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OSCAR DOC FEATURE SHORTLIST: WHICH TITLES SHOULD HAVE MADE THE CUT?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed today the 15 films that have made their shortlist for the Best Feature Documentary category in the 83rd Academy Awards.
They include:
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)
Enemies of the People, Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors (Old Street Films)
Exit through the Gift Shop, Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
Gasland, Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont, directors (White Pine Pictures)
Inside Job, Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
The Lottery, Madeleine Sackler, director (Great Curve Films)
Precious Life, Shlomi Eldar, director (Origami Productions)
Quest for Honor, Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, director (Smothers Bruni Productions)
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
This Way of Life, Thomas Burstyn, director (Cloud South Films)
The Tillman Story, Amir Bar-Lev, director (Passion Pictures/Axis Films)
Waiting for “Superman”, Davis Guggenheim, director (Electric Kinney Films)
Waste Land, Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)
William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, directors (Disturbing the Universe LLC)
Though many deserving titles will be moving forward with the chance to be called when the Academy names its nominees the morning of Jan. 25, the doc shortlist announcement has in recent years become a time to focus on which docs were left out.
Glaring omissions: The Oath, Last Train Home, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, to name a few.
Soon after the announcement many took to Twitter to show their displeasure, including Zeitgeist Films which tweeted about doing a write-in campaign for their snubbed films, The Oath and Last Train Home.
Whether it be the Academy’s out-of-touch voters, or its confusing requirements to be considered, this time of year always causes many doc lovers (and filmmakers) to scratch their heads. But if anything positive can come from this, hopefully the attention to the titles that didn’t make it leads to more ticket/DVD/VOD sales for them.
So, out of the docs that didn’t make the cut, which one do you feel should have made the shortlist?
