“64 Days – The Insurrection Playbook” (Goldcrest Films)
“500 Days in the Wild” (Elevation Pictures)
“1489” (Fimi)
“2073” (Neon)
“Adrianne & the Castle” (Intuitive Pictures)
“After the Rain: Putin’s Stolen Children Come Home” (Ashford Studios)
“Agent of Happiness” (Film Movement)
“Am I Racist?” (SDG Releasing)
“American Cats: The Good, the Bad & the Cuddly” (Clawson and Clawson Cinematics)
“Americans with No Address” (Robert Craig Films)
“America’s Burning” (Abramorama)
“And So It Begins” (Solar Pictures)
“At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking” (Kinorasad)
“Bad Actor: A Hollywood Ponzi Scheme” (Neon)
“Bad Faith” (Heretical Reason Productions)
“Bad River” (AMC Theatres Distribution)
“Behind the Mist” (Números Primos)
“The Bibi Files” (JOLT)
“Black Box Diaries” (MTV Documentary Films)
“Black Girls” (Comcast)
“Blind Spot” (Ironbound Films)
“Blink” (National Geographic Documentary Films)
“Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion” (QE Deux)
“The Body Politic” (Rowhouse Collective)
“Bread & Roses” (Apple Original Films)
“Brief Tender Light” (PBS)
“Carol Doda Topless at the Condor” (Picturehouse)
“Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!” (MTV Documentary Films)
“Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg” (Magnolia Pictures)
“Celebrating Laughter, The Life and Films of Colin Higgins” (Hollywood Central)
“The Commandant’s Shadow” (HBO Documentary Films)
“Copa 71” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“The Cowboy and the Queen” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Dahomey” (MUBI)
“Daughters” (Netflix)
“Death without Mercy” (MTV Documentary Films)
“Einhundertvier” (U.N TV-Produktion)
“Elton John: Never Too Late” (Disney+)
“Eno” (Film First Co)
“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” (Magnolia Pictures)
“Escape from Extinction Rewilding” (American Humane)
“Every Little Thing” (Wildbear Entertainment)
“The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine” (Juntos Films)
“Farming the Revolution” (Raintree Films)
“Favoriten” (Ruth Beckermann Filmproduktion)
“Federer: Twelve Final Days” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“Fighting Spirit: A Combat Chaplain’s Journey” (Paulist Productions)
“The Flats” (Dumbworld)
“Flipside” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
“Following Harry” (Belafonte-Nasso-Zeng Productions)
“Food and Country” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Food, Inc. 2” ( Magnolia Pictures)
“Forgetting the Many: The Royal Pardon of Alan Turing” (On The Road Productions)
“Frank Miller: American Genius” (Picturehouse)
“Frida” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“From Ground Zero” (Watermelon Pictures)
“Gaucho Gaucho” (Beautiful Stories Productions)
“Girls State” (Apple Original Films)
“God & Country” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
“Gonzo for Democracy” (The Undercurrent)
“The Grab” (Magnolia Pictures | Participant)
“The Greatest Night in Pop” (Netflix)
“Happy Campers” (Grasshopper Film)
“Happy Clothes: A Film about Patricia Field” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Hollywoodgate” (Fourth Act Film)
“Homegrown” (Impact Partners)
“How to Come Alive with Norman Mailer” (Zeitgeist Films)
“Hummingbirds” (Extra Terrestrial Films)
“I Am: Celine Dion” (Amazon MGM Studios)
“I Can’t Breathe” (Saltwater Films & Networks)
“In Between Stars and Scars: Masters of Cinema” (Yi Zhou Studio)
“Indigo Girls: It’s Only Life After All” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
“Intercepted” (Grasshopper Film)
“Invisible Nation” (Abramorama)
“It Happened on Our Ground” (KAN: Israeli Public Broadcasting)
“Jewel of the Desert” (Mary Apick Productions)
“Jim Henson: Idea Man” (Disney+)
“Join or Die” (Abramorama)
“Just a Bit Outside: The Story of the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers” (Cannonball Productions)
“King of Kings: Chasing Edward Jones” (Abélart Productions)
“Kiss the Future” (Fifth Season)
“The Landscape and the Fury” (Beauvoir Films)
“The Last Journey” (Nexiko)
“The Last of the Sea Women” (Apple Original Films)
“The Last Ones” (Bocacha Films)
“Leap of Faith” (Picturehouse)
“Left Behind” (Green Hummingbird Entertainment)
“Legacy: The De-Colonized History of South Africa” (n/a)
“Look Into My Eyes” (A24)
“Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“The Lost Legacy of Tony Gaudio” (Open Fields Productions)
“Lovely Jackson” (Innocent Prisoner Advocates)
“Lover of Men, The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln” (Special Occasion Studios)
“Luther: Never Too Much” (Giant Pictures)
“Mad About The Boy – The Noel Coward Story” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” (Cohen Media Group)
“Majority Rules” (Abramorama)
“Marching in the Dark” (SNG Film)
“Martha” (Netflix)
“Maya and the Wave” (Uncle Booster)
“Mediha” (Together Films)
“Merchant Ivory” (Cohen Media Group)
“Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory” (Kino Lorber)
“Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” (HBO Max)
“Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” (Netflix)
“Music by John Williams” (Disney+)
“My Sweet Land” (HAI Creative)
“Natterer’s Treasure” (Gaya Films)
“Never Look Away” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“A New Kind of Wilderness” (A5 Film)
“New Wave” (Cinereach)
“No One Asked You” (Ruthless Films)
“No Other Land” (Antipode Films)
“Nocturnes” (Grasshopper Film)
“Nurse Unseen” (Significant Other Productions)
“October H8te: The Fight for the Soul of America” (n/a)
“Of Color and Ink” (Hutong Productions)
“One Person, One Vote?” (HUMovies)
“One with the Whale” (Independent Lens)
“Ozogoche” (n/a)
“Patrice: The Movie” (Hulu)
“A Photographic Memory” (Bow and Arrow Entertainment)
“Piece by Piece” (Focus Features)
“Porcelain War” (Picturehouse)
“Power” (Netflix)
“Queendom” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Ray of Hope” (Ryan Singh Enterprises)
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” (Netflix)
“Remembering Gene Wilder” (Kino Lorber)
“Resurgo Detroit: The Rise from Within” (n/a)
“Resynator” (Crush Pictures)
“Sabbath Queen” (Roco Films)
“Samuel: Hollywood vs Hollywood” (Matas Films)
“Seeking Mavis Beacon” (NEON)
“Separated” (MSNBC Films)
“She Rises Up” (Abramorama)
“The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru” (Laurel Films)
“The Sixth” (A24)
“Skywalkers: A Love Story” (Netflix)
“Sorry/Not Sorry” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (Kino Lorber)
“State Organs: Unmasking Transplant Abuse in China” (Archstone Entertainment)
“Stolen Time” (National Film Board of Canada)
“Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink” (Kovno Communications)
“Studio One Forever” (Gravitas Ventures)
“Sugarcane” (National Geographic Documentary Films)
“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
“Sweetheart Deal” (Abramorama)
“Taking Venice” (Zeitgeist Films | Kino Lorber)
“The Taste of Mango” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
“The Tuba Thieves” (Louverture Films)
“Uncropped” (Greenwich Entertainment)
“Unfightable” (Fuse Media)
“Union” (Level Ground Productions)
“Veselka: The Rainbow on the Corner at the Center of the World” (Fiore Media Group)
“Vigilantes Inc.: America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen” (Palast Investigative Fund)
“War Game” (Submarine Deluxe)
“We Will Dance Again” (Paramount+)
“Welcome to Babel” (Belladonna Productions)
“Whale Restaurant” (Yagi Film)
“Who’s Afraid of Nathan Law?” (Cargo Film & Releasing)
“Will & Harper” (Netflix)
“William Shatner: You Can Call Me Bill” (Legion M)
“The World According to Allee Willis” (Magnolia Pictures)
“The World Is Family” (n/a)
“Yintah” (Netflix)
“Zurawski v Texas” (Together Films)

OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS

“Black Box Diaries” • MTV Documentary Films | Paramount+
Shiori Ito | Director
Eric Nyari, Hanna Aqvilin, Shiori Ito | Producers

“Dahomey” • MUBI
Mati Diop | Director
Eve Robin, Judith Lou Lévy, Mati Diop | Producers

“No Other Land” • Antipode Films
Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor | Directors
Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning | Producers

“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” • Netflix
Benjamin Ree | Director
Ingvil Giske | Producer

“Sugarcane” • National Geographic
Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat | Directors
Emily Kassie, Kellen Quinn | Producers

WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?

Of all 169 documentaries on the shortlist, these five films are some of the most “winning” of them. Nominated for either Cinema Eye Honors or International Documentary Association awards or both and recognized by the Critic Choice with either nominations or wins, these documentaries currently have the most significant spotlights. “Sugarcane” is the strongest frontrunner, as it won a few Critics Choice awards. It addresses the injustices inflicted on the Native people of Canada by the Catholic Church. “No Other Land” is a documentary without a distributor but has independently been making waves as a film addressing the Palestine-Israel conflict. “Dahomey” has also been highlighted by all the awards precursors, including nominations from the European Film Awards and the Gotham Awards and even winning the Golden Bear prize at Berlinale. “Black Box Diaries” also hailed some precursors and has a subject matter that lands in the ballpark of what it seems like the Academy would go for, following a young Japanese woman who investigates her sexual assault. And, it feels like every year, there is at least one emotionally resonating documentary about a person facing the end of their life, and “The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” falls into that category, a film about a young gamer who died, with his parents believing him to be a loner but finding he had friends all over the world.

OSCAR NOMINATION (CLOSE CONTENDERS)

“Daughters” • Netflix
Angela Patton, Natalie Rae | Directors
Natalie Rae, Lisa Mazzotta, Justin Benoliel, Mindy Goldberg, Sam Bisbee, Kathryn Everett, Laura Choi, James Cunningham | Producers

“FRIDA” • Amazon MGM Studios
Carla Gutierrez | Director
Sara Bernstein, Katia Maguire, Justin Wilkes, Loren Hammonds, Alexandra Johnes | Producers

“The Greatest Night in Pop” • Netflix
Bao Nguyen | Director
Bruce Eskowitz, George Hencken, Larry Klein, Julia Nottingham, Harriet Sternberg, Lionel Richie | Producers

“Piece by Piece” • Focus Features
Morgan Neville | Director
Pharrell Williams, Mimi Valdés, Caitrin Rogers, Morgan Neville | Producers

“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” • Kino Lorber
Johan Grimonprez | Director
Daan Milius, Rémi Grellety | Producers

WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?

It is easy to make a case for “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” replacing one of the main five, as it received nominations in all the main precursors. Also, in most years, the Academy tends to focus on music-related titles. “Daughters” debuted at Sundance and received much acclaim, winning a Critic Choice award. However, it missed out on the IDA nominations. It’s a Netflix documentary about a prison holding a daughter dance. “Frida” and “The Greatest Night In Pop” also missed at the IDAs, but with big studios (Amazon and Netflix) backing them and depicting pivotal historical people, they could sneak in. “Piece By Piece” is also a standout, done entirely in LEGO animation, but the Academy tends to steer away from LEGO films. It also lacks the IDA nomination.

OSCAR NOMINATION (PERSONAL PICKS)

“A New Kind of Wilderness” • A5 Film
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen | Director
Mari Bakke Riise | Producer

“Porcelain War” • Picturehouse
Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev | Directors
Aniela Sidorska, Paula Dupré Pesmen, Camilla Mazzaferro, Olivia Ahnemann | Producers

“Skywalkers: A Love Story” • Netflix
Jeff Zimbalist | Director
Jeff Zimbalist, Maria Bukhonina, Tamir Ardon, Chris Smith | Producers

“Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story” • Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, HBO Documentary Films, CNN Films
Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui | Directors
Lizzie Gillett, Robert Ford, Ian Bonhôte | Producers

“Will & Harper” • Netflix
Josh Greenbaum | Director
Rafael Marmor, Will Ferrell, Jessica Elbaum, Josh Greenbaum, Chris Leggett | Producers

WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?

If I were picking the Oscar-nominated documentaries, I would choose these five. “A New Kind Of Wilderness” brought me to tears with its subject matter about a Norwegian father trying to raise his children in isolation from society after his wife dies. “Porcelain War” is a captivating, firsthand look at the lives of Ukrainians in their war with Russia. Following people with regular jobs who take on the role of soldiers, I haven’t stopped thinking about the film since I saw it. “Skywalkers: A Love Story” is my favorite documentary this year. Whenever I pick a Best Documentary Feature winner, it usually has to fall into a category of putting viewers somewhere they could never gain access to otherwise, and following these modern daredevil influencers as they climb to death-defying heights hits that mark. I haven’t seen “Super/Man: The Christoper Reeve Story” or “Will & Harper,” but they are high on my “want to see” list. They have gotten nominations in the appropriate precursors. But, in previous years, the Academy has strayed away from high-profile documentaries about people in Hollywood, ie “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie” from last year.

OSCAR NOMINATION (LOOK INTRIGUING)

“BREAD & ROSES” • Grasshopper Film
Sahra Mani | Director
Jennifer Lawrence, Justine Ciarrocchi, Sahra Mani | Producers

“GONZO FOR DEMOCRACY” • The Undercurrent
Lauren Windsor | Director
Chris Kelly, Mike Lux, Lauren Windsor | Producers

“Intercepted” • Grasshopper Film
Oksana Karpovych | Director
Darya Bassel, Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Rocío B. Fuentes, Giacomo Nudi, Lucie Rego Pauline Tran Van Lieu | Producers

“Jim Henson: Idea Man” • Disney+
Ron Howard | Director
Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Sara Bernstein, Margaret Bodde, Justin Wilkes, Mark Monroe, Christopher St. John | Producers

“The Last of the Sea Women” • Apple TV+
Sue Kim | Director
Sue Kim, Malala Yousafzai, Erika Kennair | Producers

WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?

Having a list of 169 documentaries and picking a few is daunting. But I decided to include five more films that are either on my watch list but haven’t gotten many precursory nominations or are films I know little about but have piqued my interest. “Jim Henson: Idea Man,” directed by Ron Howard, is far up my watch list. “The Last of the Sea Women” drew my attention, as it comes from Apple and A24. Jennifer Lawrence is a producer on “Bread & Roses.” As I enjoy her work, I’m curious about what drew her to this documentary. “Intercepted” is another film about the Russia-Ukraine conflict, highlighting phone calls that Russian soldiers made home during the war. Finally, “Gonzo For Democracy” sounds timely, focusing on Trump supporters before this last election.