While I was in Aberdeen shooting, the Academy announced its shortlist for the Documentary Feature Oscar. Every year, qualified documentaries are screened by the Documentary Branch, with top scorers continuing on for the chance to actually be nominated for an Academy Award. This year, 15 films made the cut:
After Innocence
Directed by Jessica Sanders
The dramatic and compelling story of the exonerated - innocent men wrongfully imprisoned for decades and then released after DNA evidence proved their innocence.
American Film Foundation/Showtime Independent/New Yorker Films
Winner - Special Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival
The Boys of Baraka
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
Twenty "at risk" 12-year-old boys from the tough streets of inner-city Baltimore leave home to attend the 7th and 8th grade at Baraka, an experimental boarding school located in Kenya, East Africa.
Loki Films/ITVS
Winner - Jury Award, SXSW; Audience Award, Silverdocs
Darwin's Nightmare
Directed by Hubert Sauper
The introduction of a new fish species into Africa's Lake Victoria brings about massive changes in the ecological and economic realities of the region.
Mille et une productions/coop99 filmproduktion/Saga Film
Winner - Best Documentary, European Film Awards
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Directed by Jeff Feuerzeig
A portrait of the musician (some say genius) Daniel Johnston and his battles with creative brilliance, manic depression and madness.
This is That/Complex Corporation/Sony Pictures Classics
Winner - Best Director, Sundance Film Festival
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Directed by Alex Gibney
The full story behind what happened behind the scenes at one of the greatest corporate cons in recent memory.
HDNet Films/2929 Entertainment/Magnolia Pictures
Favela Rising
Directed by Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary
The story of the Afro Reggae movement within one of Brazil's most notorius slums.
Voy Pictures/Sidetrack Films/ThinkFilm/HBO Documentary Films
Co-winner - IDA Award for Feature Documentary
Mad Hot Ballroom
Directed by Marilyn Agrelo
School kids battle to take the ballroom dancing crown in New York City.
Just One Productions/Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Classics
March of the Penguins
Directed by Luc Jacquet
Penguins make a long trek in order to mate and bear offspring.
Buena Vista International Film Production/Canal+/APC/The French Polar Institute/Warner Independent Pictures/National Geographic Feature Films
Murderball
Directed by Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry-Alex Rubin
The suspenseful and thrilling story of quadriplegic rugby players.
A&E Indie Films/Participant Productions/ThinkFilm/MTV/Paramount
Winner - Audience Award, Sundance Film Festival
Occupation: Dreamland
Directed by Garrett Scott and Ian Olds
A candid look at a squad of American soldiers in the Army's 82nd Airborne deployed in Falluja during the winter of 2004.
GreenHouse Pictures
On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report
Directed by Linda Ellman
A new film based on the report by the 9/11 Commission and the Commission hearings looking into failures leading up to the terrorist attacks.
Jeff Hays Films
Rize
Directed by David LaChappelle
Revealing the aggressive and athletic dance phenomenon known as Clowning and Krumping.
David LaChapelle Studios/HSI Productions/Lions Gate Films
Street Fight
Directed by Marshall Curry
Inside the turbulent campaign of Cory Booker, a 32-year old Rhodes Scholar/Yale Law grad running for mayor of Newark
Marshall Curry Productions/Moxie Firecracker Films/ITVS/P.O.V.
Winner - Audience Award, Tribeca Film Festival and SilverDocs Film Festival
39 Pounds of Love
Directed by Dani Menkin
The story of Ami Ankilewitz, an Isreali animator with an extremely rare disease.
Hey Jude Productions/Priddy Brothers Entertainment/Balcony Releasing/HBO-Cinemax Documentary Films
Unknown White Male
Directed by Rupert Murray
Doug Bruce, amnesia victim, struggles to learn who he was and who he will become.
Spectre Broadcast/Wellspring Media
A number of high profile documentaries did not make the final 15, including pop-culture treats The Aristocrats and Inside Deep Throat. And while I had written about Gunner Palace and the perception that it could benefit from the perceived failures of Jarhead, Occupation: Dreamland was the Iraq war film that made the cut.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was the snub of Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, which I had pegged as an early front runner for Best Documentary Feature.
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