151 Documentaries Qualify for Oscar
In an astounding increase of 20% from last year, the eligibility for the Documentary Feature Film Oscar has risen to 151 year. Screeners for all 151 films are in the hands of voters, including frontrunners Blackfish, The Art of Killing, Stories We Tell and 20 Feet From Stardom. Although we’ve seen year after year many frontrunners and even expected winners fall by the wayside come nomination morning due to the eccentricities of the elitist documentary nomination committee, the rule changes for the voting (now allowing the entire academy to vote) should dramatically change the outcome.
Of the 151 eligible films, voters are asked to vote for their five favorites that will create the 15-film shortlist that will be revealed in December. So, everyone cross your fingers and start your prayer circle for the One Direction concert movie.
Here’s the list:
The Act of Killing
After Tiller
AKA Doc Pomus
American Made Movie
American Promise
Approved for Adoption
The Armstrong Life
At Berkeley
Becoming Traviata
Best Kept Secret
Bettie Page Reveals All
Bidder 70
Big Men
These Birds Walk
Blackfish
Blood Brother
Brave Miss World
Bridegroom
Bridging the Gap
Call Me Kuchu
Casting By
CinemAbility
The Cinema: A Brief History of World Cinema
Cooper and Hemingway: The True Gen
The Crash Reel
Cutie and the Boxer
Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay
Dirty Wars
Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey
Downloaded
Enzo Avitabile Music Life
Evocateur: The Morton Downey Jr. Movie
Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story
Fire In The Blood
First Comes Love
First Cousin Once Removed
For No Good Reason
Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners
Free China: The Courage to Believe
Free The Mind
The Gardener
Gahan Wilson: Born Dead, Still Weird
Gasland II
Generation Iron
The Ghosts In Our Machine
Gideon’s Army
Girl Rising
The Girls in The Band
Glickman
GMO OMG
Go Grandriders
God Loves Uganda
Good Ol’ Freda
Greedy Lying Bastards
Growing Up Refugee
Hava Nagila: The Movie
Hawking
Herblock: The Black & The White
I Am Breathing
Inequality For All
Informant
Is The Man Who Is Tall Happy? An Animated Conversation With Noam Chomsky
It’s Better To Jump
Jodorwsky’s Dune
Koch
The Last of The Unjust
Let The Fire Burn
Letters to Jackie
Leviathan
Life According To Sam
Linsanity
Lion Ark
Liv and Ingmar
Long Shot: The Kevin Laue Story
Married and Counting
Medora
MisLead: America’s Secret Epidemic
The Missing Picture
Mondays With William
Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve
More Than Honey
Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary
Murph: The Protector
Muscle Shoals
The Muslims Are Coming!
My Father and the Man in Black
Narco Cultura
The Network
The New Black
99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film
No Place on Earth
Not Yet Begun to Fight
One Direction: This is Us
One PM Central Standard Time
Our Nixon
Pad Yatra: A Green Odyssey
Pandora’s Promise
The Paw Project
A Place At The Table
Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself
The Prime Ministers: The Pioneers
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Re-emerging: The Jews of Nigeria
Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust
Revolution
The Revolutionary Optimists
Rising from Ashes
A River Changes Course
Running From Crazy
Salinger
The Second Meeting
Seduced and Abandoned
Shepard & Dark
The Short Game
Six By Sondheim
Sound City
Spark: A Burning Man Story
Spinning Plates
The Square
State 194
Stolen Seas
Stories We Tell
Storm Surfers in 3D
Stuck
The Summit
Sweet Dreams
Symphony of the Soil
Terms and Conditions May Apply
Tim’s Vermeer
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
12 12 12
20 Feet From Stardom
Two: The Story of Roman and Nyro
The Unbelievers
The United States of Autism
The United States of Football
The Unknown Known
Valentine Road
Valentino’s Ghost
Walter: Lessons From The World’s Oldest People
Wampler’s Ascent
War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State
We Came Home
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
We The Parents
We Will See Tomorrow
When I Walk
Which Way Is the Front Line From Her? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington
Why We Ride
Winter Nomads
Zipper: Coney Island’s Last Wild Ride
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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Three masterpieces on this list: The Act of Killing, The Missing Picture and At Berkeley.