124 Documentaries Will Fight It Out for a Oscar Nomination
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its list of 124 feature documentaries submitted for consideration for the 88th Academy Awards.
The current long-list of hopefuls is 124 deep with the shortlist of fifteen being announced in December before the final 5 nominees announced on January 14 at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Many of the 124 submitted documentaries have yet to have their Oscar-qualifying theatrical runs, which makes it hard to narrow down this large filed into a bundle of genuine contenders. However, from the ones that have already had releases, frontrunners have slowly begun emerging. Asif Kapadia's Amy is as close to a lock as you can get in the documentary category which is notoriously tough to predict. The Hunting Ground from previous Academy-award nominated director Kirby Dick is another heavy puncher, along with Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence. The brutally harsh Cartel Land is another that shouldn't be overlooked with Crystal Moselle's debut The Wolfpack a distinctive and powerful film.
Having said that, there is plenty of competition in the list that could easily shake things ups for those five early contenders. Brett Morgen's Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck received rave reviews, as did Best of Enemies. The Seven Five is one the strongest of the "smaller" releases this year, as is Sundance hit Welcome to Leith. Michael Moore's new doc Where To Invade Next (one those that hasn't had its theatrical run) may see the controversial filmmaker return to the Oscars, along with another outspoken filmmaker in Alex Gibney, who has two movies submitted (Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine). A long shot may come in the form of Listen to Me Marlon, which may land a nod from the Academy simply for Brando's reputation and star power. However, the sentimental voting didn't quite work out for director Steve James and his Roger Ebert documentary Life Itself last year.
Below is a full list of the submitted films for Best Documentary Feature:
Above and Beyond, All Things Must Pass, Amy, The Armor of Light, Ballet 422, Batkid Begins, Becoming Bulletproof, Being Evel, Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery, Best of Enemies, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, Bolshoi Babylon, Brand: A Second Coming, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, Call Me Lucky, Cartel Land, Censored Voices, Champs, CodeGirl, Coming Home, Dark Horse, Deli Man, Dior and I, The Diplomat, (Dis)Honesty – The Truth about Lies, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll, Dreamcatcher, dream/killer, Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon, Eating Happiness, Every Last Child, Evidence of Harm, Farewell to Hollywood, Finders Keepers, The Forecaster, Frame by Frame, Gardeners of Eden, A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile, Godspeed: The Story of Page Jones, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, He Named Me Malala, Heart of a Dog, Hitchcock/Truffaut, How to Change the World, Human, The Hunting Ground, I Am Chris Farley, In Jackson Heights, In My Father’s House, India’s Daughter, Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words, Iraqi Odyssey, Iris, Janis: Little Girl Blue, Karski & the Lords of Humanity, Killing Them Safely, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, Lambert & Stamp, A Lego Brickumentary, Listen to Me Marlon, Live from New York!, The Look of Silence, Meet the Patels, Meru, The Mind of Mark DeFriest, Misery Loves Comedy, Monkey Kingdom, A Murder in the Park, My Italian Secret, My Voice, My Life, 1971, Of Men and War, One Cut One Life, Only the Dead See the End of War, The Outrageous Sophie Tucker, Peace Officer, The Pearl Button, Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer, Poached, Polyfaces, The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers, Prophet’s Prey, Racing Extinction, The Resurrection of Jake the Snake, Ride the Thunder – A Vietnam War Story of Victory & Betrayal, Rosenwald, The Russian Woodpecker, Searching for Home: Coming Back from War, Seeds of Time, Sembene!, The Seven Five, Seymour: An Introduction, Sherpa, A Sinner in Mecca, Something Better to Come, Song from the Forest, Song of Lahore, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine, Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans, Stray Dog, Sunshine Superman, Sweet Micky for President, Tab Hunter Confidential, The Tainted Veil, Tap World, (T)error, Thao’s Library, Those Who Feel the Fire Burning, 3 1/2 Minutes Ten Bullets, The Touch of an Angel, TransFatty Lives, The True Cost, Twinsters, Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists, The Wanted 18, We Are Many, We Come as Friends, We Were Not Just…Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism, Welcome to Leith, What Happened Miss Simone?, What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy, Where to Invade Next, Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom, and The Wolfpack.
