All these wonderful things

Our Oscar and Spirit Awards Predictions

With Los Angeles abuzz in pre-Oscar festivities, it seems that it's become time to weigh in on this year's awards and to offer a few predictions about who might go home with some hardware.

Saturday afternoon, amidst what is predicted to be a stormy and cold Spirit Awards under the tent in Santa Monica, it seems safe to say that the Documentary Feature award will go to either EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP or RESTREPO.  The history of the Spirit Awards is that, in the documentary category at least, exposure/box office potency = the win. Only twice in the ten years of the Best Documentary award has the winner not been a film with the highest box office take - last year was one of those when ANVIL! topped FOOD, INC.

[Check out our list of all of the Spirit Awards nominees and winners in the documentary categories here.]

With that said, it's hard to imagine that the FIND membership will go with MARWENCOL or SWEETGRASS, which had lower-profile theatrical releases, or to THUNDER SOUL, which is set to be released by Roadside Attractions this fall.

Just by tradition alone, you'd have to pick EXIT as the winner here.  It grossed about three times the amount that RESTREPO did, and it fits in with the pop culture themes that tend to win on Saturday (i.e. previous winners DOGTOWN AND Z-BOYS, SOME KIND OF MONSTER, ANVIL!).  A non-pop culture, vérite-style film, which, aside from a sprinkling of interviews with the subjects, RESTREPO is, hasn't won the Documentary award at the Spirits since 2000 (DARK DAYS).

Note: MARWENCOL and SWEETGRASS, along with SUMMER PASTURE, were nominated for the Spirit Awards' grant prize, the Truer Than Fiction Award, which recognizes upcoming nonfiction filmmakers (and which has been won in the past by Bill and Turner Ross (45365), Margaret Brown (THE ORDER OF MYTHS) and Ian Olds & Garrett Scott (OPERATION: DREAMLAND).  For the first time in the Spirit Awards history, this award (along with the other grant prizes for upcoming narrative filmmaker and producer) will not be announced during the Spirit Awards themselves - they were shifted to a brunch event that took place in January.  MARWENCOL was named as this year's winner.

So, if EXIT looks like a straight-away winner at the Spirit Awards, then the question is whether Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz triumph on Sunday afternoon in the Kodak Theatre.

Jeff Malmberg on His Artistic Process & Inspirations for MARWENCOL and Bypassing the Oscars

Note: This is the fifth in a series of interviews with the makers of some of my favorite documentaries of 2010.

It's almost becoming traditional that there is a documentary each year that is the SXSW breakthrough, a portrait film that comes from nowhere to take the Grand Jury Prize in Austin and then comes to define the new wave of intimate, personal documentary filmmaking.  First Jennifer Venditti's BILLY THE KID, then Bill and Turner Ross' 45365, and now Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL, the latter a humanistic portrait of a man who, following a massive brain injury, finds himself creating new worlds out of G.I. Joe and Barbie dolls and World War II fantasia.

Malmberg, an editor by trade, came to his debut film the way many novice filmmakers do - a few weekends at a time, shooting a bit and then going back to make enough money to return to shoot some more.  Whatever the process, his final product - an intimate and layered portrait of his subject, Mark Hogancamp - would remind of the films and filmmakers that inspired many of us to make nonfiction (from the Maysles to Errol Morris).

We emailed with Jeff about his process, his relationship with Hogancamp and his decision to bypass the Academy Awards.

All these wonderful things:  One of the things I love about focusing on documentary each year are the discoveries, the folks who just a year ago were still hard at work tying up the edit on their first film - and then, it seems instantaneous, they are an ingrained part of the community.  This is to say that this past year must have felt like a whirlwind to you.

It seems like a natural thing that these discoveries are coming out of SXSW.  What do you think it is about that festival, and about Janet, that a.) finds these films and b.) gives them such a good launch?

Jeff Malmberg: I think Janet is really adventurous in her film taste and really brave in what she programs. It’s easy in retrospect to say that MARWENCOL was a good fit for SXSW, but at the time, it was just this strange little movie that no one had stood up for yet. No one knew how it was going to be received, but she brought the audience to it and shined a light on it. I’ll never forget what she said to the audience when it first premiered – “this is why I do what I do.” She walks the walk, man. Same thing with 45365 the year before – this beautiful film that’s not quite like anything else. Plus Janet’s taste seems like the perfect match for that audience which is really hungry for something fresh and new – and doc seems to be flowering that way these days. My wife [MARWENCOL producer Chris Shellen] is doing a panel at SXSW this year so I get to tag along and watch a bunch of films at the Alamo – I kind of can’t wait to experience that festival as an audience member this time around. When I was in it with a film, I didn’t have enough time or headspace to see all the films I should have.

ATWT: I asked you this question when I dragged you up onstage for the A to Z Chat Show in Sheffield, but can you talk some about your festival experiences this year.  What was your best experience?

The Most Honored Documentary of 2010 is EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

After a full year in which Laura Poitras' THE OATH and Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL dominated our Nonfiction Feature Honor Roll with a full slate of festival jury prizes and year-end documentary awards, the onslaught of 2010's various film critics honors have handed the mantle of most honored documentary of the year to Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP.

EXIT now has a full 24 mentions on the Honor Roll - a combination of year-end documentary award nominations and critics prizes - which is 8 ahead of the 2nd place film, MARWENCOL and 10 ahead of Poitras' THE OATH and fellow Oscar shortlisted doc, Charles Ferguson's INSIDE JOB.

Three other Oscar shortlisted features - Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger's RESTREPO, Amir Bar-Lev's THE TILLMAN STORY and Davis Guggenheim's WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN' have 12 mentions each. 

After being absent from the list for most of the year (the film played out of competition at Sundance and Berlin), EXIT sprinted to the top of the Honor Roll chart on the basis of a somewhat surprising critical consensus - surprising not on the merits but because critics have tended to award issue-based docs over more entertaining fare.  Even last year when ANVIL! THE STORY OF ANVIL was making a strong year-end showing among some critics, in the end the awards tended to favor the eventual Oscar winner, Louie Psihoyos' THE COVE. 

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and INSIDE JOB Have the Momentum After a Weekend of Critics Awards

With critics awards season officially in high gear, two Oscar shortlisted films are feeling some momentum today, while some critics groups pointedly chose films that weren't on the Academy's shortlist (for varying reasons).

Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and Charles Ferguson's INSIDE JOB picked up multiple mentions (some wins, some honorable mentions, some nominations) from the various critics groups.

EXIT enjoyed victories from the New York Film Critics Online and the Indiana Film Critics, while being named runner-up by the Los Angeles Film Critics and the Southeastern Film Critics.  It also snagged a Broadcast Film Critics nomination.  There's little question that EXIT is having the best awards season of any nonfiction film - in addition to its critics prizes it was nommed for 6 Cinema Eye Honors, the IDA's Feature Doc Prize and the Spirit Awards' doc prize.  It's the only film on the Academy shortlist to be nominated for more than one of the other big documentary awards.  And now it's enjoying the best run with film critics to date.

INSIDE JOB had been having a surprisingly quiet awards season up until today, when it won both the New York Film Critics and the Southeastern Film Critics.  Earlier in the weekend it picked up Runner-Up from the Boston Film Critics and also picked up a Broadcast Film Critics nomination.

While we're talking about the shortlist and awards - we should note that, while its unlikely to pick up any film critics mentions (due to its airing on HBO this summer), GASLAND had its own major achievement this weekend, when New York Governor David Paterson announced a temporary moratorium on natrual gas fracking.  It would be hard to argue that the governor's action (and the massive grassroots campaign that led to it) weren't spurred in large part by Josh Fox' shortlisted film.  And in the "timing is everything" department, note that GASLAND's DVD comes out tomorrow.

Meanwhile, note that both the LA Film Critics and the Boston Film Critics opted to give their prizes to films conspicuously not included on the Academy's Documentary Feature shortlist - Boston gave two prizes to Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL (which opted to forego the Academy push over costs required by the Oscar rules) and the Los Angeles Film Critics went with Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME.  Both of those films (along with EXIT) are vying for multiple awards, including Outstanding Feature at Cinema Eye.

Here's a recap of what happened this weekend and how it affected the shortlisted films:

As Critics Prepare to Weigh in, THE OATH and MARWENCOL Still Lead Honor Roll

Think of it as a different kind of shortlist. 

The Academy weighed in their list of 15 films that will move forward in the Oscar race.  Some of those titles have done really well in awards and nominations leading up to the Granddaddy of them all while others haven't made a blip on the radar until now.

On our annual Nonfiction Feature Honor Roll, we usually find that things really begin to coallesce as the year ends.  Thus far we've heard from festival juries & audiences, and we've got nominees for each of the year's other big nonfiction awards (Spirits, Cinema Eye, IDA & Gothams).Starting today, with the National Board of Review weighing in on the year's best films, we'll start hearing from critics groups and then the various guilds.

But if we were to take the information we have to date - which 15 films would make the Honor Roll shortlist?  [We'll give you a hint - only 6 of the 15 are on the Academy's shortlist.]

EXIT Again! Spirits Go for Banksy, RESTREPO, THUNDER SOUL & Double Nods for MARWENCOL and SWEETGRASS

The 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominations for February's awards earlier this morning in West Hollywood and once again, Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP finds itself amongst the nominees.  Joining EXIT are Academy shortlister RESTREPO, audience favorite THUNDER SOUL as well as Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL and Ilisa Barbash & Lucien Castaing-Taylor SWEETGRASS, both of which were also nominated for the Truer Than Fiction grant prize.

The nod for EXIT comes after some confusion of whether the film would even be eligible for the Spirit Awards, which mandates an American provenance for its Documentary Feature nominees.  Even those on the EXIT team initially thought the film would not qualify, but after consideration of the Spirit Award rules - which allows films financed and filmed in America (even if its makers are not US-based) - the film was deemed eligible by Film Independent.

EXIT has now been nominated for three of the 5 major documentary awards (they were reportedly not eligible for the Gothams) - the film will vie Friday for the IDA prize for Best Documentary and it is nominated for six awards at January's Cinema Eye Honors.  The film was shortlisted for the Oscar earlier this month.

The Documentary Feature nomination for Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's RESTREPO marks renewed momentum for that film, which also finds itself in the Oscar hunt (and has two Cinema Eye nominations).  It's the first year-end recognition for Mark Landsman's fest-favorite THUNDER SOUL, which will be distributed by Roadside Attractions next spring.

The Shortlist is Coming! The Shortlist is Coming!

'Twas the week before Thanksgiving and all through the house, all the documentary filmmakers were waiting to hear whether they'd made the Academy's list of 15 features that would vie for the Best Documentary Oscar.  Word on the street is that the announcement could come as early as today and as late as Monday.  And no one is sure whether the Academy will give the shortlisted filmmaker a heads-up phone call, as was the practice for years, or whether the list will be sprung without warning, as happened in 2009.

We did a early-prediction piece back in September that tried to assess the state of the Oscar campaigns coming at the eligibility deadline.  And back then, we named INSIDE JOB and RESTREPO as the two frontrunners.

We're no longer so sure about that...

We still think that INSIDE JOB is toward the front of the pack - the Charles Ferguson film has built on its early critical huzzahs out of Cannes and has settled in nicely at the box office: 1.5M and counting. RESTREPO, meanwhile, seems to have stumbled a bit.  Its summer release is getting not the tiniest bit overshadowed by the soon-to-be-released, super-cinematic Danish film ARMADILLO (which, not for nothing, scored 6 Cinema Eye nominations a couple weeks ago).  ARMADILLO is also in the hunt for this year's Oscar.

I'd still be very surprised if RESTREPO isn't on the shortlist when it's unveiled, but the omission isn't out-of-the-question.

Also bumped up to front-runner status: Davis Guggenheim's zeitgeisty WAITING FOR 'SUPERMAN'.  Take away the fact that Guggenheim already has his Oscar (and his family has something like half a dozen), 'SUPERMAN' is certain to be the biggest "serious issue" doc of 2010 - at least at the box office - and that usually has meant something.  Plus, Guggenheim is known throughout the larger film community as a good guy who moves adeptly between nonfiction and narrative.

Still, when you go out into the documemtary community - and that's the path all these films must take to get a nomination - it's hard to find folks who LOVE either film.  You find a lot of respect for the solid way that the films were made, but nobody's really doing cartwheels.

It's a third film - the only one to score nominations from Cinema Eye, the IDA and the Gothams thus far - that people really seem to love: Laura Poitras' THE OATH.

We think it's a near-lock for a nomination.  And it may (crazy as it sounds) have a shot to win it all.  Here's why:

LAST TRAIN HOME, ARMADILLO, EXIT, MARWENCOL & THE OATH Lead 2011 Cinema Eye Nominations

Nominations were just announced at Sheffield Doc/Fest in the United Kingdom for the 4th Annual Cinema Eye Honors and the film with the most nominations is Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME, garnering 7 nominations, tying the record set previously by WALTZ WITH BASHIR and THE COVE.

Nominated with LAST TRAIN HOME for Outstanding Feature Film is Janus Metz' ARMADILLO, Banksy's EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (both with six nominations), Jeff Malmberg's MARWENCOL and Laura Poitras' THE OATH (which each garnered four nods).

Fan, Malmberg, Metz and Poitras were nominated for Outstanding Direction with legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman for LA DANSE: THE PARIS OPERA BALLET.  Wiseman is having a career resurgence with LA DANSE (which was nominated in three categories) and his new film BOXING GYM.

THE OATH has now been nominated for each of the major year end documentary prizes to date (Gothams and IDA previously).  EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP was also nominated for Best Documentary by the IDA.  MARWENCOL, which declined to pursue an Oscar nomination over the cost of fulfilling the Academy's requirements, was recently named the recipient of the IDA's Emerging Filmmaker Award.

It's the first year end awards recognition from ARMADILLO, which premiered at Cannes and has been a box office sensation in its native Denmark but is just having its US premiere tonight at DOC NYC, and LAST TRAIN HOME, which took top prize at IDFA last year and has seen steady theatrical business in the US and Canada.

Charles Ferguson's INSIDE JOB, considered by many to be the Oscar favorite, received three nominations, including a nod for Outstanding Production.  Ferguson was nominated previously for Cinema Eye for his debut film NO END IN SIGHT.

CATFISH, A FILM UNFINISHED, INTO ETERNITY, THE RED CHAPEL, RESTREPO, THE SOUND OF INSECTS - SECRET OF A MUMMY and SWEETGRASS all had two nominations.

From an international perspective, the nominations are dominated by Danish documentaries.  In addition to ARMADILLO, both INTO ETERNITY and THE RED CHAPEL are nominated for Outstanding International Feature (the other nominees are EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP and LAST TRAIN HOME).  

A full list of nominees is after the jump.

Artists, Activists and The Enigma: Seven of 2010's Essential Nonfiction Features

No one is going to argue that this has been an extraordinary year for nonfiction film.

Film blogger Scott Feinberg has even gone so far as to declare 2010 "The Year of the Documentary" - "the strongest - or, at the very least, the deepest - year yet in the history of documentary filmmaking".

The other week I had a conversation with someone who I frequently discuss the various politics and maneauverings of the Oscar race for Best Documentary and we agreed that this year it was entirely possible to come up with three completely different lists of five nominees - and that each list would be not just acceptable but pretty sterling.

But let's take Oscar (and Cinema Eye and IDA and Spirits and Gothams and critics prizes) out of the equation for a little while...

I actually meant to write this post back in June, when I'd already seen so many tremendous films - by newcomers and veterans alike.  But I put it off because I had so many other films that I hadn't seen yet - and I still have not seen a number of the year's most talked about films (INSIDE JOB, CATFISH, TILLMAN STORY, CLIENT 9, LAST TRAIN HOME and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE).

But - as evidenced by this intro - talking about these films as we go into October changes the conversation from the stuff I loved in early 2010 to the stuff that should be considered going into awards season.  There's little to do about that other than to plunge forward.

A final caveat - just picking these seven films from the list of great and near-great stuff I saw in 2010 was a challenge in itself.  I could easily include RESTREPO, BUDRUS, MY PERESTROIKA, SPACE TOURISTS and a handful of others.

But thus far, these are the films that have settled in with me for the long haul and these are the films that have made my documentary viewing in 2010 so exceptional:

Perhaps my favorite film of 2010 thus far is Banksy’s EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – a skillful, note-perfect dissection of art world hype and the often thorny creative process.