Oscars: 238 eligible documentaries — but what will make the shortlist?
Monday, February 1, 2021 at 12:00PM By Glenn Dunks
18 of the staggering 238 hopefuls in Best Documentary Feature
Yes, you read that right. Two-hundred and thirty-eight (238!) films have qualified for this year’s Best Documentary Feature category. That’s up from the previous record number of submissions, a lowly and pathetic 170 in 2017. Pfft. From Acasă, My Home (which we reviewed here just last week) to Zappa, the full list is available on the Academy’s website.
This incredible high figure can of course be partly explained by the extended eligibility period. After all, documentaries are among the only breed of movie that doesn’t necessarily get slotted in seasons; there’s always new, great content getting released every week either through theatrical or digital platforms...
It can probably also be put down to documentary medium’s explosion and the variety of exhibition spaces for non-fiction fair that were deemed acceptable by the Academy. There’s just so many being produced and one wonders if the Academy is going to have to start making some clearer rules considering many of these titles will appear on Emmy lists next year, too.
Despite reviewing documentaries here at The Film Experience almost every week, there are still a solid number of titles I have never heard of. That probably doesn’t bode well for their Oscar chances, but that’s never stopped voters before.
Below, I have made a preliminary prediction of which 15 titles will make the cut and emerge in the first round of shortlisting to be announced soon. But as I have said for some time now: the tastes of the documentary branch voters have changes radically over the last decade. Having said that, will the craziness of 2020 mean we get a more conservative collection of titles? Or will they continue on their more auteur-focused bent which begs the question of what that could mean for the likes of genuine formal experiments like Dick Johnson is Dead or Bloody Nose Empty Pockets?
Predicted short-list titles (links go to our reviews)
three buzzy titles from Palestine, Romania, and The Philippines
- All In: The Fight for Democracy (USA; Liz Garbus, Lisa Cortés)
- Boys State (USA; Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss)
- City Hall (USA; Frederick Wiseman)
- Collective (Romania; Alexander Nanau)
- Crip Camp (USA; Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht)
- The Earth is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine and Lithuania; Iryna Tsilyk)
- The Fight (USA; Eli B. Despres, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg)
- Mayor (Palestine; David Osit)
- MLK/FBI (USA; Sam Pollard)
- The Mole Agent (Chile; Maite Alberdi)
- 76 Days (China; Weixi Chen, Hao Wu)
- Slay the Dragon (USA; Chris Durrance, Barak Goodman)
- A Thousand Cuts (Philippines; Ramona S. Diaz)
- Time (USA, Garrett Bradley)
- Welcome to Chechnya (USA; David France)
Of course, I would not be surprised to see the likes of John Lewis: Good Trouble, Acasa My Home, Notturno, Dick Johnson is Dead, Gunda, The Truffle Hunters, On the Record or any number of other titles that have made a mark and created buzz and which voters could rally behind. Need I remind you: 238 eligible titles!
Let us know in the comments what you’re thinking. (Here's Nathaniel's own predictions as well)
Reader Comments (13)
Crip Camp for the win!
I hope My Octopus Teacher gets in. On the “less buzzy” side, I think Rising Phoenix is a very good one, though similar to Crip Camp (same subject but focused on parathletes).
@cash... Oh, "Crip Camp"... found it mediocre. The first half was interesting, but later it went to common places and abandoned completely the subject matter that was making it interesting, for starters, becoming ANOTHER by the numbers documentary about triumphant political fight - the scene going up the stairs with the music volume pumped up, made me blush. It had a lot of potential, but was wasted.
On the other hand, "Collective" is beyond amazing. It's "Spotlight" for real, developing in front of our very own eyes. It should be running not only for Documentary, but also for Picture, Director and Original Screenplay (or maybe Adapted? hard to say, as it was being filmed as the articles were being written!). That one really went full steam exploring all aspects without ever falling down into cliches, or overplaying what it was shown on screen, keeping the dignity of everyone involved...
On the AMPAS longlist, both "Disclosure" and "Circus of Books" are totally deserving of the nom... but we need to realise that "Collective" could take Picture, International Film and Documentary Feature at once and wouldn't feel overplayed at all. It's THAT awesome.
I forgot to add that "Dick Johnson is Dead" is up there, too, as one of the very best I've seen this year. I have room for a fifth masterful doc, and plenty yet to see...
1. Collective
2. Dick Johnson is Dead
3. Disclosure
4. Circus of Books
5. Yorkshire Ripper (Netflix miniseries). This one really twists and warps with social commentary and renders a social snapshot of the UK at the times... one of the year's best, but as it is spliced in several chapters... it can't be ellegible.
I'm wondering if any of this month's Sundance docs will make the cut. (A Glitch in the Matrix is on the Academy eligibles list; Ailey and Rita Moreno are not.)
Who gets the award? The director or the producers? Asking for the Obamas and Crip Camp, obv.
Why is not elegible the awesome 'A secret love'? It's so touching, what an inspiring story and Ryan Murphy in the production. For me one of the best documentaries of the year. Period
My top 5:
1. Boys State
2. Gunda
3. The Truffle Hunters
4. 76 Days
5. City Hall
David Byrne's American Utopia would be my #1, if only it were eligible.
I do really like most of the acclaimed documentaries this year, other than Dick Johnson is Dead (I couldn't vibe with the tone) and A Thousand Cuts (I thought it was a mess).
I really hope Assassins is nominated. It's one of my favorite movies of the year. It's quite surprising the footage that they got to make the doc.
I ditto Antonio's standing for My Octopus Teacher, which is one of the most amazing and moving documentaries (or any film of any genre) I've ever seen. Just beautifully done.
So happy (and surprised!) that Aswang is eligible! It's another documentary from the Philippines that like A Thousand Cuts is an indictment of the current government. Being about the extrajudicial killings and other injustices in the country, it's even more damning than ATC. It's a finely made and chilling docu that has been winning Best Picture awards in the country, which is a VERY rare thing for documentaries here. I hope everyone here gets to see it!
Peggy, people are under the belief that the Obamas have Oscars already for last year's winner, AMERICAN FACTORY. As far as I can recall, they are merely executive producers on CRIP CAMP like last year's winner. They would not be nominated if CRIP CAMP is nominated. However, Stacy Abrams *would* be nominated as a producer of ALL IN if it were to be nominated. Something I only just found out a couple weeks ago and which made me think I was severly underestimating it (the film is good, but I wouldn't be nominating it personally). As to your question, director/s and producer/s get the nomination.
Jesus, I loved CIRCUS OF BOOKS. I can't picture the Academy going for a doc about gay porn, though, sadly. I think COLLECTIVE is the frontrunner *if* CRIP CAMP (Netflix) and ALL IN (Abrams) do not. I think it's also a foreign language nominee, too.
Antonio, I may need to seek out RISING PHOENIX.
A THOUSAND CUTS is my lesser known title that I am stumping for. It happened last year with EDGE OF DEMOCRACY, which I was adamant was a contender for the win since it premiered but which went silent during awards season and then showed up on the Oscar's top five.
My TOP10 docs last year were:
1."The dissident"
2."Painter and the thief"
3."Boys state"
4."Welcome to Chechnya"
5."Social dilemma"
6."Assassins"
7."Athlete A"
8."Dick Johnson is dead"
9. "Mole agent"
10."Collective"
But I think that additionally to already mentioned "All in", "Crip camp" and "Truffle hunters" also "Time" and "MLK/FBI" are almost locked for at least the shortlist of 15.
I also enjoyed "A thousand cuts" and I'm rooting for it to get into the half finals (for me it was better and more interesting than for example Crip camp,Truffle hunters or Time... haven't seen "All in" or "Circus books" yet though neither "My octopuss teacher" which is getting more and more attention from different awards juries).