Two years ago, the Academy documentary branch had to grapple with a record 170 documentary feature submissions for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. This year, it’s not so bad: only 159 were entered. The short list of 15 will be announced, along with eight others, on December 16.
All year, branch members have been getting lists of secure online screeners available to watch on the Academy website, increasing in volume, with more to come. Each voter is assigned a list of films to screen, so they all get covered. It’s a burden to see them all, so the ones with the most attention move to the top of the much-watch list.
Give the advantage to box-office hits that were made available earlier in the year such as Neon’s “The Biggest Little Farm” and “Apollo 11,” as well as high-profile titles from HBO (“Diego Maradona” and “The Apollo”), Netflix (“American Factory,” “The Edge of Democracy,” and “The Great Hack”), Sony Pictures Classics (“Maiden”), Magnolia (“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”), and Amazon (“One Child Nation”). Latecomers include festival hits from Feras Fayyad (NatGeo’s “The Cave”), Alex Gibney (Greenwich Entertainment’s “Citizen K”), and Lauren Greenfield (Showtime’s “The Kingmaker”).
Documentary features like Neon’s “Honeyland” that have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival or have been submitted in the International Feature Film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in the category. Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture.
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process.
“The Cave”
NatGeo
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Advocate”
“After Parkland”
“The All-Americans”
“Always in Season”
“The Amazing Johnathan Documentary”
“American Dharma”
“American Factory”
“American Relapse”
“Angels Are Made of Light”
“The Apollo”
“Apollo 11”
“Aquarela”
“Ask Dr. Ruth”
“At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal”
“Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable”
“The Biggest Little Farm”
“The Black Godfather”
“Blink of an Eye”
“Blowin’ Up”
“Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes”
“The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story”
“Bridges of Time”
“The Brink”
“Broken Dreams”
“The Bronx USA”
“Bruno Sammartino”
“Buddha in Africa”
“Call Me Intern”
“Carmine Street Guitars”
“The Cave”
“Chasing Einstein”
“Cinema Morocco”
“Citizen K”
“The Cold Blue”
“Cold Case Hammarskjold”
“Combat Obscura”
“The Cordillera of Dreams”
“Cracked Up”
“Cunningham”
“David Crosby: Remember My Name”
“Debut”
“Diego Maradona”
“The Disappearance of My Mother”
“Don’t Be Nice”
“Echo in the Canyon”
“The Edge of Democracy”
“The Elephant Queen”
“Emanuel”
“Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops”
“Fantastic Fungi”
“#Female Pleasure”
“Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles”
“Fiddlin’”
“Finding Farideh”
“Finding the Way Home”
“5B”
“For Sama”
“For the Birds”
“Foster”
“The Fourth Kingdom. The Kingdom of Plastics”
“Framing John DeLorean”
“Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”
“The Game Changers”
“Gay Chorus Deep South”
“Gaza”
“Ghost Fleet”
“The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash”
“The Gospel of Eureka”
“The Great Hack”
“Hail Satan?”
“Halston”
“Hate among Us”
“Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel”
“Heimat Is a Space in Time”
“Hesburgh”
“Honeyland”
“Hope Frozen”
“The Hottest August”
“Humberto Mauro”
“I Had a Dream”
“Immortal”
“The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley”
“It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It”
“Janani’s Juliet”
“Jawline”
“Jay Myself”
“Jim Allison: Breakthrough”
“Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People”
“The Kingmaker”
“Knock Down the House”
“Letter to the Editor”
“Liberty: Mother of Exiles”
“Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice”
“Love, Antosha”
“M for Malaysia”
“Maiden”
“Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound”
“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love”
“Meeting Gorbachev”
“Midnight Family”
“Midnight Traveler”
“Mike Wallace Is Here”
“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool”
“Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements”
“The Most Dangerous Year”
“Mosul”
“Moti Bagh”
“My Home India”
“My Name Is Daniel”
“On the President’s Orders”
“One Child Nation”
“Pavarotti”
“The Proposal”
“Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz”
“Q Ball”
“The Quiet One”
“Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”
“Reason/Vivek”
“Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project”
“Reinventing Rosalee”
“The Rememberer”
“The River and the Wall”
“Roll Red Roll”
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”
“Running with Beto”
“The Russian Five”
“Satan & Adam”
“Scandalous”
“Sea of Shadows”
“Serendipity”
“The Serengeti Rules”
“Shooting the Mafia”
“16 Bars”
“16 Shots”
“The Spy behind Home Plate”
“Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken”
“Talking about Trees”
“Tell Me Who I Am”
“Tesla Nation”
“This Changes Everything”
“This One’s for the Ladies”
“Tigerland”
“To Be of Service”
“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”
“True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality”
“A Tuba to Cuba”
“Walking on Water”
“Watson”
“Western Stars”
“What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael”
“What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”
“When Lambs Become Lions”
“When Tomatoes Met Wagner”
“Where’s My Roy Cohn?”
“Who Will Write Our History”
“Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation”
“Wrestle”
“XY Chelsea”
“Ximei”
Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020. The 92nd Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020.
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