We will be taking a closer look at each of the 15 contenders for Best Documentary soon, but for now let's look at the films that Oscar's doc branch decided to shortlist from that gargantuan list of 151 contenders. All of the titles are rather high profile with a few left field contenders for fun. I was surprised to not see the likes of A River Changes Course, Let the Fire Burn (the only IDA nominee which didn't make it), At Berkeley, Call me Kuchu, and my personal favourite, The Missing Picture, but this looks like a fairly well representative list of films from what has arguably been one of the strongest years ever for documentaries.
The 15 contenders are:
- The Act of Killing
- The Armstrong Lie
- Blackfish
- The Crash Reel
- Cutie and the Boxer
- Dirty Wars
- First Cousin: Once Removed
- God Loves Uganda (Reviewed)
- Life According to Sam
- Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (Reviewed)
- Stories We Tell, The Square (Reviewed)
- Tim's Vermeer
- Twenty Feet to Stardom
- Which Way Is the Front Line From Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington.
At this stage I'd be expecting The Act of Killing, Blackfish, Dirty Wars, The Square and Twenty Feet to Stardom, although I keep thinking that high-grossing doc will be left off (the Academy already gave an award to a documentary about back-up singers) in favour of something else, but it seems slightly foolish to bet against it.
For now what are you guys thinking? How many have you seen?