FINAL 2022 Oscar Predictions: DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

It looks like the Critics’ Choice curse will finally be broken this year, as Summer of Soul nabs the PGA and BAFTA for Documentary Feature, paving the way for an Oscar win. Past CCA winners have largely gone on to be snubbed even for a nomination and that was always the biggest hurdle for Summer of Soul, a largely archival footage film and the overwhelming critics’ fave this season.

Flee is the film’s closest and only rival and of its three history-making feature Oscar nominations if it was going to upset anywhere, it would be here. But, it would be a pretty shocking upset.

Here are my final Oscar predictions in Documentary Feature.

1. Summer of Soul (Searchlight Pictures/Hulu) – CEH, CCA, IDA, PGA, BAFTA
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein

2. Flee (NEON) – CEH, CCA, DOC NYC, Gotham, IDA, EFA, PGA, BAFTA
Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

3. Ascension (MTV Documentary Films) – CEH, CCA, DOC NYC, Gotham, IDA, PGA 
Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell

4. Attica (Showtime) – CCA
Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry

5. Writing with Fire (Music Box Films) – IDA, PGA
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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