Grammy Award for Best Music Film

The Grammy Award for Best Music Film (until 2012 known as Best Long Form Music Video)[1][2] is an accolade presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally named the Gramophone Awards,[3] to performers, directors, and producers of quality videos or musical programs. Honors in several categories are presented at the ceremony annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales or chart position".[4]

Not to be confused with Grammy Award for Best Music Video.

Grammy Award for Best Music Film
Awarded for	Quality long form music videos
Country	United States
Presented by	National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences
First awarded	1984
Last awarded	2020
Currently held by	Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (2020)
Website	grammy.com

The category was preceded by the Grammy Award for Video of the Year, which was presented in 1982 and 1983, awarding long form videos (or video albums as they were known back then) in the budding music video market. The category was discontinued after 1983.

The Best Music Film category is for concert/performance films or music documentaries. The eligibility rules have changed slightly over the years. As of 2016, the main rules are:[5]

• Concert/performance films or music documentaries released theatrically or for sale to the public for the first time or first appearing on television or online during the current eligibility year.
• Music-related documentaries with a preponderance of performance-based material.
• While dramatic feature films and biopics are not eligible, films with fictional elements are eligible.

The Best Music Film category is one of two categories in the Best Music Video/Film Field. The other one is Best Music Video, which recognises stand-alone videos of one song or performance.

Artists who are the focus of nominated films may not always be eligible for a Grammy themselves, depending on the type of film and the level of involvement of those artists in making the film.

History of the award

This category has undergone several name changes through the years:

• Best Video Album (1984-1985)
• Best Music Video, Long Form (1986-1997)
• Best Long Form Music Video (1998-2013)
• Best Music Film (2014-)[6]

In 1988 and 1989, the award criteria were changed and the video accolades were presented under the categories Best Concept Music Video and Best Performance Music Video. The awards were returned to the original format in 1990. Except in 1984, 1985, 1988 and 1989, the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video recipients include the artists, directors, and producers associated with the winning videos.

Singers Madonna and Sting hold the record for the most wins as a performer in this category, with two each, while there have been three films about The Beatles among the winners. However, in two instances, The Beatles were not recognized as individual winners. To date, three directors won the award twice: David Mallet, Jonas Akerlund and Bob Smeaton. Madonna and Beyoncé hold the record for the most nominations with four each. The British pop rock group Eurythmics and Coldplay hold the record for the most nominations as a performer without a win, with three each. Although Beyoncé also holds three losing nominations, she won with her fourth nomination with Homecoming in 2020.

Recipients

In 1984 and 1985, only the artists were presented with an award. In 1986 the award went to the artist(s) and the video director(s). From 1987 onwards, the award has been presented to the artist(s), video director(s) and video producer(s). (Nominations list performing artists only).

Members of the English new wave group Duran Duran, among recipients of the 1984 accolade for Duran Duran, performing in 2005.

1985 winner for Making Michael Jackson's Thriller, Michael Jackson

English musician Sting has earned two accolades from this category for Bring on the Night and Ten Summoner's Tales.

In 1990, Janet Jackson won the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for the video entitled Rhythm Nation.

1991 recipient rapper MC Hammer won for Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em

Alanis Morissette won the award in 1998 for Alanis Morissette: Jagged Little Pill, Live

2006 award winner for directing the documentary No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese

Bruce Springsteen won the accolade in 2007 for Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run

Two-time award winner Madonna. She won in 1992 for Madonna: Live! – Blond Ambition World Tour 90 and again in 2008 for The Confessions Tour: Live from London.

In 2009, Peter Bogdanovich earned the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for directing Runnin' Down a Dream

2011 award winners for When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors, The Doors performing in 1968

Amy Winehouse is the subject of 2016 winner Amy, that depicts her life and death. The award goes to the director and producer.

1980s and 1990s

Year^[I]	Work	Performing artist(s)	Director(s)^[II]	Producers	Nominees
1984	Duran Duran	Duran Duran	N/A	N/A	Alice Cooper – Alice Cooper: The Nightmare Grace Jones – A One Man Show Olivia Newton-John – Olivia in Concert The Rolling Stones – Let's Spend the Night Together
1985	Making Michael Jackson's Thriller	Michael Jackson	N/A	N/A	David Bowie – Serious Moonlight Devo – We're All Devo Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) Billy Joel – Billy Joel Live from Long Island The Cars – Heartbeat City
1986	Huey Lewis & The News: The Heart of Rock 'n Roll	Huey Lewis and the News	Bruce Gowers	N/A	Prince and the Revolution – Prince and the Revolution Live The Police – The Police Synchronicity Concert Tina Turner – Tina Live Wham! – Wham! The Video
1987	Bring on the Night	Sting	Michael Apted	Sting	Artists United Against Apartheid – Sun City Frank Sinatra – Frank Sinatra: Portrait of an Album Pete Townsend – Pete Townsend: White City – The Music Movie Yes – 9012Live
1988^[III]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
1989^[III]	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
1990	Rhythm Nation 1814	Janet Jackson	Dominic Sena, Jonathan Dayton, and Valerie Faris	Aris McGarry, Jonathan Dayton, and Valerie Faris	Eurythmics – Savage Michael Jackson – Moonwalker New Kids on the Block – Hangin' Tough Pink Floyd – In Concert: Delicate Sound of Thunder
1991	Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em: The Movie	MC Hammer	Rupert Wainwright	John Oetjen	Leonard Bernstein – Bernstein in Berlin Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 Phil Collins – The Singles Collection Eurythmics – We Too Are One The Who – Live: Featuring the Rock Opera "Tommy"
1992	Madonna: Live! – Blond Ambition World Tour 90	Madonna	David Mallet Mark "Aldo" Miceli	Anthony Eaton	Peter Gabriel – P.O.V. Billy Joel – Live at Yankee Stadium Lifers Group – World Tour Rahway Prison, That's It Sinéad O'Connor – Year of the Horse
1993	Diva	Annie Lennox	Sophie Muller	Rob Small	Gwar – Phallus in Wonderland Hammer – Hammerin' Home Public Enemy – The Enemy Strikes Live Swiss Radio Symphony – Classic Visions 5: Gershwin, D'Albert, Strauss, Honegger
1994	Ten Summoner's Tales	Sting	Doug Nichol	Julie Fong	Canadian Brass – Canadian Brass: Home Movies Miles Davis and Quincy Jones – Miles and Quincy Live at Montreux Daniel Lanois – Rocky World Tangerine Dream – Three Phase Travis Tritt – A Celebration: A Musical Tribute to the Spirit of the Disable American Veteran
1995	Zoo TV: Live from Sydney	U2	David Mallet	Ned O'Hanlon and Rocky Oldham	Claudio Abbado – A Prokofiev Fantasy with Peter and the Wolf Depeche Mode – Devotional Charles Dutoit – Ravel: Bolero; Mussogsky: Pictures at an Exhibition Madonna – The Girlie Show – Live Down Under
1996	Secret World Live	Peter Gabriel	François Girard	Robert Warr	Kate Bush – The Line, the Cross & the Curve Cirque Du Soleil – Saltimbanco Charles Dutoit and The Montreal Symphony Orchestra – The Planets Green Jellÿ – 333 James McMurtry – Where'd You Hide the Body
1997	The Beatles Anthology	The Beatles	Bob Smeaton Geoff Wonfor	Chips Chipperfield and Neil Aspinall	Reinbert de Leeuw – Satie & Suzanne Bon Jovi – Live from London Oingo Boingo – Farewell: Live from the Universal Amphitheatre Bruce Springsteen – Blood Brothers
1998	Jagged Little Pill, Live	Alanis Morissette	Alanis Morissette Steve Purcell	Alanis Morissette, David May, Glen Ballard, and Steve Purcell	Blind Melon – Letters from a Porcupine Orquestra Was – Forever's a Long, Long Time Tina Turner – Live in Amsterdam: Wildest Dreams Tour Various artists – Blue Note: A Story of Modern Jazz
1999	American Masters: Lou Reed: Rock & Roll Heart	Lou Reed	Timothy Greenfield-Sanders	Karen Bernstein, Susan Lacy, Tamar Hacker, and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders	Fastball – They Wanted the Highway Yo-Yo Ma – Inspired by Bach: Six Gestures – No. 6 Scott Rockenfield and Paul Speer featuring Sir Mix-A-Lott – TeleVoid Various artists – Robert Altman's Jazz '34: Remembrances of Kansas City Swing

2000s and 2010s

Year^[I]	Work	Performing artist(s)	Director(s)^[II]	Producers	Nominees
2000	Band of Gypsys: Live at Fillmore East	Jimi Hendrix^IV	Bob Smeaton	Chips Chipperfield and Neil Aspinall	Asleep at the Wheel – The Making of 'Ride With Bob' Gloria Estefan – Don't Stop Radiohead – Meeting People Is Easy U2 – PopMart: Live from Mexico City
2001	Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's Imagine Album	John Lennon^IV	Andrew Solt	Andrew Solt, Greg Vines, Leslie Tong, and Yoko Ono	Ella Fitzgerald – American Masters: Ella Fitzgerald – Something to Live For Willie Nelson – Teatro The Beach Boys – Endless Harmony Various artists – The Art of Piano: Great Pianists of the 20th Century
2002	Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks	Mel Brooks	Susan Froemke	Peter Gelb and Susan Froemke	Bob Marley – Rebel Music: The Bob Marley Story Freddie Mercury – Freddie Mercury: The Untold Story Moby – Play: The DVD
2003	Westway to the World	The Clash	Don Letts	N/A	Nappy Roots – The World According to Nappy 1 Giant Leap – 1 Giant Leap Various artists – Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly Robbie Williams – Live at the Albert
2004	Legend	Sam Cooke^IV	N/A^[V]	Mary Wharton, Mick Gochanour, and Robin Klein	Gorillaz – Phase One: Celebrity Take Down Various artists – Leonard Bernstein: Trouble in Tahiti Various artists – The American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966, Volume 1 Muddy Waters – American Masters: Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied
2005	Concert for George	Various artists^IV	David Leland	Jon Kamen, Olivia Harrison, and Ray Cooper	John Adams and London Symphony Orchestra – John Adams: The Death of Klinghoffer Coldplay – Coldplay Live 2003 Various artists – Martin Scorsese Presents: The Blues – A Music Journey Various artists – Tom Dowd & The Language of Music
2006	No Direction Home	Bob Dylan^IV	Martin Scorsese	Anthony Wall, Jeff Rosen, Margaret Bodde, Martin Scorsese, Nigel Sinclair, and Susan Lacy	R. Kelly – Trapped in the Closet Ramones – End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones Bruce Springsteen – Devils & Dust Brian Wilson – Brian Wilson Presents Smile
2007	Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run	Bruce Springsteen	Thom Zimny	Thom Zimny	Terence Blanchard – Flow: Living in the Stream of Music Death Cab for Cutie – Directions Gorillaz – Demon Days: Live in Manchester Madonna – I'm Going to Tell You a Secret
2008	The Confessions Tour	Madonna	Jonas Åkerlund	David May and Sara Martin	Dierks Bentley – Live & Loud at the Fillmore R. Kelly – Trapped in the Closet Chapters 13–22 Kenny Wayne Shepherd – 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads Various artists – The Songs of the New Cuban Underground
2009	Runnin' Down a Dream	Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers	Peter Bogdanovich	George Drakoulias and Skot Bright	John Mayer – Where The Light Is: Live in Los Angeles Rihanna – Good Girl Gone Bad Live Various artists – Great Performances: Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story The Who – Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who
2010	The Beatles Love – All Together Now	The Beatles and Cirque du Soleil^IV	Adrian Wills	Jonathan Clyde and Martin Bolduc	Chris Botti – In Boston Johnny Cash – Johnny Cash's America Anita O'Day – Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer Keith Urban – Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy World Tour Live
2011	When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors	The Doors^IV	Tom DiCillo	Dick Wolf, Jeff Jampol, John Beug, and Peter Jankowski	Blur – No Distance Left to Run Arif Mardin – The Greatest Ears in Town: The Arif Mardin Story Rush – Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage The White Stripes – Under Great White Northern Lights
2012	Back and Forth	Foo Fighters	James Moll	James Moll and Nigel Sinclair	Beyoncé – I Am... World Tour Kings of Leon – Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon A Tribe Called Quest – Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest TV on the Radio – Nine Types of Light
2013	Big Easy Express	Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and Old Crow Medicine Show	Emmett Malloy	Bryan Ling, Mike Luba, and Tim Lynch	Sade – Bring Me Home – Live 2011 Esperanza Spalding – Radio Music Society Tegan & Sara – Get Along U2 – From the Sky Down
2014	Live Kisses	Paul McCartney	Jonas Akerlund		Coldplay – Live 2012 Green Day – Cuatro Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite – I'm In I'm Out and I'm Gone: The Making of Get Up! Mumford & Sons – The Road to Red Rocks
2015	20 Feet from Stardom	Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer & Judith Hill	Morgan Neville	Gil Friesen and Caitlin Rogers	Beyoncé and Jay Z – On the Run Tour Coldplay – Ghost Stories Metallica – Metallica Through the Never Pink – The Truth About Love Tour: Live from Melbourne
2016	Amy	Amy Winehouse^IV	Asif Kapadia	James Gay-Rees	James Brown – Mr Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways Nina Simone – What Happened, Miss Simone? Roger Waters – The Wall
2017	The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years	The Beatles^IV	Ron Howard	Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Scott Pascucci, Nigel Sinclair	Steve Aoki – I'll Sleep When I'm Dead Beyoncé – Lemonade Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble – The Music of Strangers Various Artists – American Saturday Night: Live from the Grand Ole Opry
2018	The Defiant Ones	Various artists^IV	Allen Hughes	Sarah Anthony, Fritzi Horstman, Broderick Johnson, Gene Kirkwood, Andrew Kosove, Laura Lancaster, Michael Lombardo, Jerry Longarzo, Doug Pray & Steven Williams	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – One More Time with Feeling Grateful Dead – Long Strange Trip Various Artists – Soundbreaking Various Artists – Two Trains Runnin'
2019	Quincy	Quincy Jones	Alan Hicks & Rashida Jones	Paula DuPré Pesmen	Eric Clapton – Life in 12 Bars Whitney Houston – Whitney Itzhak Perlman – Itzhak Various Artists – Elvis Presley: The King

2020s

Year^[I]	Work	Performing artist(s)	Director(s)^[II]	Producers	Nominees
2020	Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé	Beyoncé	Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & Ed Burke	Steve Pamon & Erinn Williams	David Crosby – Remember My Name Stanley Nelson (director) – Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool Various Artists / Morgan Neville (director) – Shangri-La Thom Yorke / Paul Thomas Anderson – Anima

^{^[I]} Each year is linked to the article about the Grammy Awards held that year.
^{^[II]} Director(s) are only indicated if they were presented a Grammy Award.
^{^[III]} Award was not presented. Music video categories presented that year included Best Concept Music Video and Best Performance Music Video.
^{^[IV]} Award not presented to the performing artist (only to video director(s) and video producer(s))
^{^[V]} Director unknown; award presented to video producers only

See also

• List of Grammy Award categories
• List of most expensive music videos
• One shot (music video)

References

1. "55th Annual GRAMMY Awards (2012)". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
2. "56th Annual GRAMMY Awards (2013)". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 11, 2018.
3. "Grammy Awards at a Glance". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved May 13, 2011.
4. "Overview". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on October 27, 2009. Retrieved May 14, 2011.
5. Grammy.com
6. Press release, 4 June 2013

• "Past Winners Search". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 14, 2011.

External links

• Official site of the Grammy Awards