At Least One of These 18 Documentaries Will Win an Oscar in 2021

Your guide to this year's four Oscar shortlists recognizing documentary features.

Collective - Oscar shortlist
Magnolia Pictures

Better late than never, the shortlists for the 2021 Academy Awards have been revealed, a few months later than usual. As usual, fifteen documentary features and ten documentary shorts were chosen for their respective categories, while seven more Oscar shortlists unveiled their semi-finalists.

This year, three of those additional categories also contain documentary feature contenders. While not unusual for documentaries to make their way onto the Best International Feature and Best Original Song shortlists as well as the nominees, this is the first time I’ve seen a documentary recognized by the Visual Effects branch. I don’t know if any has been shortlisted before, but there’s never been a documentary nominated in that category.

Maybe one of these days a documentary can make it into the shortlist for its score again. It’s happened eight times in the past, but the last time was in 1976 for Birds Do It, Bees Do It. And there was only one winner among those, in 1971, for The Beatles’ song score for Let It Be.

Here are all the shortlisted documentary features over four categories. Look for the shortlisted shorts in another post to be published soon.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Notes: This is an eclectic mix of films, from the fleetingly political to the timelessly poetic, and I’m having difficulty coming up with a frontrunner. Four of them are by previous Oscar nominees, zero are by past winners. I think the best bets for the nominations are Collective, Crip Camp, My Octopus Teacher, Time, and The Truffle Hunters.

If Crip Camp wins, it’ll be the second film produced by the Obamas in a row with that honor. Apologies to Dick Johnson is Dead, which won our top prize via the annual Nonfics Poll and the top Critics Choice Award, but never has the latter winner also been nominated for an Oscar, strangely.

All In: The Fight for Democracy

Directed by Lisa Cortes and two-time Oscar-nominee Liz Garbus (The Farm: Angola USA; What Happened, Miss Simone?)
What the film is about: Stacey Abrams, her run for governor of Georgia in 2018, and the history of voter suppression.
Also shortlisted for: Music (Original Song)
Other awards: Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Other nominations: Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Where to watch it now: Amazon Prime Video

Boys State

Directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss
What the film is about: a political camp in Texas for teenagers.
Other awards: Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Sundance, SXSW Film Festival, Denver Film Critics
Other nominations: IDA, Cinema Eye Honors
Where to watch it now: AppleTV+

Collective

Directed by Alexander Nanau
What the film is about: an investigation into the corrupt healthcare system of Romania following a terrible tragedy.
Also shortlisted for: Best International Feature
Other awards: European Film Awards, Boston Film Critics, London Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics, San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics, St. Louis Film Critics, Toronto Film Critics
Other nominations: IDA, Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Awards
Where to watch it now: all digital video stores

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

Directed by James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham
What the film is about: a history of the disabled rights movement, as it began with a summer camp in Upstate New York.
Other awards: IDA, Sundance
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Independent Spirit Awards
Read our interview with the filmmakers here and here and with the sound supervisor here.
Where to watch it now: Netflix

Dick Johnson Is Dead

Directed by Kirsten Johnson
What the film is about: Kirsten Johnson and her titular father as they prepare for the inevitable day of his death.
Other awards: IDA, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Sundance, Chicago Film Critics, Columbus Film Critics, Online Film Critics
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors, Independent Spirit Awards
Where to watch it now: Netflix

Gunda

Directed by Victor Kossakovsky
What the film is about: a pig and his fellow farm animal friends.
Other nominations: IDA, Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Where to watch it now: TBD

MLK/FBI

Directed by Oscar-nominee Sam Pollard (4 Little Girls)
What the film is about: the FBI’s surveillance of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Other awards: Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Black Film Critics
Other nominations: IDA, Cinema Eye Honors
Where to watch it now: all digital video stores

The Mole Agent

Directed by Maite Alberdi
What the film is about: a man hired to be a mole inside of a retirement home in order to confirm rumors of elder abuse.
Also shortlisted for: Best International Feature
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors, Goya Awards
Where to watch it now: Hulu, Hoopla, and all digital video stores

My Octopus Teacher

Directed by Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed
What the film is about: a filmmaker and his bond with an octopus.
Other awards: IDA, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Houston Film Critics
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors
Where to watch it now: Netflix

Notturno

Directed by Oscar-nominee Gianfranco Rosi (Fire at Sea)
What the film is about: people trying to survive in the war-torn Middle East.
Other awards: Venice Film Festival, Online Film Critics
Other nominations: British Independent Film Award, Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Where to watch it now: Hulu and all digital video stores

The Painter and the Thief

Directed by Benjamin Ree
What the film is about: the friendship between a painter and one of the men who stole two of her giant paintings.
Other awards: Sundance, Alliance of Women Film Journalists, Boston Film Critics
Other nominations: Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Where to watch it now: Hulu and all digital video stores

76 Days

Directed by Weixi Chen, Hao Wu, and Anonymous
What the film is about: the seventy-six days of lockdown in Wuhan, China, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other awards: AFI
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors, Gotham Awards
Where to watch it now: virtual cinemas

Time

Directed by Garrett Bradley
What the film is about: Fox Rich and her efforts to get her husband released from prison.
Other awards: IDA, Full Frame, Gotham Awards, National Board of Review, Sundance, NY Film Critics, LA Film Critics, Atlanta Film Critics, Philadelphia Film Critics, San Diego Film Critics, National Society of Film Critics, Black Film Critics
Other nominations: Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Independent Spirit Awards
Where to watch it now: Amazon Prime Video

The Truffle Hunters

Directed by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
What the film is about: men who hunt for the rare white Alba truffle.
Other nominations: IDA, Cinema Eye Honors, Critics Choice Documentary Awards
When to watch it: opens in theaters on March 5th

Welcome to Chechnya

Directed by Oscar-nominee David France (How to Survive a Plague)
What the film is about: activists fighting for LGBTQ+ rights in Chechnya.
Also shortlisted for: Best Visual Effects
Other awards: Berlin Film Festival, Cinema Eye Honors, Hot Docs, Sundance
Where to watch it now: HBO Max, HBO, Kanopy, and all digital video stores


INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

Notes: Both of these shortlisted foreign films are also on the Documentary Feature list, so there’s a chance we could see another double nominee a la Honeyland last year. If either of them, I’d bet Collective has the best chance of that and of getting nominated in this category in general.

Collective (Romania)

The Mole Agent (Chile)


MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

Notes: The last time a song from a documentary was nominated was two years ago with “I’ll Fight” from RBG, which was not a Best Documentary Feature nominee. There have been eight songs total from documentaries nominated in the past. Only twice has there been two in the same year. And only once has the nominee matched with a Best Documentary Feature nominee. That was in 2007 with An Inconvenient Truth, which won both awards.

I’m sad to say I don’t think any of these four will make it to the nomination round. If I had to name a favorite, though, it’s the Robert Glasper track from Mr. Soul! Also: I’ve excluded the Borat Subsequent Moviefilm song from mention here even though it’s partially documentary and is a contender in the category.

“Turntables” from All In: The Fight for Democracy

Written and performed by Janelle Monae

“See What You’ve Done” from Belly of the Beast

Written by Mary J. Blige and Nova Wav & DJ Camper, performed by Mary J. Blige
Other awards: Hollywood Music In Media Awards nominee for Best Original Song
Where to watch the film: TBD

“Never Break” from Giving Voice

Written and performed by John Legend
Where to watch the film now: Netflix

“Show Me Your Soul” from Mr. Soul!

Composed and written by Robert Glasper and Muhammad Ayers, vocals performed by Lalah Hathaway
Where to watch the film: PBS, via Independent Lens, starting February 22nd.


VISUAL EFFECTS

Notes: The one documentary film shortlisted here could make history. I only have records of shortlisted titles going back to the 1985 Oscars, and in the past 36 years, this is the first doc to be shortlisted by the Visual Effects branch. It would definitely be the first doc to nominated.

Even though I dislike the execution in the film, which is also shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature, I do believe it’d deserve recognition for the face-swapping technology designed for the film. But it might be too unusual for them to go through with a nomination here.

Welcome to Chechnya

(Editor in Chief)

Christopher Campbell is the founding editor of Nonfics.