Awards
Academy Awards (Shortlist): Best Documentary Feature
Edward R. Murrow Award (Winner) Feature Documentary
Grierson Trust Award (Winner): Best Current Affairs Documentary
DOC NYC Features Award (Winner) Producing Award
News & Documentary Emmy Awards (3 Wins, 6 Nominations):
Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary (Winner)
Outstanding Cinematography: Documentary (Winner)
Outstanding Editing: Documentary (Winner)
Outstanding Direction: Documentary
Outstanding Sound
Outstanding Promotional Announcement
Directors Guild of America Award (Nominee) Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
Producers Guild of America Award (Nominee) Outstanding Producer of Documentary Motion Pictures
Critics Choice Documentary Award (Nominee) Best Political Documentary
Montclair Film Festival (Nominee) Bruce Sinofsky Prize for Documentary Feature
“JAW-DROPPING… A look at the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.”
- Daniel Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter
“HAIR-RAISING… The craft of Heineman’s movies is remarkable. He creates some of the most beautiful images in documentary filmmaking today.”
- Kevin Maher, The Sunday Times
“CHILLING… Heineman has become famous for a cinéma vérité approach that avoids both interviews and voiceovers, but this film takes that signature style to an entirely new level of art.”
- Sophia McClennen, Salon
“ASTONISHING… Heineman has the ear of a great reporter and the eye of a truly great photo-journalist.”
- Andy Lea, Daily Mirror
“REMARKABLE… Sharper and more artfully framed than most Hollywood features.”
- Peter Debruge, VARIETY
“A TRIUMPH of access and unbelievable bravery.”
- Katie Walsh, The Wrap
SYNOPSIS
RETROGRADE captures the final nine months of America's twenty-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives: one of the last U.S. Special Forces units deployed there; a young Afghan general and his corps fighting to defend their homeland against all odds; and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses and the Taliban take over.
From rarely seen operational control rooms to the frontlines of battle to the chaotic Kabul airport during the final U.S. withdrawal, Oscar-nominated and Emmy award winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman’s latest film offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America’s longest war, and the costs endured for those most intimately involved.
DISTRIBUTION
RETROGRADE is a feature length documentary from Our Time Projects and National Geographic Documentary Films that premiered at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival and was released in theaters by National Geographic Films and Picturehouse on November 11th 2022.
The film will have its television premiere on National Geographic on Thursday, December 8th, and will be available to stream on Disney+ starting Friday, December 9th, and Hulu on Sunday, December 11th.