For all the movies made about Elvis Presley, the man fans still call the King of Rock n’ Roll, only one concert film or documentary about him has ever walked away with a major award. Just one. And that was more than fifty years ago.
Now a brand new one is trying to change that.
It’s called “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” and it was put together by Baz Luhrmann, the same director who made the big 2022 Elvis movie. This time there are no actors playing him. Luhrmann dug up long-lost concert footage of Elvis himself and built the whole film around it.
“We made the decision that we should let Elvis sing and tell his story himself,” Luhrmann said.
The film has landed four nominations at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Four separate categories: Best Music Documentary, Best Archival Documentary, Best First Documentary Feature for Luhrmann and Best Editing for Jonathan Redmond, the man who stitched all that footage together. The ceremony is this coming Sunday, Nov 8, in New York.
The trailer gives you a real taste of what the fuss is about. Elvis on a stage, cleaned up and sharpened, looking and sounding like you’ve maybe never seen him before.
Elvis back on stage in Baz Luhrmann’s restored concert footage
Here’s where it gets fun. In two of those categories, Elvis is going head to head with another music legend you know very well.
The rival is a documentary called “Man on the Run.” It’s about Paul McCartney, the Beatle. His film and the Elvis film are both up for Best Music Documentary and Best Archival Documentary, so on Nov 8 an Elvis picture and a Beatle picture are fighting for the same two trophies. The music category is packed, with films on Earth, Wind & Fire, Oasis, Peter Asher and Sara Bareilles also in the running. We won’t try to call a winner.
So what about that one Elvis film that already did it?
That would be “Elvis on Tour,” which followed him across America on the road in 1972. It won the Golden Globe for Best Documentary in January 1973, sharing the prize that night with a film called “Walls of Fire.” A pretty famous young filmmaker worked on it too, but that’s a story for another day. All these years later, it’s still the only Elvis concert film or documentary to take home a major award.
One thing worth clearing up. This Sunday isn’t the Golden Globes. The Critics Choice Documentary Awards are their own show, voted on by film critics. And yes, Elvis has crossed paths with a Golden Globe more recently, when Austin Butler won one for playing him in 2022. But a real concert film standing on its own is a different thing.
The winners get named Sunday night. Until then, the trailer is the closest look at why so many people are talking.