Six Finalists To Vie For 2026 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, With Winner To Receive $200,000

EXCLUSIVE: The richest prize in documentary film is down to a half dozen finalists.

On Monday, the Library of Congress, The Better Angels Society, Ken Burns, and the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation announced the six finalists for the eighth annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film, with the winner to receive $200,000, while $50,000 will go to one runner-up, and $25,000 to each of the other four finalists.

Among the six finalists is , directed by David Greaves and his father, the late William Greaves. The film, which premiered at Sundance, is built around archive footage of a historic gathering in 1972 of surviving figures from the Harlem Renaissance, the extraordinary cultural movement that saw an explosion of creativity among African American artists, writers, and musicians in Harlem after the end of World War I and into the mid-1930s.

Fellow finalist Romare Bearden: A Life in Collage, coincidentally, examines one of the artists most associated with the Harlem Renaisssance, Romare Bearden. Deborah Riley Draper directed film the film on the mixed media artist who created with photos, newspaper clippings, oils, ink, fabric and other material.

Fellow finalist The Day Freedom Died, directed by Joseph Dorman and Kelly Williams, examines a horrifying incident from 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana when “more than 60 Black men were murdered because they dared to vote.”

Finalist Zenón and the Rebel Boats, directed by Juan C. Dávila Santiago, tells the untold story of Carlos “Taso” Zenón, “a Puerto Rican fisherman and unsung hero who led the struggle against the U.S. Navy’s prolonged occupation of his native island of Vieques, which began in 1941 and lasted over six decades.”

Scroll for more on each of the six finalists.

The Prize for Film was established in 2019 by the Library of Congress and The Better Angels Society, the preeminent organization supporting outstanding American history documentaries “to inspire lifelong learning, promote civic engagement, and encourage civil discourse.” Core underwriting for the generous prize is provided by a gift from Jeannie and Jonathan Lavine through the Crimson Lion/Lavine Family Foundation.

The finalists this year were selected by a national jury of filmmakers and executives, historians, and cultural leaders, including documentarians Yoruba Richen, Betsy West, and Peter Yost; Tenement Museum President Annie Polland; University of Virginia history professor and film director Claudrena Harold; DOC NYC Artistic Director Jaie Laplante; Harvard’s Black Film Project Executive Director Jacqueline Glover; and Chief of the Library of Congress National Audio-Visual Conservation Center Rachael Stoeltje.

Robet Newlen, the acting Librarian of Congress, in consultation with filmmaker Ken Burns, will select the winner and runner-up. The Eighth Annual Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film will be awarded on October 22 at a ceremony in New York City with Ken Burns.

Among previous winners of the award are Flannery, directed by Elizabeth Coffman and Mark Bosco, S.J.; Hold Your Fire, directed by Stefan Forbes; Gradually, Then Suddenly: The Bankruptcy of Detroit, directed by Sam Katz and James McGovern; Bella! This Woman’s Place Is in the House, directed by Jeff L. Lieberman; Philly on Fire, directed by Ross Hockrow and Tommy Walker; Drop Dead City, directed by Peter Yost and Michael Rohatyn; Cartoon Kings, directed by Asaf Galay, and American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, directed by David Alvarado.

These are the 2026 Library of Congress Lavine/Ken Burns Prize for Film Finalists announced on Monday:

THE ANIMATED MIND OF OLIVER SACKS, directed by Dempsey Rice

The Animated Mind of Oliver Sacks draws on immersive animation and a newly uncovered trove of personal recordings to trace the young neurologist’s early work with patients alongside the private conflicts shaping his inner life. It reveals how a brilliant, humane, yet flawed man challenged prevailing medical culture and found in his patients a mirror for himself.

BARRIO TELEVISION, directed by Christina DiPasquale

Barrio Television uncovers how Puerto Rican activists in 1970s New York disrupted live television to launch “Realidades,” the first bilingual Latino series in U.S. history—expanding the public in public television. With original creators and never-before-seen materials, it reveals the rise, rupture, and return of a series that shattered expectations and refused to stay buried.

THE DAY FREEDOM DIED, directed by Joseph Dorman and Kelly Williams

In 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, more than 60 Black men were murdered because they dared to vote. The Day Freedom Died is a journey to the dark heart of American racial history—the single bloodiest day of violence during Reconstruction and the Supreme Court decision that followed, which spurred more violence and undermined the country’s attempt at racial equality.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN HARLEM, directed by David Greaves and William Greaves (posthumous)

Once Upon a Time in Harlem documents a 1972 cocktail-salon gathering inside Duke Ellington’s Harlem townhouse, filmed cinéma-vérité on 16mm by filmmaker William Greaves. Greaves invited every surviving creator of the Harlem Renaissance he could locate, many of whom had not seen one another in fifty years. Newly restored and directed by Greaves’ son David, the film captures the group’s reminiscing, arguing, and wrestling with how culture survives across generations.

ROMARE BEARDEN: A LIFE IN COLLAGE, directed by Deborah Riley Draper

Romare Bearden: A Life in Collage is an intimate, visually layered portrait of the artist who transformed the rituals, traditions, and textures of Black life into a radical new visual language. Told through Bearden’s own words and archives, the film reintroduces a towering yet underrecognized modernist, athlete, and activist whose influence still shapes contemporary culture.

ZENÓN AND THE REBEL BOATS, directed by Juan C. Dávila Santiago

Zenón and the Rebel Boats tells the untold story of Carlos “Taso” Zenón, a Puerto Rican fisherman and unsung hero who led the struggle against the U.S. Navy’s prolonged occupation of his native island of Vieques, which began in 1941 and lasted over six decades. Narrated by Zenón himself before his death, the documentary weaves together his voice with never-before-seen archival footage that reveals the strategies implemented by fearless fishermen to defy warships and inspire an environmental and anti-War movement.