A long-form portrait of each class, released annually.

Each year's documentary is a nine-chapter feature. Every chapter, twelve to twenty minutes, is a self-contained portrait of one laureate, directed by a filmmaker chosen for that subject. The chapters are bound together by a reading of the Register recorded at the Convocation.

The directors rotate every year. The first class is being filmed by an ensemble of nine, including alumni of Sundance and TIFF labs, two Academy nominees, and three first-feature directors emerging from the Latimer Fellows.

The Documentary is produced with YouTube under a multi-year commission. YouTube holds first-window global distribution; the Prize keeps permanent archival rights for deposit with the Smithsonian. After the global window, each chapter enters the public Archive under Smithsonian open access.

The films are not red-carpet coverage. No acceptance speeches. No host segments. No awards-show grammar. Each chapter is filmed where the laureate actually works, the laboratory, the studio, the workshop, the editing room, the board room, the classroom. The test is simple: a viewer who has never heard of the Prize, or of the laureate, can sit with the chapter and understand the work.