John E. O'Connor Film Award
The 2019 submission deadline has passed. Awardees will be announced this fall.
In recognition of his exceptional role as a pioneer in both teaching and research regarding film and history, the American Historical Association has established this award in honor of John E. O’Connor, New Jersey Institute of Technology. The honorific award seeks to recognize outstanding interpretations of history through the medium of film or video and may be awarded in each of two categories: Dramatic Feature and Documentary.
This award is presented in the form of a certificate. Award winners will be screened at the AHA's annual meeting, if appropriate permissions can be obtained. One person associated with each winning film will be invited to host the screening. See the list of past recipients.
Criteria for Assessment
- Stimulation of Interest in History: The production should arouse interest in the past and encourage viewers to ask questions about historical interpretations.
- Imaginative Use of the Media: The production should provide a unique perspective on the past through compelling use of aural and visual techniques and narrative structure. Successful nominees may take a wide variety of approaches to the past, including innovative presentational approaches beyond the traditional linear narrative.
- Effective Presentation of Historical Subject: The production should communicate its subject in ways that engage and enlighten viewers and encourage them to seek additional insights through reading and other media. It should be informed by trends in recent historical scholarship and make a contribution, in its own right, to the public’s understanding of and appreciation for history.
Eligibility Requirements
- Dramatic feature and documentary films and videos (including web-based) will be considered for the award.
- Films or videos must be in English or have English-language subtitles or dubbing.
- Films or videos must have been copyrighted or first screened or broadcast in 2019 to be eligible for the 2020 award.
- Films and videos should be no longer than feature length. If the nomination is for a series, then one episode only shall be nominated and considered by the prize committee. If that episode is determined to win the prize in either Documentary or Dramatic Feature categories, then the prize will be awarded to that episode only. The series as a whole to which the episode belongs shall be acknowledged in the award announcement.
Nominating Procedures
- AHA members will nominate films and videos through the Member Forum on AHA Communities by May 15. The committee may also seek nominations or receive nominations from filmmakers, film critics, and the general public.
- Filmmakers should send nominations to awards@historians.org and must submit one copy of each entry in DVD or a free and universally accessible online streaming format to each of the committee members. In the case of web-based videos with free access, functioning URLs must be provided.
- The review committee will only consider a film for which a screening copy can be obtained free of charge.
- Nominations must specify the category—Documentary or Dramatic Feature—for which the film should be considered.
- Entries will not be returned.
Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2020 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2021 AHA annual meeting in Seattle.
For questions, please contact the Prize Administrator.
The review committee contact information and prize submission form will be posted by March 1 for submissions due May 15.
2019 O’Connor Film Awards
Documentary: Bisbee ’17
Robert Greene, director and editor; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, Bennett Elliott, producers (4th Row Films)
On July 12, 1917, 2,000 deputized residents of Bisbee, Arizona, organized by management of Phelps Dodge, the town’s primary employer, rounded up 1,330 striking workers, union activists, and recent immigrants, and deported them to the New Mexico desert. Precisely 100 years later, Bisbee’s citizens staged a re-enactment of those events. Dramatizing scenes based on the town’s collective memory with surprising humor and suspense, the film simultaneously reminds us of the intertwined histories of immigration and labor and evokes the contemporary resonance of past conflicts.
Dramatic Feature: Colette
Wash Westmoreland, director; Elizabeth Karlsen, Pamela Koffler, Michel Litvak, Christine Vachon, producers (Killer Content, Number 9 Films)
This biopic of French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954) provides an origin story for the woman we know simply as “Colette.” We follow the young Colette from her home in rural France to the salons of Paris as she becomes a ghostwriter for her husband’s literary firm and then rebels against his attempts to control her and take credit for her work. Set at the fin-de-siècle, the film renders universal one woman’s struggle to find her voice.