No documentary has ever been nominated for Best Picture. Not "Hoop Dreams." Not "Fahrenheit 9/11," even with Harvey Weinstein pushing it as hard as he did. Not "The Thin Blue Line." Nearly a century of Oscars, and non-fiction has never once made the big list. It's a gaping hole.
That will very likely change this year. Spurred by best-of-the-year reviews, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's "You Can See Everything" has made $45M in 10 days. Leaving out concert films, that puts it behind only "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "March of the Penguins" among the highest-grossing documentaries ever.
In The Ankler's latest survey, 59% of pundits predict a Best Picture nomination. With a preferential ballot that rewards passionate #1 votes, I'd say the odds are better than that.
However, here's a question that will likely get asked ad nauseam this awards season: should we even be calling it a "doc"? Fielder and Oppenheim spent the weeks before Elizabeth Holmes went to prison in May 2023 living with her and her partner, Billy Evans. Some of those scenes are obviously staged for the camera, and Fielder blurs the line much further in the film's second half. The Bulwark suggested calling it a "reality film" instead. I think he's onto something.
This is a hybrid, maybe the most ambitious one in many years. That's exactly why the documentary branch, a famously purist group, could snub it even as the rest of the Academy embraces it. A24 says eligibility questions should be settled in the coming weeks.
If Fielder's "doc" breaks through, it'll be decades overdue, because plenty of documentaries this century should have gotten there first. "Bowling for Columbine" won Best Documentary at the 2003 Oscars, where Moore gave his infamous "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" speech. With only five Best Picture slots, though, it was considered too controversial.
Two years later, "Fahrenheit 9/11" won the Palme d'Or and became the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Moore pulled it from the doc category to go all in on Best Picture, and that gamble failed; a 10-nominee field would have let it in. Herzog's "Grizzly Man" (2005) wasn't even nominated for Best Documentary, one of the branch's most shameful snubs. Then there's "O.J.: Made in America" (2016), nearly eight hours long and one of the best American films of that year, fiction or not. It won Best Documentary, but that was as far as it could go.
Whatever happens, this gives me a good excuse to revisit the best non-fiction films of the century so far.
My Top 10 Documentaries of the 21st Century:
"O.J.: Made in America"
"Grizzly Man"
"The Act of Killing" / "The Look of Silence"
"Bowling for Columbine"
"Capturing the Friedmans"
"This Is Not a Film"
"Exit Through the Gift Shop"
"Faces Places"
"They Shall Not Grow Old"
"Cameraperson"
Honorable mentions: "Icarus," "The Truffle Hunters," "Searching for Sugar Man," "The Cove," "Amy," "Weiner," "Three Identical Strangers," "Navalny," "No Other Land," "American Factory," "The Fog of War," "Être et avoir," "Citizenfour," "The Square."
Now, it’s your turn. Which non-fiction film is the best of the century? Vote in the poll below. I've purposely left out "You Can See Everything," partly because of inevitable recency bias and partly to keep the poll varied, since I'm sure it would be one of the most-voted titles. Also, is it even a doc?
Paul Schrader has never been one to hold back, and in a new conversation, he confirms that his latest film, “The Basics of Philosophy,” was turned away by Telluride, Toronto and New York.