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American Symphony, the Obamas-executive produced documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, scored a remarkable hat trick today as the Oscar shortlists were revealed, but a couple of documentary icons were left on the bench.
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
Suleika Jouad and Jon Batiste in ‘American Symphony’
Netflix
The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the documentary feature shortlist as well as two other shortlists announced today: Musical Score and Original Song, where Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” made the cut.
Heineman’s film focuses on Batiste and his wife, musician and writer Suleika Jouad. In the midst of an extraordinary year for Batiste that saw him claim a slew of Grammys, his wife was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer and underwent chemotherapy treatment. (Read Deadline’s piece about the film here).
In the doc feature category, the list of 167 eligible films was culled to 15. Two films made the shortlists for both doc feature and International Feature Film: Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, which represents Tunisia in the international competition, and 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Mstyslav Chernov, which represents Ukraine.
David Cornwell (aka John le Carré) in ‘The Pigeon Tunnel’
Apple TV+
The Mother of All Lies, Asmae El Moudir’s acclaimed film that shared the top prize for documentary with Four Daughters at the Cannes Film Festival, missed out on the documentary shortlist, but did secure a spot on the International Feature Film list, representing Morocco.
Two of documentary’s most revered directors – Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman – were left off the doc feature shortlist in the biggest snubs of the day. Morris’s film The Pigeon Tunnel, from Apple Original Films, was overlooked, as was Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, the 44th film directed by Wiseman, who turns 94 on January 1.
Menus-Plaisirs clocks in at 4 hours, which may have hurt its chances. Another film with a four-hour run time, Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, also failed to make the shortlist. There was mixed news for another cinema titan, Wim Wenders. His 3D documentary Anselm, about the German artist Anselm Kiefer, didn’t make the doc feature shortlist, but Perfect Days, his narrative film, did advance in the race for International Feature Film, where it represents Japan.
Director Nancy Buirski
Courtesy of Zeitgeist Films
Poignantly, the late Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy made the feature shortlist. She died unexpectedly in August at the age of 78. Deadline spoke with her in June for an extensive piece about the film, which examines the legacy of Midnight Cowboy, the Oscar-winning classic 1969 film that starred Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman.
Michael J. Fox has never been nominated for a competitive Oscar, but his name is on the marquee in a prominent Oscar contender. Davis Guggenheim’s film about the Canadian-born star of film and TV, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, earned a spot on the doc shortlist. It is nominated for a leading 7 nominations at the PrimeTime Emmy Awards, which will be presented next month.
National Geographic Documentary Films, a perennial doc powerhouse, saw one of its two main contenders continue in the Oscar hunt: Bobi Wine: The People’s President, directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp. Its other hopeful, The Mission, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, didn’t make the shortlist.
In another snub, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, Nicole Newnham’s documentary about the famed sex researcher, was left on the sidelines. Last week, that film earned a nomination for the Producers Guild Awards. Newnham earned an Oscar nomination for her 2020 documentary Crip Camp, co-directed by Jim LeBrecht, which was executive produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground.
‘Stamped From the Beginning’
Netflix
In addition to American Symphony, Netflix is represented on the feature shortlist with Stamped From the Beginning, the latest from Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams. Apolonia, Apolonia, despite having no U.S. distribution to date, made the cut. The film directed by Lea Glob hails from HBO Max Europe.
Two films about the war in Ukraine made the shortlist – the aforementioned 20 Days in Mariupol, which documents the brutal siege of that port city in the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and In the Rearview, directed by Maciek Hamela, which centers on Ukrainian civilians fleeing the destruction wrought by Russia. Nearly the entire film was shot within a minivan as Hamela, working as a volunteer, drove the very young, old and in between across the border to safety in Poland.
Poet Nikki Giovanni in ‘Going to Mars’
HBO Documentary Films
Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster made the shortlist with their HBO documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of the top prize for U.S. documentary at last January’s Sundance Film Festival. The winner of the top prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance, The Eternal Memory, also made the cut. That film, directed by Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi, tells the love story of two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and media, Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62.
‘To Kill a Tiger’
Courtesy of the NFB and Notice Pictures
Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger, one of the year’s most decorated films, also made the shortlist, as did Beyond Utopia, Madeleine Gavin’s documentary that exposes the hidden — and appalling — conditions of life for people in North Korea. Rounding out the feature shortlist, 32 Sounds, directed by Sam Green, continues in the hunt. His film “explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and its power to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.”
Turning to the Oscar short documentary shortlist, Ben Proudfoot continues in his quest for a third Academy Award nomination in the last four years with The Last Repair Shop, which he directed with Kris Bowers. The pair earned an Oscar nomination for their previous short, A Concerto Is a Conversation, and Proudfoot won the Academy Award for documentary short for his 2021 film The Queen of Basketball (excutive produced by Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry, among others).
Camp Courage, the Netflix short directed by Max Lowe, made the cut. Wings of Dust, the short directed by Giorgio Ghiotto that previously won the Student Academy Award directed, made the shortlist of 15 (culled from 114 eligible films).
‘The ABCs of Book Banning’
MTV Documentary Films
And at the age of 84, doc legend Sheila Nevins remains in Oscar competition with her short film The ABCs of Book Banning, which marks her directorial debut. She has produced or executive produced hundreds of films over her unparalleled career, first with HBO Documentary Films and more recently with MTV Documentary Films. Nevins is one of the executive producers of Alberdi’s Oscar-shortlisted The Eternal Memory.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 96th Academy Awards. One hundred sixty-seven films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“American Symphony”
“Apolonia, Apolonia”
“Beyond Utopia”
“Bobi Wine: The People’s President”
“Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy”
“The Eternal Memory”
“Four Daughters”
“Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project”
“In the Rearview”
“Stamped from the Beginning”
“Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie”
“A Still Small Voice”
“32 Sounds”
“To Kill a Tiger”
“20 Days in Mariupol”
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Short Film category for the 96th Academy Awards. One hundred fourteen films qualified in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
The films, listed in alphabetical order by title, are:
“The ABCs of Book Banning”
“The Barber of Little Rock”
“Bear”
“Between Earth & Sky”
“Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games”
“Camp Courage”
“Deciding Vote”
“How We Get Free”
“If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis”
“Island in Between”
“The Last Repair Shop”
“Last Song from Kabul”
“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó”
“Oasis”
“Wings of Dust”
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