Submissions for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
This is a list of shortlisted finalists for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Documentary branch has used it as a preliminary round, before the final five nominated films are announced in mid-January.[1]
Since 1999, twelve to twenty films are usually announced alongside other categories shortlists in mid-December. The movement came after several controversies in the 1980s and 90s, such as the omission of critically acclaimed and popular favorites: Shoah (1985), The Thin Blue Line (1988), Roger & Me (1989),[2] Paris Is Burning (1990), Hoop Dreams (1994) and Crumb (1995).[3][4] The process also allows more voters to participate in the nomination second phase.
Even tough the shortlisted process is well established for nearly three decades, various other acclaimed documentaries have not been nominated: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Grizzly Man (2005), Red Army (2014),[5] Jane (2017), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and Apollo 11 (2019).[3][6]
List of selected films and years
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Agronomist | Jonathan Demme | United States | Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti-Inter, the country's first independent radio station | Not nominated | [8] |
| Balseros | Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domenech | Spain | Balseros emigrating from Cuba during the Período especial and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis | Nominated | |
| Bus 174 | Jose Padilha | Brazil | The June 2000 hijacking of Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Not nominated | |
| Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki | United States | Follows closely an American family accused of pedophilia | Nominated | |
| Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin | Richard Schickel | The life and times of Golden Age of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin | Not nominated | ||
| The Fog of War | Errol Morris | United States | Robert McNamara and his involvement in the Vietnam War | Won Academy Award | |
| Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter's Story | Marc Levin | United States | Explores the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953. | Not nominated | |
| Inheritance: A Fisherman's Story | Peter Hegedus | Australia | After the River Tisza was poluted with tons of cyanide from an Australian-Romanian gold mine, local fisherman Balazs Meszaros struggled to survive. Travelling to Australia, he decides to confront the mining company officials. | Not nominated | |
| Lost Boys of Sudan | Megan Mylan and Jou Shenk | United States | Two boys from the Dinka tribe of Sudan who emigrated to the United States, who were part of the refugee group commonly known as the Lost Boys of Sudan | Not nominated | |
| My Architect | Nathaniel Kahn | The career and familial relationships of the director's father, architect Louis Kahn | Nominated | ||
| My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | The adopted children of Susan Tom, most of whom have significant physical disabilities | Not nominated | ||
| The Weather Underground | Sam Green and Bill Siegel | The rise and fall of the radical political group of the same name | Nominated |
2004
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born into Brothels | Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman | India United States |
Children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. | Won Academy Award | |
| Home of the Brave | Paola di Florio | United States | The 1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo | Not nominated | [9][8] |
| Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train | Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller | Historian and activist Howard Zinn | Not nominated | ||
| In the Realms of the Unreal | Jessica Yu | Outsider artist Henry Darger's magnum opus. The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion | Not nominated | ||
| Riding Giants | Stacy Peralta | Surfing, Big wave riding | Not nominated | ||
| The Ritchie Boys | Christian Bauer | Germany Canada |
Holocaust survivors share their story of fleeing to the United States, joining the US Army and returning to Europe to fight in World War II | Not nominated | |
| The Story of the Weeping Camel | Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni | Germany Mongolia |
A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert trying to save the life of a rare white bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf after it was rejected by its mother. | Nominated | |
| Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock | United States | A filmmaker eating nothing but McDonald's fast food for 30 days | Nominated | |
| Tell Them Who You Are | Mark Wexler | The son of acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler turns the camera on his father and their complicated history | Not nominated | ||
| Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald | United Kingdom | Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' near-fatal descent after making the first successful ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes | Not nominated | |
| Tupac: Resurrection | Lauren Lazin | United States | Late rapper Tupac Shakur from his upbringing to his untimely death | Nominated | |
| Twist of Faith | Kirby Dick | Sexual abuse by a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, Ohio | Nominated |
2005
2006
2007
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autism: The Musical | Tricia Regan | United States | Children on the autism spectrum performing their own stage musical | Not nominated | [11] |
| Body of War | Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue | The experiences of Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, including his paralysis from enemy gunshot wounds and his subsequent anti-war activism | Not nominated | ||
| For the Bible Tells Me So | Daniel G. Karslake | Follows how homosexuality is perceived in contemporary Christianity, as well as various interpretations of what the Bible says about sexual orientation | Not nominated | ||
| Lake of Fire | Tony Kaye | Follows the history of Abortion in the United States and the never-ending debate | Not nominated | ||
| Nanking | Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman | Follows the Nanjing Massacre, committed in 1937 by the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II in Nanjing, the former capital city of China. | Not nominated | ||
| No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson | Follows the American occupation of Iraq during the Iraq War | Nominated | ||
| Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience | Richard E. Robbins | The writings of U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars | Nominated | ||
| The Price of Sugar | Bill Haney | Dominican Republic United States |
Exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation | Not nominated | |
| Please Vote for Me | Weijun Chen | China | Elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China | Not nominated | |
| Sicko | Michael Moore | United States | Follows the Health insurance and Healthcare in the United States | Nominated | |
| Taxi to the Dark Side | Alex Gibney | United States | The December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base | Won Academy Award | |
| War/Dance | Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine | United States | Three Acholi children living in a Ugandan refugee camp, who are preparing to compete in the National Music Competition in Kampala | Nominated | |
| White Light/Black Rain | Steven Okazaki | The atermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the humanitarian crise and its survivors | Not nominated |
2008
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Betrayal – Nerakhoon | Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath | United States | After the United States Secret War in Laos, a Laotian immigrant living in New York City tries assimilating into American life | Nominated | [12] |
| Encounters at the End of the World | Werner Herzog | Filmmaker Werner Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger travel to Antarctica to meet the people who live and work there | Nominated | ||
| The Garden | Scott Hamilton Kennedy | Nominated | |||
| Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts | Scott Hicks | Classical music composer Philip Glass | Not nominated | ||
| I.O.U.S.A. | Patrick Creadon | Not nominated | |||
| Man on Wire | James Marsh | United States | Highwire artist Philippe Petit's walking between the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York | Won Academy Award | |
| Trouble the Water | Tia Lessin, Carl Deal | United States | Nominated |
2009
2010
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exit Through the Gift Shop | Banksy | United Kingdom | Nominated | [13] | |
| Gasland | Josh Fox | United States | Nominated | ||
| Inside Job | Charles Ferguson | United States | Won Academy Award | ||
| Restrepo | Tim Hetherington | United States | Nominated | ||
| The Tillman Story | Amir Bar-Lev | The untimely death of former football player turned soldier Pat Tillman | Not nominated | ||
| Waiting for "Superman" | Davis Guggenheim | Not nominated | |||
| Waste Land | Lucy Walker | Brazil United Kingdom |
Nominated |
2011
2012
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bully | Lee Hirsch | United States | Not nominated | [15] | |
| Chasing Ice | Jeff Orlowski | Best Original Song nominee | Not nominated | ||
| 5 Broken Cameras | Emad Burnat Guy Davidi |
Palestine Israel France |
Nominated | ||
| The Gatekeepers | Dror Moreh | Israel France Belgium Germany |
Nominated | ||
| How to Survive a Plague | David France | United States | The beginnings of ACT UP and TAG during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s | Nominated | |
| The Invisible War | Nominated | ||||
| Searching for Sugar Man | Malik Bendjelloul | United States | Won Academy Award | ||
| This Is Not a Film | Jafar Panahi | Iran | Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi documents his own house arrest and resistance to censure in Iran | Not nominated |
2013
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer Christine Cynn |
Denmark Indonesia Norway United Kingdom |
Nominated | [16] | |
| Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | United States | Controversies surrounding the mistreatment of whales at Sea World | Not nominated | |
| Cutie and the Boxer | Zachary Heinzerling | Nominated | |||
| Dirty Wars | Richard Rowley | Nominated | |||
| God Loves Uganda | Roger Ross Williams | Not nominated | |||
| The Square | Jehane Noujaim | Egypt United States |
Nominated | ||
| 20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville | United States | Won Academy Award |
2014
2015
2016
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameraperson | Kirsten Johnson | United States | A cinematographer's collection of documentary footage | Not nominated | [20] |
| Command and Control | Robert Kenner | 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980 | Not nominated | ||
| The Eagle Huntress | Otto Bell | Mongolia United Kingdom Kazakhstan United States |
Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia | Not nominated | |
| Fire at Sea | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy | Life at Lampedusa, Italy | Nominated | |
| Gleason | Clay Tweel | United States | Former football player Steve Gleason and his journey living with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) | Not nominated | |
| Hooligan Sparrow | Nanfu Wang | China United States |
A child rape case in China involving a government official and the subsequent protests led by activists | Not nominated | |
| I Am Not Your Negro | Raoul Peck | France United States |
Author James Baldwin's unfinished memoir about being black in America | Nominated | |
| The Ivory Game | Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani | United States | The poaching of elephants in Africa, related to the ivory trade in China and Hong Kong, and the repercussions of elephant poaching | Not nominated | |
| Life, Animated | Roger Ross Williams | Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, diagnosed with autism learning about life and communication through classic Disney animated movies | Nominated | ||
| OJ: Made in America | Ezra Edelman | United States | The examination of racial divides in America during the O. J. Simpson saga | Won Academy Award | |
| 13th | Ava DuVernay | United States | A look at the 13th amendment and its effect on African Americans | Nominated | |
| Tower | Keith Maitland | The 1966 University of Texas shooting perpetrated by Charles Whitman | Not nominated | ||
| Weiner | Josh Kriegman Elyse Steinberg |
The rise and fall of politician Anthony Weiner due to the sexting scandals that derailed his Congressional career | Not nominated | ||
| The Witness | James D. Solomon | The murder of Kitty Genovese and the subsequent investigation led by her brother, Bill | Not nominated | ||
| Zero Days | Alex Gibney | The phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games." | Not nominated |
2017
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abacus: Small Enough to Jail | Steve James | United States | A family-owned community bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, the only financial institution to face criminal charges following the subprime mortgage crisis | Nominated | [21][22][23] |
| Chasing Coral | Jeff Orlowski | A team of divers, scientists and photographers around the world who document the disappearance of coral reefs | Not nominated | ||
| City of Ghosts | Matthew Heineman | The Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently after their homeland is taken over by ISIS in 2014 | Not nominated | ||
| Ex Libris: The New York Public Library | Frederick Wiseman | The role of the New York Public Library as an egalitarian network of exploration, exchange and learning | Not nominated | ||
| Faces Places | Agnes Varda, JR | France | Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across | Nominated | |
| Human Flow | Ai Weiwei | Germany | The current global refugee crisis | Not nominated | |
| Icarus | Bryan Fogel | United States | Fogel's exploration of the option of doping to win an amateur cycling race and happening upon a major international doping scandal when he asks for the help of Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory | Won Academy Award | |
| An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power | Bonni Cohen Jon Shenk |
United States | Former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change | Not nominated | |
| Jane | Brett Morgen | Iconic anthropologist Jane Goodall | Not nominated | ||
| Jim and Andy | Chris Smith | The making of the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey in his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of the controversial stand-up comedian Andy Kaufman | Not nominated | ||
| LA 92 | Daniel Lindsay T. J. Martin |
Archival coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots | Not nominated | ||
| Last Men in Aleppo | Feras Fayyad | Denmark Syria |
The lives of three White Helmets founders, Khaled Omar Harrah, Subhi Alhussen and Mahmoud as they grapple the dilemma to flee their country or stay and fight for it | Nominated | |
| Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992 | John Ridley | United States | Prior events leading up to the Rodney King riots | Not nominated | |
| Long Strange Trip | Amir Bar-Lev | The career of the rock band the Grateful Dead | Not nominated | ||
| One of Us | Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady | The lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn | Not nominated | ||
| Strong Island | Yance Ford | The April 1992 murder of William Ford, the director's brother | Nominated | ||
| Unrest | Jennifer Brea | Brea faced chronic fatigue syndrome that struck just before she married her husband Omar Wasow | Not nominated |
2018
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charm City | Marilyn Ness | United States | A community in Baltimore, Maryland, over the span of three years of high violence | Not nominated | [24] |
| Communion | Anna Zamecka | Poland | Ola, a 14-year-old girl who takes care of her dysfunctional, alcoholic father, autistic brother, mother who lives separately, and her preparation of family celebration of her brother's Holy Communion sacrament | Not nominated | |
| Crime + Punishment | Stephen T. Maing | United States | A group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and a private investigator who risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities | Not nominated | |
| Dark Money | Kimberly Reed | The effects of corporate money and influence in the American political system | Not nominated | ||
| The Distant Barking of Dogs | Simon Lereng Wilmont | Ukraine Denmark Finland Sweden |
The life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year during the war in Donbas | Not nominated | |
| Free Solo | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Jimmy Chin |
United States | Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite National Park's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall | Won Academy Award | |
| Hale County This Morning, This Evening | RaMell Ross | United States | The lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama | Nominated | |
| Minding the Gap | Bing Liu | The lives and friendships of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois, united by their love of skateboarding | Nominated | ||
| Of Fathers and Sons | Talal Derki | Germany Lebanon Netherlands Qatar Syria |
Radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria | Nominated | |
| On Her Shoulders | Alexandria Bombach | United States | Human rights activist Nadia Murad, as she met with politicians and journalists to alert the world to the massacres and kidnapping happening in Iraq | Not nominated | |
| RBG | Betsy West, Julie Cohen | The life, legacy and career of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Nominated | ||
| Shirkers | Sandi Tan | Singapore United Kingdom United States |
The making of an independent thriller featuring a teenage assassin set in Singapore | Not nominated | |
| The Silence of Others | Almudena Carracedo Robert Bahar |
United States Spain |
The silenced fight of the victims from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco | Not nominated | |
| Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle | United States United Kingdom |
The lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families | Not nominated | |
| Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville | United States | The life, legacy and guiding philosophy of children's television host Fred Rogers | Not nominated |
2019
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advocate | Rachel Leah Jones Philippe Bellaïche |
Israel | Human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel as she navigates through the Israeli judicial system in defense of Palestinians accused of terrorism | Not nominated | [25][26] |
| American Factory | Steven Bognar Julia Reichert |
United States | Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant | Won Academy Award | |
| The Apollo | Roger Ross Williams | United States | The history of Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City | Not nominated | |
| Apollo 11 | Todd Douglas Miller | The 1969 Apollo 11 mission | Not nominated | ||
| Aquarela | Viktor Kossakovsky | Germany United Kingdom United States |
Climate change depicted by water and ice around the world | Not nominated | |
| The Biggest Little Farm | John Chester | United States | John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California | Not nominated | |
| The Cave | Feras Fayyad | Syria Denmark |
Dr. Amani Ballour, a physician in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital nicknamed "the Cave" during the Syrian Civil War | Nominated | |
| The Edge of Democracy | Petra Costa | Brazil | Political past of Costa in a personal way, in context with the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the events leading to impeachment of Dilma Rousseff | Nominated | |
| For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab Edward Watts |
Syria United Kingdom United States |
Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian civil war uprising as she and her husband raise their daughter Sama | Nominated | |
| The Great Hack | Jehane Noujaim Karim Amer |
United States | The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal | Not nominated | |
| Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska Ljubomir Stefanov |
North Macedonia | The life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of wild bees who lives in the remote mountain village of Bekirloja, North Macedonia | Nominated | |
| Knock Down the House | Rachel Lears | United States | Four female democrats who run for Congress in the 2018 United States elections: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin | Not nominated | |
| Maiden | Alex Holmes | United Kingdom | Tracy Edwards and the crew of the Maiden as they compete as the first all-woman crew in the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race | Not nominated | |
| Midnight Family | Luke Lorentzen | Mexico United States |
Ochoa family who run a private ambulance business | Not nominated | |
| One Child Nation | Nanfu Wang Jialing Zhang |
United States | The fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1980 to 2015 | Not nominated |
2020
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All In: The Fight for Democracy | Liz Garbus Lisa Cortés |
United States | Voter suppression and the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives | Not nominated | [27][28] |
| Boys State | Jesse Moss Amanda McBaine |
A thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up | Not nominated | ||
| Collective | Alexander Nanau | Romania | The 2016 public health scandal following the Colectiv nightclub fire | Nominated | |
| Crip Camp | Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht | United States | Camp Jened campers who turned themselves into activists for the disability rights movement in the 1970s and follows their fight for accessibility legislation | Nominated | |
| Dick Johnson Is Dead | Kirsten Johnson | Johnson's father Richard "Dick", who suffers from dementia, portraying different ways in which he could ultimately die | Not nominated | ||
| Gunda | Viktor Kossakovsky | United States Norway Spain |
The daily life of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken | Not nominated | |
| MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | United States | The investigation and harassment of activist Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation | Not nominated | |
| The Mole Agent | Maite Alberdi | Chile Germany Netherlands Spain United States |
A private investigator, Rómulo, hires Sergio, an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile | Nominated | |
| My Octopus Teacher | Pippa Ehrlich James Reed |
South Africa United Kingdom |
A year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest | Won Academy Award | |
| Notturno | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy Germany France |
Different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives | Not nominated | |
| The Painter and the Thief | Benjamin Ree | Norway United States |
Barbora Kysilkova, an artist, forming a friendship with Karl-Bertil Nordland, a man who stole her artwork | Not nominated | |
| 76 Days | Hao Wu Weixi Chen |
China United States |
The struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan | Not nominated | |
| Time | Garrett Bradley | United States | Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery | Nominated | |
| The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck Gregory Kershaw |
United States Italy Greece |
A group of aging men hunt in the woods in Northern Italy, for a prized quarry, the Alba truffle | Not nominated | |
| Welcome to Chechnya | David France | United States | LGBT Chechen refugees as they made their way out of anti-gay purges in Chechnya of the late 2010s | Not nominated |
2021
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascension | Jessica Kingdon | United States | The pursuit of the Chinese Dream | Nominated | [29] |
| Attica | Stanley Nelson Jr. Traci Curry |
The infamous 1971 Attica Prison riot | Nominated | ||
| Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry | R. J. Cutler | The career and creative process of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish | Not nominated | ||
| Faya Dayi | Jessica Beshir | United States Ethiopia Qatar |
The rituals of khat, a psychoactive plant that plays an important role in Ethiopia's economy and culture | Not nominated | |
| The First Wave | Matthew Heineman | United States | A hospital in New York City, as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | |
| Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Denmark France Norway Sweden United States |
Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time | Nominated | |
| In the Same Breath | Nanfu Wang | United States | The response of the Chinese and American governments to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | |
| Julia | Julie Cohen, Betsy West | The life of cooking teacher and television personality Julia Child | Not nominated | ||
| President | Camilla Nielsson | Denmark<brr> Norway United States Zimbabwe |
The career of Nelson Chamisa who takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe | Not nominated | |
| Procession | Robert Greene | United States | The six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace | Not nominated | |
| The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Jimmy Chin |
United States United Kingdom |
The 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue | Not nominated | |
| Simple as Water | Megan Mylan | United States | The Syrian families across five countries, revealing the impact of war, separation, and displacement | Not nominated | |
| Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson | United States | The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival | Won Academy Award | |
| The Velvet Underground | Todd Haynes | United States | The life and times of influential rock band The Velvet Underground | Not nominated | |
| Writing with Fire | Sushmit Ghosh Rintu Thomas |
India | The journalists running the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya, as they shift from 14 years of print to digital journalism using smartphones | Nominated |
2022
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A House Made of Splinters | Simon Lereng Wilmont | Denmark Ukraine Sweden |
The care of the staff of an institution for children who have been removed from their homes. | Nominated | [30] |
| All That Breathes | Shaunak Sen | India United States United Kingdom |
Two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite | Nominated | |
| All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | United States | The life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family | Nominated | |
| Bad Axe | David Siev | David Siev's Asian-American family struggles to keep their local restaurant afloat amidst racial tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | ||
| Children of the Mist | Ha Le Diem | Vietnam | The Di Hmong teenager faces challenges growing up. In traditional Di culture, girls are married at the age of 14. But at school he learns that there are alternatives. | Not nominated | |
| Descendant | Margaret Brown | United States | The community of Africatown and the descendants of some of the last known enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States | Not nominated | |
| Fire of Love | Sara Dosa | United States Canada |
The life and career of the daring French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who were ultimately killed in the 1991 eruption of Mount Unzen | Nominated | |
| Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song | Daniel Geller Dayna Goldfine |
United States Canada |
The story of Leonard Cohen, and his song "Hallelujah" | Not nominated | |
| Hidden Letters | Violet Du Feng Qing Zhao |
China | The story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them. | Not nominated | |
| The Janes | Tia Lessin Emma Pildes |
United States | The story of a clandestine service for women seeking safe, affordable, and illegal abortions, calling themselves JANE | Not nominated | |
| Last Flight Home | Ondi Timoner | In his final days, we discover Eli Timoner and an extraordinary life of wild achievements, tragic loss and most of all, enduring love | Not nominated | ||
| Moonage Daydream | Brett Morgen | Germany United States |
David Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey | Not nominated | |
| Navalny | Daniel Roher | United States | The poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny | Won Academy Award | |
| Retrograde | Matthew Heineman | United States | The events that took place during the last nine months of the United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan | Not nominated | |
| The Territory | Alex Pritz | United States United Kingdom Brazil Denmark |
The attempts of a young indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau, an Amazonian tribe contacted by the Brazilian government only in 1980 | Not nominated |
2023
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Symphony | Matthew Heineman | United States | A year in the life of musician Jon Batiste chronicling his career in music and his marriage with Suleika Jaouad as they deal with her leukemia. | Not nominated | [31] |
| Apolonia, Apolonia | Lea Glob | Denmark Poland France |
The coming-of-age story of Apolonia Sokol as she finds her place in the art world, told through 13 years. | Not nominated | |
| Beyond Utopia | Madeleine Gavin | United States | The work of Pastor Sungeun Kim, a South Korean human rights activist who has helped rescuing North Korean defectors. | Not nominated | |
| Bobi Wine: The People's President | Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp | United Kingdom Uganda United States |
The campaign trail of Ugandan politician, singer, and actor Bobi Wine leading to the 2021 Ugandan general election. | Nominated | |
| Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy | Nancy Buirski | United States | The journey of making and producing John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy. | Not nominated | |
| The Eternal Memory | Maite Alberdi | Chile | The relationship between actress Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora as they struggle with Gongora's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. | Nominated | |
| Four Daughters | Kaouther Ben Hania | Tunisia Germany France Saudi Arabia |
After two daughters of a Tunisian woman disappeared, the filmmaker invites professional actresses to compensate for the loss. | Nominated | |
| Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster Michèle Stephenson |
United States | The life of American poet Nikki Giovanni and the historical periods she lived through from civil rights movement and Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter. | Not nominated | |
| In the Rearview | Maciek Hamela | Ukraine Poland France |
Following the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Polish van travels through Ukraine's streets serving as a refuge for citizens. | Not nominated | |
| Stamped from the Beginning | Roger Ross Williams | United States | A hybrid documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's 2016 non-fiction book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas. | Not nominated | |
| Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie | Davis Guggenheim | The life of American actor Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson's disease. | Not nominated | ||
| A Still Small Voice | Luke Lorentzen | United Kingdom | A chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency facing the challenges and spiritual questions that come from her experiences with her patients. | Not nominated | |
| 32 Sounds | Sam Green | United States | Sound and its effects on human's perception of time and the world. | Not nominated | |
| To Kill a Tiger | Nisha Pahuja | Canada | A family in Jharkhand, India campaigning for justice for the teenage daughter, who has brutally raped. | Nominated | |
| 20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov | Ukraine | The twenty days spent by the filmmaker and his colleagues in besieged Mariupol after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. | Won Academy Award |
2024
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Bibi Files | Alexis Bloom | United States | The leaked interrogation footage of the trial of Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. | Not nominated | [32][33] |
| Black Box Diaries | Shiori Itō | United States United Kingdom Japan |
The investigation into Shiori's own sexual assault case, committed by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, director of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. | Nominated | |
| Dahomey | Mati Diop | France Senegal Benin |
Dramatised account of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Republic of Benin), which were held in a museum in France. | Not nominated | |
| Daughters | Natalie Rae Angela Patton |
United States | The account of 4 young girls as part of afatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail. | Not nominated | |
| Eno | Gary Hustwit | United States United Kingdom |
An account of English ambient music artist Brian Eno, produced with a computer software capable to select footage and edit the film in 52 quintillion possible iterations. | Not nominated | |
| Frida | Carla Gutierrez | Mexico United States |
The life of Frida Kahlo told through her own writings and interviews. | Not nominated | |
| Hollywoodgate | Ibrahim Nash'at | Germany United States |
The daily life of Taliban air force commander Mawlawi Mansour, and the fundamentalist M.J. Mukhtar, following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. | Not nominated | |
| No Other Land | Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor | Palestine Norway |
The struggle of Palestinian activist Basel Adra over the destruction of the Masafer Yatta villages due to the occupation of the Israeli army. | Won Academy Award | |
| Porcelain War | Brendan Bellomo Slava Leontyev |
United States Australia Ukraine |
The experience of Ukrainian artists as they face the current Russian occupation in Ukraine. | Nominated | |
| Queendom | Agniia Galdanova | United States France |
The art and activism of Gena Marvin, a queer artist from Russia challenging her country's anti-LGBTQ+ laws. | Not nominated | |
| The Remarkable Life of Ibelin | Benjamin Ree | Norway | The secret life of Mats Steen, a World of Warcraft gamer with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. | Not nominated | |
| Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat | Johan Grimonprez | Belgium France Netherlands |
The political background of the crash of Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach at the UN Security Council in protest of the murder of Patrice Lumumba. | Nominated | |
| Sugarcane | Julian Brave NoiseCat Emily Kassie |
United States Canada |
The investigation into the abuse and disappearances of Canadian indigenous children in the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. | Nominated | |
| Union | Brett Story Stephen Maing |
United States | The journey of Amazon Labor Union to unionize Amazon's JKF8 warehouse on Staten Island. | Not nominated | |
| Will & Harper | Josh Greenbaum | A road trip across the United States between Will Ferrel and his friend Harper Steele, who completed her gender transition. | Not nominated |
2025
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Alabama Solution | Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman | United States | Prison system in Alabama from the perspective of incarcerated leaders | Pending | [34] |
| Apocalypse in the Tropics | Petra Costa | Brazil United States |
The influence of evangelical Christianity on far-right politics in Brazil. | Pending | |
| Coexistence, My Ass! | Amber Fares | United States France |
Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi tackles inequality and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. | Pending | |
| Come See Me in the Good Light | Ryan White | United States | Poet/activist Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley navigate an examination of love and mortality after Gibson is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer. | Pending | |
| Cover-Up | Laura Poitras Mark Obenhaus |
Explores the investigative journalism career of Seymour Hersh, who covered the U.S. Army torture scandals during the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. | Pending | ||
| Cutting Through Rocks | Mohammadreza Eyni Sara Khaki |
Iran Qatar Chile Canada Netherlands Germany |
Follows the first Iranian woman elected as councilwoman in a rural poor village. | Pending | |
| Folktales | Heidi Ewing Rachel Grady |
United States Norway |
Follows teenagers at a folk high school in Norway, where they must rely on each other and a pack of sled dogs as they grow. | Pending | |
| Holding Liat | Brandon Kramer | United States Israel |
Follows Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband, who were kidnapped from their kibbutz during the October 7 attacks. | Pending | |
| Mr Nobody Against Putin | David Borenstein | Denmark Czech Republic Germany |
Follows Pavel Talankin, a teacher in a poor mining town near the Ural Mountains, who documents the Putin administration movements to control public perception during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war. | Pending | |
| Mistress Dispeller | Elizabeth Lo | United States China |
Follows a woman in China who hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband's affair. | Pending | |
| My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow | Julia Loktev | United States Russia |
Follows the persistence of several independent Russian journalists to resist Russia's repression of press free speech. | Pending | |
| The Perfect Neighbor | Geeta Gandbhir | United States | Follows the racially motivated assassination of Ajike Owens, by her white neighbor Susan Louise Lorincz, in Ocala, Florida. | Pending | |
| Seeds | Brittany Shyne | Follows Black generational family farmers in the American South. | Pending | ||
| 2000 Meters to Andriivka | Mstyslav Chernov | Ukraine United States |
Follows a Ukrainian platoon during a mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka, during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. | Pending | |
| Yanuni | Richard Ladkani | Brazil United States Canada |
Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia fights to protect tribal lands despite assassination attempts. | Pending |
See also
- Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
- Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film
References
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