This news is almost two weeks old, now, but since I posted the short list of films that are eligible for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, I figured I should also post the short list of films that are eligible for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature:
- At the Death House Door
- The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
- Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
- Encounters at the End of the World
- Fuel
- The Garden
- Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
- I.O.U.S.A.
- In a Dream
- Made in America
- Man on Wire
- Pray the Devil Back to Hell
- Standard Operating Procedure
- They Killed Sister Dorothy
- Trouble the Water
For what it’s worth, J.R. Jones of the Chicago Reader notes that the list does not include any of the four top-grossing documentaries of the year: Religulous, Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Shine a Light and Young@Heart. Apparently the Academy has something against theological satires and movies about old people singing rock’n’roll classics.
Other films omitted from the list, ranked in order of the frequency with which certain bloggers (listed below) mentioned them, include: Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, The Order of Myths, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, Stranded, The Unforeseen and Waltz with Bashir.
The bloggers who cited these omissions are: Karina Longworth, Andrew O’Hehir, David Poland, Anne Thompson and Jeffrey Wells (x2).