15 Documentaries Advance in Oscar Race

Life Itself

The Academy has revealed the shortlist of documentary features to advance in the race! It's a strong list overall with no major surprises. Frontrunners Life Itself and Citizenfour (which I'm finally seeing tonight) make the list as do favourites like Finding Vivian Maier (buffering on the IFC site at this moment!), The Overnighters, and Tales of the Grim Sleeper (a TIFF highlight). The only real dubious choice to me is The Kill Team, which has a great subject but is relatively run-of-the-mill as far as filmmaking goes. Doc fans may also catch up on some of these films at home, since Jodorowsky's Dune, Virunga and Citizen Koch are available on Canadian Netflix while Finding Vivian Maier and The Internet's Own Boy are both available on home video. Some favourites among the absentees are Point and Shoot and Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me, while Actress wasn't on the original list of 130-odd eligible films.

Here's the list:

Art and Craft, Purple Parrot Films
The Case against 8, Day in Court
Citizen Koch, Elsewhere Films
CitizenFour, Praxis Films
Finding Vivian Maier, Ravine Pictures
The Internet’s Own Boy, Luminant Media
Jodorowsky’s Dune, City Film
Keep On Keepin’ On, Absolute Clay Productions
The Kill Team, f/8 filmworks
Last Days in Vietnam, Moxie Firecracker Films
Life Itself, Kartemquin Films and Film Rites
The Overnighters, Mile End Films West
The Salt of the Earth, Decia Films
Tales of the Grim Sleeper, Lafayette Film
Virunga, Grain Media

 

What docs are you rooting for?