Zero Days

Last updated

Zero Days
Zero Days.png
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Alex Gibney
Written byAlex Gibney
Production
companies
Participant Media
Showtime Documentary Films
Global Produce
Jigsaw Productions
Distributed by Magnolia Pictures
Release dates
  • February 11, 2016 (2016-02-11)(Berlin)
  • July 8, 2016 (2016-07-08)(US)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Zero Days is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. [1] It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. [2] [3]

Contents

Synopsis

Zero Days covers the phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games." It concludes with discussion over follow-up cyber plan Nitro Zeus and the Iran Nuclear Deal.

Interviewees

Reception

Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes collected 66 reviews as of May 6, 2017, of which 91% were positive. The site's consensus states: "Factors beyond Gibney's control prevent Zero Days from offering a comprehensive look at its subject, but the partial picture that emerges remains as frightening as it is impossible to ignore." [4] Metacritic gave the film a score of 77/100 based on 23 critics. [5]

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Godfrey Cheshire praised Zero Days as "Easily the most important film anyone has released this year, it is a documentary that deserves to be seen by every sentient citizen of this country—and indeed the world." [6]

Accolades

Zero Days was among 15 films shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary, [7] [8] but ultimately did not receive an Oscar nomination. The film won a documentary film Peabody Award in 2017 [9] and was nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. [10]

Release

Zero Days was released digitally on Amazon Video and iTunes on December 6, 2016, broadcast on BBC Four in the Storyville strand in the UK on January 16, 2017, and DVD on January 17, 2017. [11]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight. They have since been bestowed competitively each year, with the exception of 1946. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive.

<i>Lenny</i> (film) 1974 film by Bob Fosse

Lenny is a 1974 American biographical drama film about the comedian Lenny Bruce, starring Dustin Hoffman and directed by Bob Fosse. The screenplay by Julian Barry is based on his play of the same name.

<i>The Squid and the Whale</i> 2005 film by Noah Baumbach

The Squid and the Whale is a 2005 American independent comedy-drama film written and directed by Noah Baumbach and produced by Wes Anderson. It tells the semi-autobiographical story of two boys in Brooklyn dealing with their parents' divorce in 1986. The film is named after the giant squid and sperm whale diorama housed at the American Museum of Natural History, which is seen in the film. The film was shot on Super 16 mm, mostly using a handheld camera.

<i>Taxi to the Dark Side</i> 2007 American film

Taxi to the Dark Side is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney, and produced by Gibney, Eva Orner, and Susannah Shipman. It won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It focuses on the December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base.

<i>Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson</i> 2008 American film

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson is a 2008 documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. It details Hunter S. Thompson's landmark writings on music and politics. Friends and family provide interviews to help describe the mythos of Hunter and his life.

<i>Pina</i> (film) 2011 film

Pina is a 2011 German 3D documentary film directed by Wim Wenders that is about German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. On 30 June 2009, during the preparation for the film, Bausch died unexpectedly, so Wenders cancelled the project, but the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as planned, as a way of memorializing Bausch and some of her choreography.

<i>Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God</i> 2012 American film

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is a 2012 documentary film directed by Alex Gibney. The film details the first known protest against clerical sex abuse in the United States by four deaf men. It features the voices of actors Jamey Sheridan, Chris Cooper, Ethan Hawke and John Slattery, who provide the voices of the deaf interviewees.

<i>Life Itself</i> (2014 film) 2014 American film

Life Itself is a 2014 American biographical documentary film about Chicago film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Zak Piper, James and Garrett Basch. The film is based on Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name. It premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival and was an official selection at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. The 41st Telluride Film Festival hosted a special screening of the film on August 28, 2014. Magnolia Pictures released the film theatrically in the United States and simultaneously via video on demand platforms on July 4, 2014.

<i>Point and Shoot</i> (film) 2014 American film

Point and Shoot is a 2014 documentary film written and directed by Marshall Curry. It was produced by Marshall Curry, Elizabeth Martin and Matthew VanDyke.

<i>The Commune</i> 2016 film

The Commune is a 2016 Danish drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, Trine Dyrholm won the Silver Bear for Best Actress. It was named as one of three films that could be chosen as the Danish submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but it was not selected.

<i>Fire at Sea</i> 2016 film

Fire at Sea is a 2016 Italian documentary film directed by Gianfranco Rosi. It won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 89th Academy Awards. It was also selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the awards but it was not nominated in that category.

<i>Command and Control</i> (film) 2016 American film

Command and Control is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Robert Kenner and based on the 2013 non-fiction book of the same name by Eric Schlosser. It was released initially in the United States at the Tribeca Film Festival and then in the United Kingdom at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 11, 2016. It is based on the 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980. The film aired on the PBS network series American Experience on January 10, 2017.

<i>Oasis: Supersonic</i> 2016 film by Mat Whitecross

Oasis: Supersonic is a 2016 British music documentary directed by Mat Whitecross. Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees, already awarded with an Oscar for the film Amy, worked on this film respectively as executive producer and film producer. The film was released on 26 October 2016, and was distributed in the UK by Entertainment One and Lorton Distribution, and in the US by A24.

<i>Félicité</i> (2017 film) 2017 film

Félicité is a 2017 Senegalese drama film set in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and directed by Alain Gomis. It was selected to compete for the Golden Bear in the main competition section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival. At Berlin, the film won the Jury Grand Prix award. At the 2017 Africa Movie Academy Awards, it won six awards which is the highest for a film in the history of the award ceremony, including categories for best film, best actress, best supporting actor, best editing, best soundtrack and best film in an African language.

<i>City of Ghosts</i> (2017 film) 2017 American film

City of Ghosts is a 2017 Arabic-language American documentary film about the Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently as they face the realities of life undercover, on the run, and in exile after their homeland is taken over by ISIS in 2014. The film was directed by Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman.

<i>Generation Wealth</i> 2018 documentary film by Lauren Greenfield

Generation Wealth is a 2018 American documentary film directed by Lauren Greenfield. It follows Greenfield's 2017 book and photo exhibition of the same name.

<i>Citizen K</i> 2019 documentary film

Citizen K is a 2019 documentary film about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, written and directed by Alex Gibney. It is a film about post-Soviet Russia featuring Khodorkovsky, Anton Drel, Maria Logan, Alexei Navalny, Tatyana Lysova, Leonid Nevzlin, Igor Malashenko and Derk Sauer.

<i>What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael</i> 2018 biographical documentary film by Rob Garver

What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael is a 2018 American biographical documentary film about the life and work of the controversial New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael. The film was directed, produced and edited by Rob Garver, and features Sarah Jessica Parker as the voice of Pauline, and over 30 participants, including Quentin Tarantino, David O. Russell, Paul Schrader and Kael's only child, Gina James. Oscar-winning producer Glen Zipper (Undefeated) also served as a producer for the film.

<i>The First Wave</i> (film) 2021 American documentary film by Matthew Heineman

The First Wave is a 2021 American documentary film, directed and produced by Matthew Heineman. The film follows a hospital in New York City, as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic. Alex Gibney serves as an executive producer.

<i>Retrograde</i> (2022 film) 2022 documentary film by Matthew Heineman

Retrograde is a 2022 American documentary film directed by Matthew Heineman that covers events that took place during the final nine months of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan. It had its U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 3, 2022, and had its Canadian debut at the Vancouver International Film Festival on October 2, 2022. It was released in select theaters in the United States by National Geographic Documentary Films and was later made available on various streaming platforms. The film received critical acclaim, was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in the Documentary Category at the Producers Guild of America Awards, and won the Doc NYC award at the annual documentary film festival.

References

  1. "Zero Days". Berlinale. 2016. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  2. "Jan 11, 2016: Berlinale Competition 2016: Another nine films selected". Berlinale. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  3. "Berlin Film Festival Adds Nine Films to Competition Lineup". Variety. January 11, 2016. Retrieved January 11, 2016.
  4. "Zero Days". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  5. "Zero Days". Metacritic. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  6. "Zero Days Movie Review". RogerEbert.com. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  7. Scott Feinberg (December 6, 2016). "Oscars: What the Doc Shortlist Got Right and Wrong, and Which of the 15 Will Make the Final 5". The Hollywood Reporter.
  8. Anne Thompson (December 6, 2016). "Oscars 2017 Documentary Shortlist Analysis: Netflix Edges Out HBO, and Other Snubs and Surprises". IndieWire.
  9. Participant Media (April 18, 2017). "Zero Days wins Peadbody Award".
  10. "2017 Writers Guild Awards Winners". indiewire.com. IndieWire. February 20, 2017. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
  11. "Zero Days DVD Release Date". DVDs Release Dates. Retrieved May 6, 2017.