The awards are presented each January in New York and have been held since 2011 at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens.
[1] Cinema Eye was created to celebrate artistic craft in nonfiction filmmaking, addressing a perceived imbalance in the field where awards were given for social impact or importance of topic rather than artistic excellence.
Nominations for the awards are determined by voting of top film festival documentary programmers and winners are voted on by an invited membership of more than 800 documentary film experts.
Cinema Eye also presents an Audience Choice Prize where voting is open to the public and the Heterodox Award.
[2][3] The first Cinema Eye Honors were presented at the IFC Center in New York City on March 18, 2008.