All these wonderful things

And They Are...

So, the Oscar nominations came this morning and my formula worked to perfection - 3 of the "name" documentaries were nominated (the three I predicted, in fact), plus one international and one political (these I missed). The feature documentary Oscar nominees are:

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

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

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

Nominations Eve

A quick recap of the 15 films shortlisted for the Best Documentary Oscar, nominations of which will be released (not announced) tomorrow:

After Innocence
Directed by Jessica Sanders

The Boys of Baraka
Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

Darwin's Nightmare
Directed by Hubert Sauper

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Directed by Jeff Feuerzeig

WGA Noms for Documentary Writing

The Writers Guild has announced its nominees for the Documentary Screenplay Award. The award was inaugurated last year when Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock took home the prize.

The 2006 nominees are:

COWBOY DEL AMOR, Written by Michèle Ohayon, Homeland Film Productions

ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, Written By Alex Gibney, Based on the book The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, Magnolia Pictures and HDNet Films

THE FALL OF FUJIMORI, Written by Ellen Perry & Zack Anderson & Kim Roberts, Stardust Pictures

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, Narration Written by Jordan Roberts, Based upon the story by Luc Jacquet and screenplay by Luc Jacquet & Michel Fessler, Warner Independent Pictures and Bonne Pioche

STREET FIGHT, Written by Marshall Curry, Marshall Curry Productions

Priests v. Penguins: Indiewire Looks at Docs '05

Indiewire's Jonny Leahan takes a look back at the year in documentary films, with some very interesting tidbits.

First off is Warner Independent prez Mark Gill's wholesale credit-taking for making March of the Penguins the biggest doc of the year:

"The short answer is that I spent five years reworking movies at Miramax," says Mark Gill, president of Warner Independent Pictures, "and learned a great deal about what changes make a big difference to an American audience's enjoyment of a movie. My colleagues also have worked on such a large number of movies that they, too, have seen the patterns of what works best in this culture."

I mean, seriously, God bless 'em for believing in a French documentary about penguins that was getting a lot of acclaim (in the original French) when it played Sundance last year, and further, good on them for getting (the Voice of God) Morgan Freeman to narrate a new script, but wow. OK. I wonder what happened with The Jacket?

The 2005 Academy Doc Shortlist

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

Top Docs Battle For Freshness

With all the conversation here about Gunner Palace and its chances for a Best Documentary nomination, I thought I'd start to compile the Rotten Tomatoes freshness ratings for some of the most widely seen documentaries of the past year.

One thing jumps out immediately -- most documentaries that get a wide release are exceptionally well received by critics. And while critical response alone is not enough to ensure a nomination, it's interesting to see where some of these films rank.

Films are listed in order of their freshness rating (with ties broken by the film's average score out of 10 - however, this is imprecise as Rotten Tomatoes assigns a numerical value to a review even when the critc does not). I've also noted the number of reviews and the freshness rating by those critics deemed "Cream of the Crop"). I will continue to add films to this list over the next few days.

Top Documentaries of the Year (as determined by Rotten Tomatoes:

Letter to the Academy

The following letter should arrive today at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences:

1 November 2005

Sid Ganis
President, Academy Board of Governors
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
8949 Wilshire Boulevard
Beverly Hills, California 90211

Dear Mr. Ganis,

My name is AJ Schnack. I am a filmmaker who lives in Los Angeles and I am about to begin production on my second documentary feature.

I am writing you to ask that the Academy consider announcing the five films nominated for Best Documentary Feature during its traditional early morning announcement ceremony in January. Over the past few years, the Academy has announced the nominations in the Foreign Language and Animated Feature categories, leaving Documentary Feature as the sole "feature-length" category not covered in this annual kick-off to the Oscars.

For the past three years, we have seen a wholesale change in how audiences respond to non-fiction filmmaking and the Academy has played a key role in this. Last year's nominations, for example, represented a rich diversity in the styles and subject matters that have long marked excellent documentary films - from the social-justice of Born into Brothels to the personal history of Twist of Faith to the pop-culture activism of Super Size Me to the musical biography of Tupac: Resurrection. The Academy is recognizing work that is built on the great traditions and history of documentary filmmaking and filmmakers.

The IDA Picks 13

While I was up in Seattle last week, I caught word of this year's IDA (International Documentary Association) nominations for Distinguished Documentary Achievement. I say "caught" because the announcement actually made it over to some of the mainstream wire press (AP, Reuters, etc) and the Hollywood Reporter (as well as other websites) began to break down this year's potential Oscar nominees.

There are a couple of reasons that this year's IDA list, news that rarely makes waves outside the documentary community, went public. One, of course, is the increasing popularity of non-fiction films (and the potential for studios and indies to make money distributing them). The other is a recurring storyline - the snub of the popular film.

Stood Up!

Writing on Thursday I wondered what would happen to the new documentary/reality film My Date With Drew, which was debuting on 58 screens (it is/was due to expand further next weekend). Now, the results are in, with the film averaging $1,420 per screen (for comparison, Murderball's "disappointing" opening weekend averaged more than $7,000 per screen) for a total of $82,400.

Speaking of Murderball, it continues to move toward $1 million at the box office (currently at $871,083 and the 55th biggest documentary of all time. It will certainly make it to the land of Dogtown and Metallica, which can't (or shouldn't) be considered a let down.

We Are the Penguins, Marching, Marching

Lots of talk lately about the unexpected success of the French documentary March of the Penguins which has become the biggest hit in the short history of Warner Independent Pictures and, with nearly 17 million dollars in box office receipts after this weekend, is poised to become the 2nd highest grossing documentary of all time, supplanting Michael Moore's Oscar winning Bowling for Columbine.

On the heels of this, Indiewire is reporting/leaking from sources at ThinkFilm that Think's blue comedy doc The Aristocrats is set to debut this weekend with the highest per screen average of the year (beating out the previous champ for 2005 - you guessed it - March of the Penguins). AMC Theaters, of course, famously rejected playing the film in its theaters because, after watching the film, they speculated that the film would have "limited audience appeal".