The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences has compiled its shortlist for the Best Documentary Feature category for the 92nd Oscars. The documentary branch looked at 159 submissions this year and narrowed down the best of 2019 to just 15 titles. These semifinalists will next be further pared down to five nominees announced on January 13, 2020. Oscar winners will be revealed on February 9, 2020.
Among this year’s contenders are box office hits Apollo 11, The Biggest Little Farm, and Maiden, though theatrical music doc favorites, such as Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, Echo in the Canyon, David Crosby: Remember My Name, and Western Stars, were overlooked. Amazing Grace doesn’t count, however, as it wasn’t qualified. Neither was They Shall Never Grow Old.
Distributors doing well well with the shortlist include Netfilx, which has four titles, Neon with three, and Sony with two. HBO, National Geographic, and Amazon are all in the mix with one each. This is the second year in which festival winners qualify for the category, but only one undistributed, unreleased doc feature made the cut: Advocate has been all over the festival circuit in 2019 but is publicly unavailable.
Seven of the films are directed by men, three of the films are directed by women, and five are directed by a man and a woman. A large percentage of the filmmakers are persons of color and/or from outside the U.S., with subjects representing Syria, Macedonia, Mexico, Brazil, China, Israel, and Russia. Four of the docs are from previous Oscar nominees but no winners. And one of the docs is from a couple of first-time filmmakers.
As for the unfortunate snubs, among those nominated for Best Feature at this year’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, The Kingmaker is the only eligible film that didn’t make the shortlist. But there are other worthy CCDA nominees that weren’t shortlisted, including Penny Lane’s Hail Satan?, the Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Sea of Shadows, Apple’s The Elephant Queen, archival docs Mike Wallace is Here, Diego Maradona, and Pavarotti, and biographies Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and Love, Antosha.
Toni Morrison did make the shortlist for Best Original Song, however, as did The Black Godfather and The Bronx USA. And shortlisted feature doc Honeyland additionally made the International Feature category. More on that later. For now, let me say I’m sad Midnight Traveler hasn’t done much this season, nor Cold Case Hammarskjold, nor The Gospel of Eureka, nor The Legend of Cocaine Island, the last of which wasn’t submitted. Those are some of my personal favorites. Oh well.
Here is the full shortlist with notes about the movie’s creators, accolades, and availability:
Advocate (Film Movement)
Directed by Philippe Bellaiche and Rachel Leah Jones
What it’s about: Jewish-Israeli lawyer Lea Tsemel and her work representing political prisoners.
Other honors: PGA Award nomination; two IDA Award nominations. Winner of prizes at qualifying festivals DocAviv, Hong Kong, Krakow, and Thessaloniki.
Opens in theaters in limited release on January 3, 2020.
American Factory (Netflix)
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (Oscar nominees for short doc The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant)
What it’s about: a Chinese glass company opening a factory in Ohio where an auto plant once operated. The feature is sort of a sequel to the short The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant.
Other honors: Sundance Directing Award; IDA Award for Best Director; Gotham Award for Best Documentary; Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards for Best Director and Best Political Documentary; LAFCA Award for Best Documentary; TFCAA Allan King Documentary Award; Sarasota Film Festival Jury Prize; Traverse City Film Festival DA Pennebaker Award; PGA Award nomination; ACE Award nomination; Independent Spirit Award nomination; five Cinema Eye Honors nominations; National Board of Review doc list.
Now streaming on Netflix.
The Apollo (HBO Documentary Films)
Directed by Roger Ross Williams (Oscar winner for short Music by Prudence, Oscar nominee for feature Life, Animated)
What it’s about: the history of Harlem’s iconic Apollo Theater.
Other honors: IDA Award nomination; Satellite Award nomination.
Now streaming via HBO platforms.
Apollo 11 (Neon/CNN)
Directed by Todd Douglas Miller
What it’s about: an archival history of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission and the first Moon landing.
Other honors: Sundance Editing Award; Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards for Best Documentary, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Science/Nature Documentary; LAFCA Award for Best Editing; PGA Award nomination; ACE Award nomination; Independent Spirit nomination; two Gotham Award nominations; four Cinema Eye Honors nominations; and National Board of Review doc list.
Now streaming on Hulu.
Aquarela (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed by Viktor Kosakovskiy
What it’s about: the power of water/ice, shot at a high frame rate.
Other honors: four Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominations; three Cinema Eye Honors nominations.
Rent or buy from Amazon.
The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Directed by John Chester
What it’s about: Chester and family moving from the city to a farm.
Other honors: Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Cinematography; Sarasota Film Festival Audience Award; AFI Fest Audience Award; two IDA Award nominations; Cinema Eye Honors nomination.
Now streaming on Hulu.
The Cave (National Geographic)
Directed by Feras Fayyad (Oscar nominee for the feature Last Men in Aleppo)
What it’s about: women doctors in Ghouta during the Syrian Civil War.
Other honors: Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best Director; Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award; Camden International Film Festival Audience Award; IDA Creative Recognition Award; three Cinema Eye Honors nominations.
Coming soon to National Geographic Channel.
The Edge of Democracy (Netflix)
Directed by Petra Costa
What it’s about: recent political history in Brazil focused on two former presidents, from a personal perspective.
Other honors: three IDA Award nominations; two Critics’ Choice Documentary Award nominations; two Gotham Award nominations.
Now streaming on Netflix.
For Sama (PBS)
Directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts
What it’s about: Waad al-Kateab’s work as an activist during the Syrian Civil War while raising a child.
Other honors: British Independent Film Awards for Best Documentary, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best British Independent Film; European Film Award for Best Documentary; Cannes Golden Eye; IDFA Audience Award; Hot Docs Jury Prize; SXSW Jury Prize and Audience Award; Sheffield Doc Fest Jury Prize and Audience Award; Traverse City Film Festival Jury Prize; IDA Courage Under Fire Award; National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award; two Critics’ Choice Documentary Award nominations; Independent Spirit Award nomination; PGA Award nomination; Satellite Awards nomination; three Cinema Eye Honors nominations.
Now streaming on Kanopy and now streaming on PBS.org via Frontline.
The Great Hack (Netflix)
Directed by Karim Amer and Jehane Noujaim (Oscar nominees for the feature doc The Square)
What it’s about: the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Other honors: IDA Award nomination; Cinema Eye Honors nomination.
Now streaming on Netflix.
Honeyland (Neon)
Directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov
What it’s about: Hatidze Muratova, the last female bee-hunter in Europe.
Other honors: Sundance Grand Jury Prize, Special Jury Prize for Impact and Change, and Cinematography Award; Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best First Feature; IDA Pare Lorentz Award and Creative Recognition Award; Sarasota Film Festival Jury Prize for Directing; NYFCC Award for Best Documentary; Independent Spirit Award nomination; PGA Award nomination; three Cinema Eye Honors nominations; Oscar shortlist for Best International Feature.
Rent or buy from Amazon.
Knock Down the House (Netflix)
Directed by Rachel Lears
What it’s about: women politicians running in the 2018 U.S. midterm election, with a specific focus on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush, Paula Jean Swearengin, and Amy Vilela.
Other honors: Sundance Audience Award; two Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominations; Cinema Eye Honors nomination.
Now streaming on Netflix.
Maiden (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed by Alex Holmes
What it’s about: Tracy Edwards and her all-women sailing crew, the first to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race.
Other honors: National Board of Review Award for Best Documentary; three Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominations.
Rent or buy from Amazon.
Midnight Family (1091 Media)
Directed by Luke Lorentzen
What it’s about: a family-run private ambulance in Mexico City.
Other honors: IDA Creative Recognition Award for Best Editing; Sheffield Doc Fest Grand Jury Prize; Hong Kong International Film Festival Golden Firebird Award; three Cinema Eye Honors nominations.
Now in theaters.
One Child Nation (Amazon Studios)
Directed by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang
What it’s about: China’s one-child policy.
Other honors: Sundance Grand Jury Prize; Full Frame Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award; Sheffield Doc Fest Tim Hetherington Award; Docville ConScience Award; Traverse City Film Festival Audience Award; four Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominations; IDA Award nomination; PGA Award nomination; Satellite Award nomination; two Gotham Awards nominations; two Cinema Eye Honors nominations.