Fellows Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat's Sugarcane Receives Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary Feature

January 23, 2025 – Washington, DC – Filmmakers Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat are celebrating their Oscar nomination for their feature documentary, Sugarcane. The film has been recognized for its powerful portrayal of Native resilience and its exploration of the devastating legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada.

The announcement of this year’s Oscar nominations arrived after an unexpected delay due to the wildfires raging in the Los Angeles area. The ceremony is still expected to take place on March 2, 2025.

A standout selection this year, Sugarcane takes viewers into a community that is breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding strength in the face of historical injustice. The film highlights the momentous 2021 discovery of unmarked graves at a Canadian residential school, which uncovered the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse suffered by Indigenous children. This revelation ignited a national reckoning and sparked crucial conversations about the systems that have long oppressed Native communities.

Through intimate storytelling, Sugarcane offers a moving and transformative look at how Native communities are confronting the past while finding hope for the future. The documentary is a tribute to the resilience of Indigenous peoples, offering a powerful message of perseverance, healing, and reclamation.

Kassie and NoiseCat, both New America Fellows, bring a deeply personal and cultural perspective to the film, which has resonated with audiences and critics alike. Sugarcane is now available for streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

Awards & Recognitions

• Directing Award—US Documentary, Sundance Film Festival: Sugarcane won Best Documentary Feature at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
• Best Documentary, National Board of Review: Sugarcane receives honor from the National Board of Review.
• Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards: At 2024’s Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Sugarcane received 8 nominations—the most for any film that year—and went on to win two awards: Best Political Documentary and Best True-Crime Documentary.
• National Geographic Q&A: Watch Sugarcane directors' special interview with Oscar-nominated actress Lily Gladstone.
• Best International Feature, Doc Edge Film Festival: Sugarcane won the Best International Feature award at the Doc Edge Film Festival for its investigation into abuse at a Canadian Indian residential school.

Critical Acclaim

• “Sugarcane’s sensitivity to the ongoing pain of its subjects is one of the film’s principal achievements. NoiseCat and Kassie offer an affecting portrait of a community that endures in spite of colonial genocide.” – The Hollywood Reporter
• “‘Sugarcane’ is soul-shaking. It’s profoundly evocative, with spoken memories and moments of inability to muster the words gut-punching with equal measure.” – RogerEbert.com
• “‘Sugarcane’ is immersive and incredibly beautiful, shot like poetry and scored by Mali Obomsawin. The result is both stunning and sobering.” – New York Times

Sugarcane is now available for streaming on:

• Hulu
• Disney+