Oscar has winnowed down that massive Best Documentary Semi-Finals list to a more manageable fifteen. We've reviewed just over two thirds of them. Nine are currently available to stream online (handy links provided) and four are in select theaters. The finalists for the five nominations are...
- Cameraperson (IN THEATERS / on Criterion Collection Blu-Ray February 2017)
- Command and Control (coming to PBS in January)
- The Eagle Huntress (IN THEATERS)
- Fire at Sea (IN THEATERS)
- Gleason (available to rent on Amazon)
- Hooligan Sparrow (streaming on Netflix)
- I Am Not Your Negro (IN THEATERS FEB 2017)
- The Ivory Game (streaming on Netflix)
- Life, Animated (available to rent on iTunes)
- O.J.: Made in America (series available to purchase on iTunes)
- 13th (streaming on Netflix)
- Tower (IN THEATERS)
- Weiner (available to buy on iTunes)
- The Witness (streaming on Netflix)
- Zero Days (available to buy on iTunes)
What's missing? Well, what isn't. There are always scads of depressing omissions. Let us focus our tears on the delicious Sondheim retrospective reflection about "Merrily We Roll Along" The Best Worst Thing That Ever Could Have Happened which really deserves a big audience. But all told this list is not surprising finals list. In fact I am quite shocked to tell you that in my Top 20 Most Likely To Oscar chart page (being revised at the moment) I missed only two of these fifteen (Command and Control and The Witness) in favor of films like Newtown and Miss Sharon Jones.