These are the lists of documentary films that were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in recent years.
List of selected films and years
1999
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amargosa | Todd Robinson | United States | Marta Becket and the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel | Not nominated | [1] |
American Movie | Chris Smith | United States | The making of a low budget horror movie in Wisconsin | Not nominated | |
Beyond the Mat | Barry W. Blaustein | United States | World Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Mick Foley, Terry Funk and Jake Roberts | Not nominated | |
Buena Vista Social Club | Wim Wenders | Cuba France Germany United Kingdom United States |
A group of elderly Cuban musicians | Nominated | |
Genghis Blues | Roko Belic | United States | Paul Pena and the art of Tuvan throat singing | Nominated | |
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | Errol Morris | United States | Fred A. Leuchter Jr., capital punishment and Holocaust denial | Not nominated | |
On the Ropes | Brett Morgen, Nanette Burstein | United States | Three young boxers and their coach | Nominated | |
One Day in September | Kevin Macdonald | United Kingdom | Terrorist attacks at the 1972 Summer Olympics | Won Academy Award | |
Pop & Me | Chris Roe | United States | The director's travels around with his own father, interviewing fathers and sons about their own father-son relationships | Not nominated | |
Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial | Torrie Rosenzweig | United States | Tobacco in the United States | Not nominated | |
The Source | Chuck Workman | United States | The Beat Generation | Not nominated | |
Speaking in Strings | Paola di Florio | United States | Italian-born violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg | Nominated |
2000
2001
2002
2003
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Agronomist | Jonathan Demme | United States | Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti-Inter, the country's first independent radio station | Not nominated | [2] |
Balseros | Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domenech | Catalonia | Balseros emigrating from Cuba during the Período especial and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis | Nominated | |
Bus 174 | Jose Padilha | Brazil | The June 2000 hijacking of Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Not nominated | |
Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki | United States | American family with dark sexual secrets | Nominated | |
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin | Richard Schickel | American | The life and times of Golden Age of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin | Not nominated | |
The Fog of War | Errol Morris | United States | Robert McNamara and his involvement in the Vietnam War | Won Academy Award | |
Heir to an Execution | Marc Levin | Not nominated | |||
Inheritance: A Fisherman's Story | Peter Hegedus | Not nominated | |||
Lost Boys of Sudan | Megan Mylan and Jou Shenk | American | Two boys from the Dinka tribe of Sudan who emigrated to the United States, who were part of the refugee group commonly known as the Lost Boys of Sudan | Not nominated | |
My Architect | Nathaniel Kahn | American | The career and familial relationships of the director's father, architect Louis Kahn | Nominated | |
My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | American | The adopted children of Susan Tom, most of whom have significant physical disabilities | Not nominated | |
The Weather Underground | Sam Green and Bill Siegel | United States | The rise and fall of the radical political group of the same name | Nominated |
2004
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born into Brothels | Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman | India United States |
Children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. | Won Academy Award | [3][2] |
Home of the Brave | Paola di Florio | United States | The 1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo | Not nominated | |
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train | Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller | United States | Historian and activist Howard Zinn | Not nominated | |
In the Realms of the Unreal | Jessica Yu | United States | Outsider artist Henry Darger's magnum opus The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion | Not nominated | |
Riding Giants | Stacy Peralta | United States | Surfing, Big wave riding | Not nominated | |
The Ritchie Boys | Not nominated | ||||
The Story of the Weeping Camel | Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni | Germany Mongolia |
A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert trying to save the life of a rare white bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf after it was rejected by its mother. | Nominated | |
Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock | United States | A filmmaker eating nothing but McDonald's fast food for 30 days | Nominated | |
Tell Them Who You Are | Not nominated | ||||
Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald | United Kingdom | Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' near-fatal descent after making the first successful ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes | Not nominated | |
Tupac: Resurrection | Lauren Lazin | United States | Late rapper Tupac Shakur from his upbringing to his untimely death | Nominated | |
Twist of Faith | Kirby Dick | United States | Sexual abuse by a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, Ohio | Nominated |
2005
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Darwin's Nightmare | Hubert Sauper | Austria Belgium France |
Environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania | Nominated | [4] |
The Devil and Daniel Johnston | Jeff Feuerzeig | United States | Outsider music artist Daniel Johnston and his struggles with paranoid schizophrenia | Not nominated | |
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room | Alex Gibney | United States | The rise and fall of the real estate corporation Enron | Nominated | |
Mad Hot Ballroom | Marilyn Agrelo | United States | The ballroom dance program for fifth graders in the New York City Department of Education | Not nominated | |
March of the Penguins | Luc Jacquet | France | The daily lives of emperor penguins | Won Academy Award | |
Murderball | Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro | United States | American Wheelchair rugby players facing against Canadian wheelchair rugby players at the 2004 Paralympic Games | Nominated | |
Street Fight | Marshall Curry | United States | The 2002 Newark mayoral election in which Newark City Councilman Cory Booker challenged incumbent mayor Sharpe James | Nominated |
2006
2007
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Autism: The Musical | Tricia Regan | United States | Children on the autism spectrum performing their own stage musical | Not nominated | [5] |
Body of War | Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue | United States | The experiences of Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, including his paralysis from enemy gunshot wounds and his subsequent anti-war activism | Not nominated | |
For the Bible Tells Me So | Daniel G. Karslake | United States | Christianity and homosexuality | Not nominated | |
Lake of Fire | Tony Kaye | United States | Abortion in the United States | Not nominated | |
Nanking | Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman | United States | The Nanjing Massacre | Not nominated | |
No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson | United States | The Iraq War | Nominated | |
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience | Richard E. Robbins | United States | The writings of U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars | Nominated | |
The Price of Sugar | Bill Haney | Dominican Republic United States |
Exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation | Not nominated | |
Please Vote for Me | Weijun Chen | China | Elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China | Not nominated | |
Sicko | Michael Moore | United States | Health insurance and Healthcare in the United States | Nominated | |
Taxi to the Dark Side | Alex Gibney | United States | The December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base | Won Academy Award | |
War/Dance | Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine | United States | Three Acholi children living in a Ugandan refugee camp, who are preparing to compete in the National Music Competition in Kampala | Nominated | |
White Light/Black Rain | Steven Okazaki | United States | The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki | Not nominated |
2008
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) | Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath | United States | [6] | ||
Encounters at the End of the World | |||||
The Garden | |||||
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts | Classical music composer Philip Glass | Not nominated | |||
I.O.U.S.A. | |||||
Man on Wire | United States | Won Academy Award | |||
Trouble the Water |
2009
2010
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Exit Through the Gift Shop | Nominated | [7] | |||
Gasland | Nominated | ||||
Inside Job | Won Academy Award | ||||
Restrepo | Nominated | ||||
The Tillman Story | United States | The untimely death of former football player turned soldier Pat Tillman | Not nominated | ||
Waiting for "Superman" | Not nominated | ||||
Waste Land | Nominated |
2011
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Buck | Not nominated | [8] | |||
Bill Cunningham New York | Not nominated | ||||
Battle for Brooklyn | Not nominated | ||||
Hell and Back Again | Nominated | ||||
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front - | Marshall Curry | United States | The rise and fall of radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front | Nominated | |
Jane's Journey | Not nominated | ||||
The Loving Story | Not nominated | ||||
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory | Nominated | ||||
Pina | Wim Wenders | Germany | Nominated | ||
Project Nim | Not nominated | ||||
Semper Fi: Always Faithful | Not nominated | ||||
Sing Your Song | Not nominated | ||||
Undefeated | Won Academy Award | ||||
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat | Not nominated | ||||
We Were Here | Not nominated |
2012
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bully | Not nominated | [9] | |||
Chasing Ice | Best Original Song nominee | Not nominated | |||
5 Broken Cameras | Nominated | ||||
The Gatekeepers | Nominated | ||||
How to Survive a Plague | Nominated | ||||
The Invisible War | Nominated | ||||
Searching for Sugar Man | Won Academy Award | ||||
This Is Not a Film | Filmmaker Jafar Panahi's exile from making cinema in Iran | Not nominated |
2013
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
The Act of Killing | Nominated | [10] | |||
Blackfish | United States | Controversies surrounding the mistreatment of whales at Sea World | Not nominated | ||
Cutie and the Boxer | Nominated | ||||
Dirty Wars | Nominated | ||||
God Loves Uganda | Not nominated | ||||
The Square | Nominated | ||||
20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville | United States | Legendary backup singers (eg.Darlene Love) | Won Academy Award |
2014
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Citizen Koch | Tia Lessin and Carl Deal | United States | Not nominated | [11] | |
Citizenfour | Laura Poitras | United States | Edward Snowden and his whistleblowing involvement on WikiLeaks | Won Academy Award | |
Finding Vivian Maier | John Maloof and Charlie Siskel | United States | Street photographer Vivian Maier and the rediscovery of her photography | Nominated | |
The Internet's Own Boy | Brian Knappenberger | United States | Aaron Swartz and the case of United States v. Swartz | Not nominated | |
Jodorowsky's Dune | Cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempts at adapting the classic sci-fi novel Dune | Not nominated | |||
Last Days in Vietnam | Nominated | ||||
Life Itself | Steve James | United States | Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert | Not nominated | |
The Salt of the Earth | Nominated | ||||
Virunga | Nominated |
2015
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amy | Asif Kapadia | United Kingdom | The life and death of singer Amy Winehouse | Won Academy Award | [12][13] |
Best of Enemies | Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville | United States | The televised arguments between conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr and progressive novelist Gore Vidal | Not nominated | |
Cartel Land | Matthew Heineman | United States | Vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels during Mexican drug war | Nominated | |
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief | Alex Gibney | United States | An exposé on the practices of the Church of Scientology | Not nominated | |
He Named Me Malala | Davis Guggenheim | United States, United Arab Emirates | The life of young activist Malala Yousafzai | Not nominated | |
Heart of a Dog | Laurie Anderson | United States | Composer Laurie Anderson's meditative ode to canines | Not nominated | |
The Hunting Ground | Kirby Dick | United States | The incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and the reported failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately | Not nominated | |
Listen to Me Marlon | Stevan Riley | United Kingdom | Archival footage examining the life of Academy Award-winning actor Marlon Brando | Not nominated | |
The Look of Silence | Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, United States | Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 | Nominated | |
Meru | Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | United States | The first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas | Not nominated | |
3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets | Marc Silver | United States | Murder of Jordan Davis | Not nominated | |
We Come as Friends | Hubert Sauper | Austria, France | War-ravaged South Sudan fighting for independence from North Sudan and its President Omar al-Bashir | Not nominated | |
What Happened, Miss Simone? | Liz Garbus | United States | The life and troubled times of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone | Nominated | |
Where to Invade Next | Michael Moore | United States | Director Michael Moore spending time in various countries where he experiences alternative methods of dealing with social and economic ills experienced in the United States | Not nominated | |
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom | Evgeny Afineevsky | Ukraine, United States, United Kingdom | Ukraine's fight for freedom during the Revolution of Dignity | Nominated |
2016
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cameraperson | Kirsten Johnson | United States | A cinematographer's collection of documentary footage | Not nominated | [14] |
Command and Control | Robert Kenner | United States | 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980 | Not nominated | |
The Eagle Huntress | Otto Bell | Mongolia, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, United States | Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia | Not nominated | |
Fire at Sea | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy | Life at Lampedusa, Italy | Nominated | |
Gleason | Clay Tweel | United States | Former football player Steve Gleason and his journey living with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) | Not nominated | |
Hooligan Sparrow | Nanfu Wang | China, United States | A child rape case in China involving a government official and the subsequent protests led by activists | Not nominated | |
I Am Not Your Negro | Raoul Peck | France, United States | Author James Baldwin's unfinished memoir about being black in America | Nominated | |
The Ivory Game | Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani | United States | The poaching of elephants in Africa, related to the ivory trade in China and Hong Kong, and the repercussions of elephant poaching | Not nominated | |
Life, Animated | Roger Ross Williams | United States | Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, diagnosed with autism learning about life and communication through classic Disney animated movies | Nominated | |
OJ: Made in America | Ezra Edelman | United States | The examination of racial divides in America during the O. J. Simpson saga | Won Academy Award | |
13th | Ava DuVernay | United States | A look at the 13th amendment and its effect on African Americans | Nominated | |
Tower | Keith Maitland | United States | The 1966 University of Texas shooting perpetrated by Charles Whitman | Not nominated | |
Weiner | Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg | United States | The rise and fall of politician Anthony Weiner due to his excessive sexting | Not nominated | |
The Witness | James D. Solomon | United States | The murder of Kitty Genovese and the subsequent investigation led by her brother, Bill | Not nominated | |
Zero Days | Alex Gibney | United States | The phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games." | Not nominated |
2017
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail | Steve James | United States | A family-owned community bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, the only financial institution to face criminal charges following the subprime mortgage crisis | Nominated | [15][16][17] |
Chasing Coral | Jeff Orlowski | United States | A team of divers, scientists and photographers around the world who document the disappearance of coral reefs | Not nominated | |
City of Ghosts | Matthew Heineman | United States | The Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently after their homeland is taken over by ISIS in 2014 | Not nominated | |
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library | Frederick Wiseman | United States | The role of the New York Public Library as an egalitarian network of exploration, exchange and learning | Not nominated | |
Faces Places | Agnes Varda, JR | France | Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across | Nominated | |
Human Flow | Ai Weiwei | Germany | The current global refugee crisis | Not nominated | |
Icarus | Bryan Fogel | United States | Fogel's exploration of the option of doping to win an amateur cycling race and happening upon a major international doping scandal when he asks for the help of Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory | Won Academy Award | |
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power | Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk | United States | Former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change | Not nominated | |
Jane | Brett Morgen | United States | Iconic anthropologist Jane Goodall | Not nominated | |
Jim and Andy | Chris Smith | United States | The making of the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey in his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of the controversial stand-up comedian Andy Kaufman | Not nominated | |
LA 92 | Daniel Lindsay, T. J. Martin | United States | Archival coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots | Not nominated | |
Last Men in Aleppo | Feras Fayyad | Denmark Syria | The lives of three White Helmets founders, Khaled Omar Harrah, Subhi Alhussen and Mahmoud as they grapple the dilemma to flee their country or stay and fight for it | Nominated | |
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 | John Ridley | United States | Prior events leading up to the Rodney King riots | Not nominated | |
Long Strange Trip | Amir Bar-Lev | United States | The career of the rock band the Grateful Dead | Not nominated | |
One of Us | Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady | United States | The lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn | Not nominated | |
Strong Island | Yance Ford | United States | The April 1992 murder of William Ford, the director's brother | Nominated | |
Unrest | Jennifer Brea | United States | Brea faced chronic fatigue syndrome that struck just before she married her husband Omar Wasow | Not nominated |
2018
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Charm City | Marilyn Ness | United States | A community in Baltimore, Maryland, over the span of three years of high violence | Not nominated | [18] |
Communion | Anna Zamecka | Poland | Ola, a 14-year-old girl who takes care of her dysfunctional, alcoholic father, autistic brother, mother who lives separately, and her preparation of family celebration of her brother's Holy Communion sacrament | Not nominated | |
Crime + Punishment | Stephen T. Maing | United States | A group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and a private investigator who risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities | Not nominated | |
Dark Money | Kimberly Reed | United States | The effects of corporate money and influence in the American political system | Not nominated | |
The Distant Barking of Dogs | Simon Lereng Wilmont | Ukraine Denmark Finland Sweden | The life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year during the war in Donbas | Not nominated | |
Free Solo | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | United States | Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite National Park's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall | Won Academy Award | |
Hale County This Morning, This Evening | RaMell Ross | United States | The lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama | Nominated | |
Minding the Gap | Bing Liu | United States | The lives and friendships of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois, united by their love of skateboarding | Nominated | |
Of Fathers and Sons | Talal Derki | Germany Lebanon Netherlands Qatar Syria | Radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria | Nominated | |
On Her Shoulders | Alexandria Bombach | United States | Human rights activist Nadia Murad, as she met with politicians and journalists to alert the world to the massacres and kidnapping happening in Iraq | Not nominated | |
RBG | Betsy West, Julie Cohen | United States | The life, legacy and career of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Nominated | |
Shirkers | Sandi Tan | Singapore United Kingdom United States | The making of an independent thriller featuring a teenage assassin set in Singapore | Not nominated | |
The Silence of Others | Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar | United States Spain | The silenced fight of the victims from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco | Not nominated | |
Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle | United States United Kingdom | The lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families | Not nominated | |
Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville | United States | The life, legacy and guiding philosophy of children's television host Fred Rogers | Not nominated |
2019
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Advocate | Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaïche | Israel | Human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel as she navigates through the Israeli judicial system in defense of Palestinians accused of terrorism | Not nominated | [19][20] |
American Factory | Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert | United States | Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant | Won Academy Award | |
The Apollo | Roger Ross Williams | United States | The history of Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City | Not nominated | |
Apollo 11 | Todd Douglas Miller | United States | The 1969 Apollo 11 mission | Not nominated | |
Aquarela | Viktor Kossakovsky | Germany United Kingdom United States | Climate change depicted by water and ice around the world | Not nominated | |
The Biggest Little Farm | John Chester | United States | John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California | Not nominated | |
The Cave | Feras Fayyad | Syria Denmark | Dr. Amani Ballour, a physician in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital nicknamed "the Cave" during the Syrian Civil War | Nominated | |
The Edge of Democracy | Petra Costa | Brazil | Political past of Costa in a personal way, in context with the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the events leading to impeachment of Dilma Rousseff | Nominated | |
For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts | Syria United Kingdom United States | Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian civil war uprising as she and her husband raise their daughter Sama | Nominated | |
The Great Hack | Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer | United States | The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal | Not nominated | |
Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov | North Macedonia | The life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of wild bees who lives in the remote mountain village of Bekirloja, North Macedonia | Nominated | |
Knock Down the House | Rachel Lears | United States | Four female democrats who run for Congress in the 2018 United States elections: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin | Not nominated | |
Maiden | Alex Holmes | United Kingdom | Tracy Edwards and the crew of the Maiden as they compete as the first all-woman crew in the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race | Not nominated | |
Midnight Family | Luke Lorentzen | Mexico | Ochoa family who run a private ambulance business | Not nominated | |
One Child Nation | Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang | United States | The fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1980 to 2015 | Not nominated |
2020
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
All In: The Fight for Democracy | Liz Garbus, Lisa Cortés | United States | Voter suppression and the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives | Not nominated | [21][22] |
Boys State | Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine | United States | A thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up | Not nominated | |
Collective | Alexander Nanau | Romania | The 2016 public health scandal following the Colectiv nightclub fire | Nominated | |
Crip Camp | Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht | United States | Camp Jened campers who turned themselves into activists for the disability rights movement in the 1970s and follows their fight for accessibility legislation | Nominated | |
Dick Johnson Is Dead | Kirsten Johnson | United States | Johnson's father Richard "Dick", who suffers from dementia, portraying different ways in which he could ultimately die | Not nominated | |
Gunda | Viktor Kossakovsky | United States, Norway, Spain | The daily life of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken | Not nominated | |
MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | United States | The investigation and harassment of activist Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation | Not nominated | |
The Mole Agent | Maite Alberdi | Chile, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United States | A private investigator, Rómulo, hires Sergio, an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile | Nominated | |
My Octopus Teacher | Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed | South Africa, United Kingdom | A year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest | Won Academy Award | |
Notturno | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy, Germany, France | Different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives | Not nominated | |
The Painter and the Thief | Benjamin Ree | Norway, United States | Barbora Kysilkova, an artist, forming a friendship with Karl-Bertil Nordland, a man who stole her artwork | Not nominated | |
76 Days | Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, anonymous third | China, United States | The struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan | Not nominated | |
Time | Garrett Bradley | United States | Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery | Nominated | |
The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw | United States, Italy, Greece | A group of aging men hunt in the woods in Northern Italy, for a prized quarry, the Alba truffle | Not nominated | |
Welcome to Chechnya | David France | United States | LGBT Chechen refugees as they made their way out of anti-gay purges in Chechnya of the late 2010s | Not nominated |
2021
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ascension | Jessica Kingdon | United States | The pursuit of the Chinese Dream | Nominated | [23] |
Attica | Stanley Nelson Jr., Traci Curry | United States | The infamous 1971 Attica Prison riot | Nominated | |
Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry | R. J. Cutler | United States | The career and creative process of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish | Not nominated | |
Faya Dayi | Jessica Beshir | United States, Ethiopia, Qatar | The rituals of khat, a psychoactive plant that plays an important role in Ethiopia's economy and culture | Not nominated | |
The First Wave | Matthew Heineman | United States | A hospital in New York City, as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | |
Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, United States | Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time | Nominated | |
In the Same Breath | Nanfu Wang | United States | The response of the Chinese and American governments to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | |
Julia | Julie Cohen, Betsy West | United States | The life of cooking teacher and television personality Julia Child | Not nominated | |
President | Camilla Nielsson | Denmark, Norway, United States, Zimbabwe | The career of Nelson Chamisa who takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe | Not nominated | |
Procession | Robert Greene | United States | The six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace | Not nominated | |
The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | United States, United Kingdom | The 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue | Not nominated | |
Simple as Water | Megan Mylan | United States | The Syrian families across five countries, revealing the impact of war, separation, and displacement | Not nominated | |
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson | United States | The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival | Won Academy Award | |
The Velvet Underground | Todd Haynes | United States | The life and times of influential rock band The Velvet Underground | Not nominated | |
Writing with Fire | Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas | India | The journalists running the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya, as they shift from 14 years of print to digital journalism using smartphones | Nominated |
2022
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
A House Made of Splinters | Simon Lereng Wilmont | Denmark Ukraine Sweden |
The care of the staff of an institution for children who have been removed from their homes. | Nominated | [24] |
All That Breathes | Shaunak Sen | India United States United Kingdom |
Two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite | Nominated | |
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | United States | The life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family | Nominated | |
Bad Axe | David Siev | United States | David Siev's Asian-American family struggles to keep their local restaurant afloat amidst racial tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | |
Children of the Mist | Ha Le Diem | Vietnam | The Di Hmong teenager faces challenges growing up. In traditional Di culture, girls are married at the age of 14. But at school he learns that there are alternatives. | Not nominated | |
Descendant | Margaret Brown | United States | The community of Africatown and the descendants of some of the last known enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States | Not nominated | |
Fire of Love | Sara Dosa | United States Canada |
The life and career of the daring French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who were ultimately killed in the 1991 eruption of Mount Unzen | Nominated | |
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song | Daniel Geller & Dayna Goldfine | United States Canada |
The story of Leonard Cohen, and his song "Hallelujah" | Not nominated | |
Hidden Letters | Violet Du Feng & Qing Zhao | China China | The story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them. | Not nominated | |
The Janes | Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes | United States | The story of a clandestine service for women seeking safe, affordable, and illegal abortions, calling themselves JANE | Not nominated | |
Last Flight Home | Ondi Timoner | United States | In his final days, we discover Eli Timoner and an extraordinary life of wild achievements, tragic loss and most of all, enduring love | Not nominated | |
Moonage Daydream | Brett Morgen | Germany United States |
David Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey | Not nominated | |
Navalny | Daniel Roher | United States | The poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny | Won Academy Award | |
Retrograde | Matthew Heineman | United States | The events that took place during the last nine months of the United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan | Not nominated | |
The Territory | Alex Pritz | United States United Kingdom Brazil Denmark |
The attempts of a young indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau, an Amazonian tribe contacted by the Brazilian government only in 1980 | Not nominated |
2023
Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
American Symphony | Matthew Heineman | United States | A year in the life of musician Jon Batiste chronicling his career in music and his marriage with Suleika Jaouad as they deal with her leukemia. | Not nominated | [25] |
Apolonia, Apolonia | Lea Glob | Denmark Poland France |
The coming-of-age story of Apolonia Sokol as she finds her place in the art world, told through 13 years. | Not nominated | |
Beyond Utopia | Madeleine Gavin | United States | The work of Pastor Sungeun Kim, a South Korean human rights activist who has helped rescuing North Korean defectors. | Not nominated | |
Bobi Wine: The People's President | Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp | United Kingdom Uganda United States |
The campaign trail of Ugandan politician, singer, and actor Bobi Wine leading to the 2021 Ugandan general election. | Nominated | |
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy | Nancy Buirski | United States | The journey of making and producing John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. | Not nominated | |
The Eternal Memory | Maite Alberdi | Chile | The relationship between actress Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora as they struggle with Gongora's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. | Nominated | |
Four Daughters | Kaouther Ben Hania | Tunisia Germany France Saudi Arabia |
After two daughters of a Tunisian woman disappeared, the filmmaker invites professional actresses to compensate for the loss. | Nominated | |
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson | United States | The life of American poet Nikki Giovanni and the historical periods she lived through from civil rights movement and Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter. | Not nominated | |
In the Rearview | Maciek Hamela | Ukraine Poland France |
Following the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Polish van travels through Ukraine's streets serving as a refuge for citizens. | Not nominated | |
Stamped from the Beginning | Roger Ross Williams | United States | A hybrid documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's 2016 non-fiction book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas. | Not nominated | |
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie | Davis Guggenheim | United States | The life of American actor Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson's disease. | Not nominated | |
A Still Small Voice | Luke Lorentzen | United Kingdom | A chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency facing the challenges and spiritual questions that come from her experiences with her patients. | Not nominated | |
32 Sounds | Sam Green | United States | Sound and its effects on human's perception of time and the world. | Not nominated | |
To Kill a Tiger | Nisha Pahuja | Canada | A family in Jharkhand, India campaigning for justice for the teenage daughter, who has brutally raped. | Nominated | |
20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov | Ukraine | The twenty days spent by the filmmaker and his colleagues in besieged Mariupol after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. | Won Academy Award |
See also
- Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
- Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film
References
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- ^ a b Kilday, Gregg (November 21, 2003). "Oscar's documentary dozen". Today.com. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ "Academy Announces Documentary Films in Competition for 78th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. November 15, 2005. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ 15 Films Selected for Oscar Short List in Doc Feature Category-IndieWire
- ^ Doc Soup: A New Award for Documentaries-Doc Soup-POV Blog-PBS
- ^ "2009 Academy Awards Best Documentary Short List Unveiled - Film Junk".
- ^ "Oscar's 2010 Feature Documentary Shortlist Revealed". ComingSoon.net. 18 November 2010.
- ^ Oscars: Documentary shortlist unveiled — Variety
- ^ "85th Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature Shortlist Announced | what (not) to doc". whatnottodoc.com. 3 December 2012. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "86th Oscars: Best Documentary Feature Shortlist Announced | what (not) to doc". whatnottodoc.com. 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ Tim Gray (2 December 2014). "15 Documentaries Land on Oscar's Short List". Variety. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "15 Documentary Features Advance in 2015 Oscar Race". oscars.org. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "Oscars 2016: 124 documentaries submitted for consideration". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "15 Documentary Features Advance in 2016 Oscar Race". Academy Awards. December 6, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
- ^ "90th Academy Awards (2017): Documentary Feature Eligibility List". 19 January 2018.
- ^ Antonia Blyth (16 November 2017). "Oscars 2018: A Look At Contenders In The Best Documentary Feature Race". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ "One of these 15 movies will win best documentary at the Oscars-Entertainment Weekly". ew.com. Retrieved 2018-10-25.
- ^ Kiefer, Halle (December 17, 2018). "Get Ready to Fill That Void: The Academy Is Rolling Out Its 91st Oscars Shortlists". Vulture. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
- ^ Pedersen, Erik (December 16, 2019). "Oscars: Academy Releases Shortlists For Nine Categories Including Documentary, International Film, VFX, Song, Score & Shorts". Deadline. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
- ^ 159 Documentary Features submitted for 2019 Oscar® Race - The Bahamas Weekly
- ^ Carey, Matthew (February 9, 2021). "Oscars Documentary Feature Shortlist: Snubs, Surprises And A Netflix-Amazon Showdown". Deadline. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
- ^ 94TH ACADEMY AWARDS® ELIGIBLE FOR ... - Oscars.org
- ^ Carey, Matthew (December 21, 2021). "'Flee' Scores Rare Oscar Shortlist Double, Joins 'Summer of Soul,' 'The Rescue,' 'Ascension' In Continued Hunt For Academy Awards". Deadline. Retrieved September 18, 2022.
- ^ Academy Announces 259 Eligible Titles for Animated, Documentary and International Feature Races - Variety
- ^ Davis, Clayton (21 December 2023). "Oscar Shortlists Announced for 10 Categories: 'Barbie' Leads the Way". Variety. Retrieved 22 December 2023.