Pulitzer Center Update

Five Grantee Projects Honored in the 60th CINE Golden Eagle Awards

Images from projects by Alexandria Bombach, Ben Solomon, Jon Cohen Kit Raone and Evey Wilson. Collage by Lauren Shepherd. United States, 2017.

Images from projects by Alexandria Bombach, Ben Solomon, Jon Cohen Kit Raone and Evey Wilson. Collage by Lauren Shepherd. United States, 2017.

Two Pulitzer Center-supported projects—"The Fight for Falluja" and "Afghanistan by Choice"—were selected as winners in the 60th CINE Golden Eagle Awards.  

The 2017 CINE Golden Eagle Award for the Virtual Reality: Live Experience was awarded to "The Fight for Falluja," Ben Solomon's 360 VR video for The New York Times Magazine.

Solomon accompanied Iraqi forces as they re-captured the strategic city of Falluja from ISIS last fall. Solomon's virtual-reality video gives viewers a 360-degree look at the battle for the city, the devastation left behind, and the grim circumstances faced by refugees. "The Fight for Falluja" was produced as a companion piece to "Fractured Lands," the book-length special issue of The New York Times Magazine by writer Scott Anderson and photographer Paolo Pellegrin. 

"Afghanistan by Choice," a film by Alexandria Bombach for The New York Times Op-Docs, was chosen as the winner of the 60th CINE Golden Eagle Award for the Nonfiction Content: Short - Documentary.

Filmed in Kabul, Afghanistan in January 2016, this op-doc serves as a portrait of how it feels to grapple with the difficult decision to flee a war-torn country, or risk injury and death by staying. Bombach interweaves the lives of five Afghans who are making the choice to stay, leave on a special visa, or plan to leave illegally. With a mixture of disappointment, pride, frustration, and hope, each individual stands to lose no matter what they ultimately decide.

Two other short documentaries were selected as finalists for the Nonfiction Content Short - Documentary category:

"Nuclear Winter: A Retro Report," produced by Kit Roane about the curious history and continuing legacy of the Cold War theory of nuclear winter that still resonates today; and "Facing Risk," a Pulitzer Center short film produced by Evey Wilson, exploring the sometimes deadly risks associated with reporting and the conversations journalists owe their loved ones and editors back home.

CINE chose as a finalist in the Nonfiction Content: Series/Mini-Series category, "The End of AIDS? San Francisco’'s bold AIDS mission is ‘getting to zero’ by 2030," the launching segment of a PBS Newshour series produced by Jon Cohen, Jason Kane, and William Brangham. The segment looks at intense prevention efforts underway in one of the cities most impacted by the AIDS epidemic, San Francisco.

CINE (Council on International Nontheatrical Events) was launched 60 years ago with the purpose of finding American films for international film festivals. See all of the winners and finalists for the CINE competition on the CINE Awards site.