The film had its world premiere at the2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 20.[4] It received the Grand Jury Prize award for U.S. Documentary Competition.[5][6] The film was also screened at the 2023True/False Film Festival.[7] In August,HBO Documentary Films acquired U.S. and Canada television and streaming rights to the film.[8] It was released in alimited release on November 3 of the same year.[9][10] The documentary was broadcast onHBO on January 8, 2024.[11]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 97% of 31 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project takes a suitably inventive -- and very enjoyable -- approach to documenting a brilliant artist's life and times."[12]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[13] The film was Oscar short-listed in the96th Oscar Awards and won the prestigious Primetime Emmy Award for OutstandingExceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking (2024).
