A Brief History of Documentaries competing in "Best Original Song

by Juan Carlos Ojano

One of the more interesting Oscar trends during the past decade is the increased presence of documentaries in the Best Original Song category. While most award-giving bodies have an aversion to recognizing docs outside of their own category, the Music branch of AMPAS has shown an openness to embrace them. At least in Best Original Song. Six of the eight songs from documentary films nominated came from the 2010s. 

Here is the list of eight docs nominated for Best Original Song (with only one winner so far) and this year's contenders...

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Interview: on "Welcome to Chechnya" and putting visual effects to humanitarian use.

by Nathaniel R

Director David France and Visual Effects Supervisor Ryan Laney on "Welcome to Chechnya"

If you haven't yet screened the documentary Welcome to Chechnya, a finalist for Best Documentary Feature, don't delay. The film details the journey of a group of incredibly brave LGBTQ activists in Russia, working to help people escape Russia and Chechnya where the government condones the abduction, torture, and murders of queer people, by denying that it's happening at all. The primary storyline involves "Grisha" (not his real name) a gay event planner who was abducted and tortured in Chechnya while working on a job there.

Due to the unique risks to the people involved and the need to protect their identities, Welcome to Chechnya opted to deploy innovative visual effects rather than the traditional "shot in shadow" or blurred faces you would usually see with anonymous voices in documentary. Now the film finds itself charting unfamiliar awards territory as a finalist for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, a category that's usually focused on sci-fi films, superheroes, and action blockbusters...

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Doc Corner: The Best Documentaries of 2020

By Glenn Dunks

Before this column takes a few weeks break, it’s that time of the year to make lists! I have spent the last few weeks churning through screeners trying to ensure I saw enough of 2020’s documentary output to justify a list of the year’s best, although I do not have the time nor the inclination to watch 238 of the damn things! Nevertheless, below are 30 non-fiction titles (or non-fiction adjacent, but we’ll get to that later) that I believe are among the year’s best movies. I stuck to the 2020 calendar as much as possible because, like Nathaniel, I want to keep some order to it all.

If you were to sit down and watch every film below, you would be taken from rural towns in the heart of the Florida peninsula to rural towns in the heart of the Ukraine via the protests of Hong Kong and a nursing home in Chile. There are serious themes, important subjects, powerful ideas... and hand sanitizer.

There’s also a stripper named Nomi. Something for everything, I reckon...

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Sundance Review: Ailey

by Murtada Elfadl

Like Summer of Soul, Ailey tells the story of Black art through testimonials from the artists who lived through it. In this case the story of pioneering dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey. He was only 27 years old when he founded what would eventually become one of the most renowned dance companies in the world; the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater...

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Sundance: No grouches allowed for "Street Gang"

by Jason Adams

Okay so I was maybe the easiest mark in the world, broad and tall as Snuffleupagus, for Street Gang: How We Got To Sesame Street, Marilyn Agrelo's documentary adaptation of Michael Davis' book about the origins of the PBS puppet upstart turned cultural touchstone. I have, after all, read that book more than once. And for another like maybe most of you reading this my first playmates in this world were all Sesame Street inspired -- I had dolls, I had books and records; heck I could show you right now a photo of me in kindergarten wearing Big-Bird-patterned pants (but then I'd have to kill you)...

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