Five documentary features advance following a hugely competitive first round of Oscar voting. This year’s nominees reflect a fair balance of American and international productions, streamer hits and little movies that could. In the hunt are Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman’s insiders’ view of the prison system, The Alabama Solution, which streams on HBO (and Crave in Canada), while Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro and Stef Willen’s Come See Me in the Good Light about poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley as the former receives a terminal cancer diagnosis scored Apple’s first nomination in the doc category. Meanwhile, Netflix is back in the hunt after a winter’s nap with its nomination for found footage true crime doc The Perfect Neighbor by Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee.
On the international front, Danish doc Mr. Nobody against Putin scored a nomination for director David Borenstein’s look at a teacher defying Putin’s regime in the classroom. Finally, Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Cutting through Rocks earned a nomination for Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s portrait of Iranian politician Sara Shahverdi. Notably, all five nominees in the feature doc category debuted at last year’s Sundance Film Festival with The Perfect Neighbor scoring Best Director for Geeta Gandbhir and Come See Me in the Good Light winning the overall audience award for Festival Favorite, a feat it repeated at Hot Docs. This year’s edition of Sundance kicks off today, so keep an eye on the docs for next year’s Oscar race.
On the shorts front, Canadian filmmaker Alison McAlpine scored a nomination for her offbeat odyssey with donkeys through the Atacama Desert, perfectly a strangeness.
“What an extraordinary honour!” McAlpine said in a statement. “It is wild and wonderful that perfectly a strangeness will be showcased at the Oscars! Enormous thanks to my Quebecois and Chilean creative team!”
She’ll face off against double nominee Geeta Gandbhir, who stands to make history if her short The Devil Is Busy adds a win with The Perfect Neibhbor. Also nominated is veteran producer Sheila Nevins, who is looking for her first personal win for Children No More: “Were and Gone” alongside Hilla Medalia. They face still competition from Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones for Netflix’s All the Empty Rooms about journalists chronicling the stories of children killed in school shootings, while another journalism tale rounds out the category with Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud and Juan Arrendondo’s portrait of the reporter killed in Ukraine.
Two other docs scored nominations outside the documentary category. “Dear Me” from Diane Warren: Relentless scored the titular songwriter her whopping 17th nomination. She has yet to land a competitive win. Also nominated in one of the Oscar nominations’ big surprises was “Sweet Dreams of Joy!” by Nicholas Pike from the documentary Viva Verdi!.
Overall, Ryan Coogler’s vampire flick Sinners led the field with a record-setting sixteen nominations, including Best Picture and the new Best Casting award. Canada also scored a nomination in the animated short category for the NFB film The Girl who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski.
The documentary Oscar nominations are as follows:
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
The Alabama Solution – Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman
Come See Me in the Good Light – Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro and Stef Willen
Cutting through Rocks – Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni
Mr. Nobody against Putin – Nominees to be determined
The Perfect Neighbor – Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu and Sam Bisbee
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
All the Empty Rooms – Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud – Craig Renaud and Juan Arredondo
Children No More: “Were and Are Gone” – Hilla Medalia and Sheila Nevins
The Devil Is Busy – Christalyn Hampton and Geeta Gandbhir
Perfectly a Strangeness – Alison McAlpine
Get the full list of Oscar nominations here.
