No documentary feature ever has been nominated for the best picture Oscar. Think about that. There have, however, been nine foreign-language films and three animated movies nominated for the big prize. Not even Michael Moore’s Cannes-winning “Bowling for Columbine” and “Fahrenheit 9/11” could muster up a nomination — what gives? The doc form has been shunned for too long, it’s time to reward it for its immaculate contribution to cinema over the years.
After Variety’s just-published 30 Documentaries vying for Oscar piece, for which I have decided to open up a prediction page for the Best Documentary Oscar category, I’m fairly certain that the doc form’s 90-year funk will continue again this year. Which is not to say that the docs themselves this year were underwhelming. Au contraire.
Variety does miss out on mentioning “The Amazing Johnathan Documentary,” “The Brink” and “Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese.” Hmm, wonder why. Regardless, we do have ourselves a wide-open race. The usual suspects are mentioned in the piece, docs such as “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The Biggest Little Farm,” “David Crosby: Remember My Name,” “Hail Satan?” and “One Child Nation” all have a shot at Oscar gold this year. However, it really is too early to carve a list of 30 down to 5 contenders, especially in a category as unpredictable as this one.
More to come …
Another, much more, interesting Variety piece titled “It’s Time for Documentaries to Be Seriously Considered for Oscar’s Best Picture Category,” has its writer Tim Gray trying to make the case for Docs to have a more easily favorable time to enter the Best Picture race:
The gist of Gray’s argument has to do with 2009’s decision from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to expand the Oscar best picture nominees from five to 10. Then-president Sid Ganis “hoped this would open the category to animation, foreign-language films, and documentaries.”
And yes, ever since the new rule changes, we’ve seen advances in terms of Foreign-Language (“Amour” and “Roma”) and Animation (“Up!” and “Toy Story 3”) crashing the Best Picture race. But what about non-fiction? There have been zero nominees. In fact, I don’t think I have even heard of a single documentary these last 10 years being spouted off as a Best Picture contender.
It clearly hasn’t worked out for docs and the Best Picture race, despite many worthy films that should have gotten recognized [See Below]. Gray goes on to talk about how worthy docs this year such as “Tell Me,” “One Child Nation,” and “63 Up,” deserve a shot at Best Picture … and then he lost me. That’s where I disagree with him. I don’t really think there were any Best Picture-worthy docs this year, but there were plenty of noteworthy ones. The titles he mentions wouldn’t even come close to making my list of the best released this year.
If you want advancements to the doc form, which deserved to be recognized for Best Picture these last 10 years then look no furth than “OJ: Made in America,” “The Act of Killing,” “Exit From the Gift Shop,” “Searching for Sugarman,” “Cameraperson,” “Amy,” “This Is Not a Film,” “Faces Places” “Weiner,” “Midnight Family” and maybe, “The Queen of Versailles.”
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.