | Laura Poitras |
| 2014 | Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq | Nancy Buirski |
| 2014 | Art and Craft | Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman |
| 2014 | Finding Vivian Maier | John Maloof, Charlie Siskel |
| 2014 | Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me | James Keach |
| 2014 | Jodorowsky's Dune | Frank Pavich |
| 2014 | Keep on Keepin' On | Alan Hicks |
| 2014 | Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles | Chuck Workman |
| 2014 | Red Army | Gabe Polsky |
| 2014 | Virunga | Orlando von Einsiedel |
| 2015 | Amy | Asif Kapadia |
| 2015 | The Look of Silence | Joshua Oppenheimer |
| 2015 | Becoming Bulletproof | Michael Barnett |
| 2015 | Best of Enemies | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville |
| 2015 | Cartel Land | Matthew Heineman |
| 2015 | Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief | Alex Gibney |
| 2015 | He Named Me Malala | Davis Guggenheim |
| 2015 | The Hunting Ground | Kirby Dick |
| 2015 | National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead | Douglas Tirola |
| 2015 | Where to Invade Next | Michael Moore |
| 2016 | 13th | Ava DuVernay |
| 2016 | The Beatles: Eight Days a Week | Ron Howard |
| 2016 | The Eagle Huntress | Otto Bell |
| 2016 | Fire at Sea | Gianfranco Rosi |
| 2016 | Gleason | Clay Tweel |
| 2016 | The Ivory Game | Richard Ladkani, Kief Davidson |
| 2016 | Life, Animated | Roger Ross Williams |
| 2016 | O.J.: Made in America | Ezra Edelman |
| 2016 | Tower | Keith Maitland |
| 2016 | Zero Days | Alex Gibney |
| 2017 | Chasing Coral | Jeff Orlowski |
| 2017 | City of Ghosts | Matthew Heineman |
| 2017 | Cries from Syria | Evgeny Afineevsky |
| 2017 | Ex Libris: The New York Public Library | Frederick Wiseman |
| 2017 | Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS | Sebastian Junger, Nick Quested |
| 2017 | Human Flow | Ai Weiwei |
| 2017 | Icarus | Bryan Fogel |
| 2017 | Kedi | Ceyda Torun |
| 2017 | Legion of Brothers | Greg Barker |
| 2018 | Minding the Gap | Bing Liu |
| 2018 | Crime + Punishment | Stephen Maing |
| 2018 | Free Solo | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin |
| 2018 | RBG | Betsy West, Julie Cohen |
| 2018 | Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle |
| 2018 | Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville |
| 2019 | 63 Up | Michael Apted |
| 2019 | The Apollo | Roger Ross Williams |
| 2019 | Apollo 11 | Todd Douglas Miller |
| 2019 | The Cave | Feras Fayyad |
| 2019 | Citizen K | Alex Gibney |
| 2019 | For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts |
| 2019 | Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov |
| 2019 | One Child Nation | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang |

### 2020s

| Year | Film | Director(s) |
| 2020 | Collective | Alexander Nanau |
| 2020 | Acasă, My Home | Radu Ciorniciuc |
| 2020 | Circus of Books | Rachel Mason |
| 2020 | Coup 53 | Rachel Mason |
| 2020 | Crip Camp | Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht |
| 2020 | The Dissident | Bryan Fogel |
| 2020 | Gunda | Viktor Kossakovsky |
| 2020 | MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard |
| 2020 | A Most Beautiful Thing | Mary Mazzio |
| 2020 | The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw |
| 2021 | Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Amir "Questlove" Thompson |
| 2021 | Ascension | Jessica Kingdon |
| 2021 | Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road | Brent Wilson |
| 2021 | Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen |
| 2021 | Introducing, Selma Blair | Rachel Fleit |
| 2021 | Julia | Julie Cohen and Betsy West |
| 2021 | Procession | Robert Greene |
| 2021 | The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin |
| 2021 | Val | Leo Scott and Ting Poo |
| 2021 | The Velvet Underground | Todd Haynes |
| 2022 | Fire of Love | Sara Dosa |
| 2022 | All That Breathes | Shaunak Sen |
| 2022 | All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras |
| 2022 | Descendant | Margaret Brown |
| 2022 | Good Night Oppy | Ryan White |
| 2022 | Moonage Daydream | Brett Morgen |
| 2022 | The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile | Kathlyn Horan |
| 2022 | The Territory | Alex Pritz |
| 2022 | Young Plato | Declan McGrath, Neasa Ní Chianáin |
| 2023 | Bad Press | Rebecca Landsberry-Baker and Joe Peeler |
| 2023 | 20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov |
| 2023 | American Symphony | Matthew Heineman |
| 2023 | Close to Vermeer | Suzanne Raes |
| 2023 | Lakota Nation vs. United States | Jesse Short Bull and Laura Tomaselli |
| 2023 | Little Richard: I Am Everything | Lisa Cortés |
| 2023 | Love to Love You, Donna Summer | Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano |
| 2023 | Stamped from the Beginning | Roger Ross Williams |
| 2024 | Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story | Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui |
| 2024 | The Bloody Hundredth | Laurent Bouzereau and Mark Herzog |
| 2024 | Dahomey | Mati Diop |
| 2024 | Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes | Nanette Burstein |
| 2024 | I Am: Celine Dion | Irene Taylor |
| 2024 | No Other Land | Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor |
| 2024 | Porcelain War | Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev |
| 2024 | Sugarcane | Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie |

## Multiple wins

* Asif Kapadia-2 (one tied with Joshua Oppenheimer)
* Jeff Orlowski-2