A total of 138t films have been submitted to the Oscars Best Documentary Feature category this year, according to emails sent to members of the Academy’s Documentary Branch this week.
The record-breaking 238 films qualified in 2020 are 100 films short. Nonfiction films could qualify for the race under new rules. This was at a moment when many theaters were shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic. With some of those rules tightening up and overall film production slumping because of the pandemic, this year’s field is the smallest since 2015, when 124 films entered the race.
There have been 82 entries in the category documentary-short. This is the lowest entry since 2017, when 77 films were qualified.
The 138 films can be viewed in the members-only screening space for voters in the Doc branch. The Academy will soon announce the official list of qualified films. It is possible that some films currently available to voters may not qualify. Last year, two documentaries that were made available to members in the screening room didn’t meet eligibility requirements and were removed from the official list of films.
While batches of documentaries are typically made available to branch members beginning in the summer, this year’s films went to voters later than usual. At the beginning of November, 42 documentaries were in the screening room. Four additional batches of films arrived over the month. A final 10 film group was added to the screening room on Nov. 24, with emails to voters stating that no additional films would ever be added. “required-viewing”Assignments will be sent “soon.”
These 138 films include many that have been nominated or won nonfiction awards this year. “Ascension,” “Flee,” “Summer of Soul,” “Faya Dayi,” “The Rescue”And “Attica.”
Here’s the complete list of 138 films currently being screened in the Doc screening room.
“Ailey”
“All About My Sisters”
“All Light, Everywhere”
“The Alpinist”
“American 965”
“Ascension”
“Attica”
“Aulcie”
“Aware: Glimpses of Consciousness”
“Barbara Lee: Speaking Truth to Power”
“Becoming Cousteau”
“Beijing Spring”
“Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts”
“Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry”
“Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster”
“Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road”
“Bring Your Own Brigade”
“Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters”
“The Capote Tapes”
“Captains of Za’atari”
“Children of the Enemy”
“Citizen Ashe”
“Convergence: Courage in a Crisis”
“A Cop Movie”
“Courage”
“A Crime on the Bayou”
“Cusp”
“Dave Chappelle Live in Real Life”
“The Deadliest Disease in America”
“Dying to Divorce”
“Enemies of the State”
“Ennio”
“The Faithful: The King, the Pope, the Princess”
“Far Eastern Golgotha”
“Fathom”
“Faya Dayi”
“Ferguson Rises”
“Final Account”
“Finding Kendrick Johnson”
“Fire Music”
“The First Wave”
“Five Years North”
“Flee”
“45 Days: The Fight for a Nation”
“Found”
“Francesco”
“Hell or High Seas”
“Homeroom”
“In the Same Breath”
“Introducing, Selma Blair”
“Iron Temple”
“Jacinta”
“The Jesus Music”
“Julia”
“The Jump”
“Karen Dalton: In My Own Time”
“Kill the Indian Save the Child”
“Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time”
“The Last Forest”
“The Last Shelter”
“Like a Rolling Stone: The Life & Times of Ben Fong-Torres”
“LFG”
“Lily Topples the World”
“Little Girl”
“The Loneliest Whale: The Search for 52”
“Los Hermanos/The Brothers”
“The Lost Leonardo”
“Love It Was Not”
“Magaluf Ghost Town”
“Man in the Field: The Life and Art of Jim Denevan”
“Marx Can Wait”
“Mayor Pete”
“The Meaning of Hitler”
“Minnesota! The Modern Day Selma”
“Misha and the Wolves”
“Missing in Brooks County”
“Moby Doc”
“The Most Beautiful Boy in the World”
“Mr. Bachman and His Class”
“The Mustangs: America’s Wild Horses”
“My Childhood, My Country — 20 Years in Afghanistan”
“My Name Is Pauli Murray”
“The Neutral Ground”
“A New Dawn”
“No Ordinary Man”
“No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics”
“Not Going Quietly”
“Nothing But the Sun”
“On Broadway”
“Operation Varsity Blues”
“Ostrov – Lost Island”
“Paper & Glue”
“The Paradigm of Money”
“The People vs. Agent Orange”
“The Phantom”
“Playing With Sharks”
“Pray Away”
“President”
“Procession”
“Qazaq History of the Golden Man”
“Quiet Explosions, Healing the Brain”
“The Race to Save the World”
“Radiograph of a Family”
“The Real Charlie Chaplin”
“Rebel Hearts”
“The Repentants”
“The Rescue”
“Revolution of Our Times”
“Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It”
“Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain”
“Ruth: Justice Ginsburg in Her Own Words”
“Sabaya”
“Seyran Ates: Sex, Revolution and Islam”
“Simple as Water”
“Sisters on Track”
“So Late So Soon”
“The Sparks Brothers”
“Speer Goes to Hollywood”
“Storm Lake”
“Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”
“Summer Nights”
“Summer of Soul”
“Tigre Gente”
“Tina”
“Torn”
“Truman & Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation”
“Truth to Power”
“Try Harder!”
“2020: The Dumpster Fire”
“Two Gods”
“Val”
“The Velvet Queen”
“The Velvet Underground”
“Whirlybird”
“Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America”
“Wojnarowicz”
“Writing With Fire”
“Wuhan Wuhan”