Documentary Feature Film
Nominees:
| “All That Breathes” |
| “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” |
| “Bad Axe” |
| “Children of the Mist” |
| “Descendant” |
| “Fire of Love” |
| “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” |
| “Hidden Letters” |
| “A House Made of Splinters” |
| “The Janes” |
| “Last Flight Home” |
| “Moonage Daydream” |
| “Navalny” |
| “Retrograde” |
| “The Territory” |
Per the Academy’s press release:
15 films will advance in the Documentary Feature Film category for the 95th Academy Awards. 144 films were eligible in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
Each shortlist is determined by members of that corresponding branch, except for International Feature Film. (Members from all branches are invited to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.)
The nominations for the 95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.
OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS
“All That Breathes”
Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe in association with HBO Documentary Films
“All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”
Neon / HBO Documentary Films
“Fire of Love”
National Geographic Documentary Films / Neon
“Last Flight Home”
MTV Documentary Films
“Navalny”
HBO Max / CNN Films / Warner Bros. Pictures
WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?
“All That Breathes” and “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed” are this year’s stand-outs. They keep popping up in all the critics’ and documentary-centered awards, receiving nominations and even a bunch of wins. I’ve seen “All That Breathes” and know it is as stunning as pull quotes claim.
I’ve also seen “Fire of Love,” “Last Flight Home,” and “Navalny,” and I know that each pulls at the emotions in different ways. If I had to lock one down, it would be “Fire of Love,” undoubtedly. The story of this volcano-studying couple is one for the history books. “Navalny” is my favorite documentary of the year. Alexei Navalny is a larger-than-life character, and the narrative arc of the doc plays out like a fictional espionage thriller, except it is real life.
The fifth spot is harder to pick as many fantastic options exist. I went with “Last Flight Home” because, having seen it, I know how deeply emotional it gets. It’s an inside look at a family saying goodbye to their matriarch as he prepares for euthanasia. Another documentary I’ve seen on the list is “Bad Axe,” and I could easily see that getting this final spot as well.
“The Territory” and “Retrograde” are also documentaries getting noticed this awards season. Netflix has “Descendant,” which I viewed during Sundance, and although the subject matter is important, I remember finding the overall production rather stale. However, it has been hitting in all the right places, even garnering a PGA nomination for Best Documentary. “Moonage Daydream,” the David Bowie doc, had an IMAX release in theaters and was about as high profile as a documentary could get these days. And the Academy is usually good for at least one music documentary nomination. About the war in Ukraine, “A House Made of Splinters” is about as timely as nonfiction films can get. Don’t count that out, either.
ALL THAT BREATHES
October 21, 2022
Directed by Shaunak Sen
Produced by Shaunak Sen, Aman Mann, and Teddy Leifer
Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe in association with HBO Documentary Films
Synopsis: In one of the world’s most populated cities, cows, rats, monkeys, frogs, and hogs jostle cheek-by-jowl with people. Here, two brothers fall in love with a bird — the black kite. From their makeshift bird hospital in their tiny basement, the “kite brothers” care for thousands of these mesmeric creatures that drop daily from New Delhi’s smog-choked skies. As environmental toxicity and civil unrest escalate, the relationship between this Muslim family and the neglected kite forms a poetic chronicle of the city’s collapsing ecology and rising social tensions.
PGA Award Nominee
Cannes Film Festival Award Winner
Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner
Gotham Independent Film Award Winner
London Film Festival Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
National Board of Review Winner
Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee
Satellite Award Nominee
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
November 23, 2022
Directed by Academy Award Winner, Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”)
Produced by Nan Goldin, Howard Gertler, John S. Lyons, Yoni Golijov, and Laura Poitras
Neon + HBO Documentary Films
Synopsis: Directed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is an epic, emotional and interconnected story about internationally renowned artist and activist Nan Goldin told through her slideshows, intimate interviews, ground-breaking photography, and rare footage of her personal fight to hold the Sackler family accountable for the overdose crisis.
Venice Film Festival Golden Lion Winner
LA Film Critics Association Award Winner
New York Film Critics Circle Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
National Board of Review Winner
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee
Gotham Independent Film Award Nominee
Satellite Award Nominee
Bad Axe
October 21, 2022
Directed by David Siev
Produced by Jude Hope Harris, Diane Moy Quon, David Siev, and Katarina Vasquez
IFC Films
Synopsis: A real-time portrait of 2020 unfolds as an Asian-American family in Trump’s rural America fights to keep their restaurant and American dream alive in the face of a pandemic, Neo-Nazis, and generational scars from the Cambodian Killing Fields.
SXSW Film Festival Award Winner
Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Children of the Mist
December 16, 2022
Directed by Diem Ha Le
Produced by Phuong Thao Tran and Swann Dubus
Film Movement
Synopsis: Di is a 12-year-old girl living in Vietnam. She belongs to the Hmong ethnic minority where women get married very young, enduring the controversial tradition of “bride-kidnapping.” On the Lunar New Year’s Eve, Di has disappeared.
Hong Kong Int’l Film Festival Jury Prize Winner
Amsterdam Int’l Documentary Festival Winner
Cinéma du Réel Award Winner
Descendant
October 21, 2022
Directed by Emmy Award Nominee, Margaret Brown (“The Great Invisible”)
Produced by Margaret Brown, Essie Chambers, and Kyle Martin
Netflix
Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Margaret Brown (“The Order of Myths”, “The Great Invisible”) returns to her hometown of Mobile, Alabama to document the search for and historic discovery of The Clotilda, the last known ship to arrive in the United States, illegally carrying enslaved Africans. After a century of secrecy and speculation, the 2019 discovery of the ship turns attention toward the descendant community of Africatown and presents a moving portrait of a community actively grappling with and fighting to preserve their heritage while examining what justice looks like today.
PGA Award Nominee
Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
SXSW Film Festival Award Nominee
National Board of Review Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominee
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Satellite Award Nominee
Fire of Love
July 6, 2022
Directed by Sara Dosa
Produced by Shane Boris, Ina Fichman, and Sara Dosa
National Geographic Documentary Films + Neon
Synopsis: Fire of Love tells the story of two French lovers, Katia and Maurice Krafft, who died in a volcanic explosion doing the very thing that brought them together: unraveling the mysteries of our planet, while simultaneously capturing the most explosive volcano imagery ever recorded. Along the way, they changed our understanding of the natural world, and saved tens of thousands of lives. Previously unseen hours of pristine 16-millimeter film and thousands of photographs reveal the birth of modern volcanology through an unlikely lens — the love of its two pioneers.
PGA Award Nominee
Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
National Board of Review Winner
Southeastern Film Critics Ass. Award Winner
Seattle Int’l Film Festival Award Winner
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Satellite Award Nominee
SXSW Film Festival Nominee
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song
July 1, 2022
Directed and Produced by Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Sony Pictures Classics
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song is a definitive exploration of singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen as seen through the prism of his internationally renowned hymn, Hallelujah. This feature-length documentary weaves together three creative strands: The songwriter and his times. The song’s dramatic journey from record label reject to chart-topping hit. And moving testimonies from major recording artists for whom Hallelujah has become a personal touchtone.
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Hidden Letters
December 9, 2022
Directed by Violet Du Feng
Produced by Mette Cheng Munthe Kaas, Jean Tsien, and Su Kim
Cargo Film & Releasing
Synopsis: Hidden Letters tells the story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them. Connected through their love for Nushu — a centuries-old secret text shared amongst women — each of them transforms through a pivotal period of their lives and takes a step closer to becoming the individuals they know they can be.
Austin Asian American Film Festival Award Winner
Bergen International Film Festival Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominee
A House Made of Splinters
January 23, 2022
Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont
Produced by Monica Hellstrøm
Final Cut for Real
Synopsis: As the war in Eastern Ukraine takes a heavy toll on poor families living near the frontline, a small group of strong-willed social workers work tirelessly in a special kind of orphanage to create an almost magical safe space for kids to live in while the state decide the future fate of the child and family.
Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominee
Film Independent Spirit Award Nominee
European Film Award Nominee
The Janes
January 24, 2022
Directed by Academy Award Nominee, Tia Lessin (“Trouble the Water”) and
Emmy Award Nominee Emma Pildes (“Jane Fonda in Five Acts” & “Spielberg”)
Produced by Emma Pildes, Jessica Levin, and Daniel Arcana
HBO Documentary Films
Synopsis: In the spring of 1972, police raided an apartment on the South Side of Chicago. Seven women were arrested and charged. The accused were part of a clandestine network. Using code names, blindfolds, and safe houses to protect their identities and their work, they built an underground service for women seeking safe, affordable, illegal abortions. They called themselves Jane.
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Filmfest DC Award Winner
Sundance Film Festival Award Nominee
Women Film Critics Circle Award Winner
Last Flight Home
October 7, 2022
Directed by Ondi Timoner
Produced by Ondi Timoner and David Turner
MTV Documentary Films
Synopsis: Examining Eli Timoner’s intentional death and his family’s emotional turmoil, as they grapple with his decision to end his own life. The family journeys back through Eli’s remarkable, painful life to discover what true love looks like.
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
Key West Film Festival Award Winner
Moonage Daydream
September 23, 2022
Directed and Produced by Academy Award Nominee, Brett Morgen (“On the Ropes”)
Neon
Synopsis: MOONAGE DAYDREAM: a cinematic odyssey exploring Bowie’s creative, spiritual and musical journey. From the visionary mind of Brett Morgen, Moonage Daydream features captivating, never-before-seen footage and performances spanning David Bowie’s 54-year career. The film includes 40 exclusively remastered Bowie songs and is the first film ever sanctioned by the Bowie Estate, with local access to the artists’ archives.
Cannes Film Festival Award Nominee
Cinema Eye Honors Award Nominee
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Dublin Film Critics Circle Award Winner
Satellite Award Nominee
Navalny
April 11, 2022
Directed by Daniel Roher
Produced by Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller, and Odessa Rae
HBO Max / CNN Films / Warner Bros. Pictures
Synopsis: Shot as the story unfolded, NAVALNY is a fly-on-the-wall documentary thriller about anti-authoritarian Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Recovering in Berlin after nearly being poisoned to death with the nerve agent Novichok, he makes shocking discoveries about his assassination attempt and bravely decides to return home–whatever the consequences.
PGA Award Nominee
Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Hot Docs Award Winner
Retrograde
November 11, 2022
Directed by Academy Award Nominee Matthew Heineman (“Cartel Land”)
Produced by Matthew Heineman and Caitlin McNally
National Geographic Documentary Films
Synopsis: RETROGRADE captures the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives: one of the last U.S. Special Forces units deployed there, a young Afghan general and his corps fighting to defend their homeland against all odds, and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses and the Taliban take over. From rarely seen operational control rooms to the frontlines of battle to the chaotic Kabul airport during the final U.S. withdrawal, Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman’s latest film offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America’s longest war, and the costs endured for those most intimately involved.
PGA Award Nominee
Critics Choice Int’l Film Festival Nominee
DOC NYC Award Winner
The Territory
August 19, 2022
Directed by Alex Pritz
Produced by Will N. Miller, Sigrid Jonsson Dyekjær, Lizzie Gillett, Darren Aronofsky, and Gabriel Uchida
National Geographic Documentary Films
Synopsis: THE TERRITORY provides an immersive on-the-ground look at the tireless fight of the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by illegal settlers and an association of nonnative farmers in the Brazilian Amazon. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-eu-wau-wau community and provides unprecedented access to the settlers illegitimately burning and clearing land along with a network of farmers fighting to legitimize their illegal land grab. Partially shot by the Uru-eu-wau-wau people, the film relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth.
PGA Award Nominee
Cinema Eye Honors Award Winner
Critics’ Choice Documentary Award Nominee
Gotham Award Nominee
Satellite Award Nominee
Sundance Film Festival Award Winner
