Two award-winning MTV Documentary Films pieces hit Paramount+ in November, with a handful of short films following closely behind. Ascension, which won the 2021 Best Documentary Feature prize at the Tribeca Film Festival, and Sabaya, winner of the 2021 World Cinema Documentary Best Directing Award at Sundance, are now live on the streaming service.
And on November 22, Paramount+ will premiere Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker, Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day,” R.I.P. T-Shirts, Bree Way: Promise, Witness, Remembrance, and the animated short The Musician.
“Paramount+ features an extensive variety of documentaries and docuseries, and we are thrilled to have such a highly prestigious and curated slate from Shelia Nevins, Nina L. Diaz, and Liza Burnett Fefferman of MTV Documentary Films,” Tanya Giles, chief programming officer for ViacomCBS Streaming. said in a press release. “The addition of these award-winning features and shorts on the service further expands our offering of incredible documentary storytelling, and we look forward to introducing our subscribers to these fantastic films.”
“MTV Documentary Films further opens up the competitive documentary gate with seven noteworthy projects, spanning features, shorts and animation, that will have even greater visibility via Paramount+. Each of these titles has been carefully curated or originally produced, and they all represent the upcoming excellence of our underdog documentary division,” said Nevins, executive producer of MTV Documentary Films.
Ascension, one of the most acclaimed documentaries of 2021, is an exploration of the pursuit of wealth and the paradox of progress in modern China. It examines what living the so-called “Chinese Dream” looks like today. The documentary film was nominated for five Cinema Eye Awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking; a Gotham Award for Best Documentary; and six Critics Choice Documentary Awards including Best Documentary, t’s also on the International Documentary Association’s short list for Best Documentary.
Sabaya, which won the Directing Award at Sundance this year, goes inside the most dangerous refugee camp in the Middle East, Al-Hol in Syria. With just a mobile phone and a gun, Mahmud, Ziyad and their group risk their lives trying to save Yazidi women and girls being held there by the Islamic State group as sabaya (sex slaves).
Paramount+ is the streaming service from ViacomCBS that includes the full MTV family of channels, the Star Trek Universe, and the bulk of the Paramount library. It runs $5 a month for the “Essential” plan, which includes advertising on the on-demand content. For another $5, you can get rid of most advertising, and watch content in 4K resolution on supported devices. Paramount+ also streams regional NFL games, Champions League soccer, and other live sporting events.
Paramount+ is available on most every major streaming platform, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Android TV, Google TV, iOS and Android devices, and in a web browser.
