Documentary SHORT Film
Nominees:
“All the Empty Rooms”
“All the Walls Came Down”
“Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
“Bad Hostage”
“Cashing Out”
“Chasing Time”
“Children No More: “Were and Are Gone””
“Classroom 4”
“The Devil Is Busy”
“Heartbeat”
“Last Days on Lake Trinity”
“On Healing Land, Birds Perch”
“Perfectly a Strangeness”
“Rovina’s Choice”
“We Were the Scenery”
Per the Academy’s press release:
Fifteen films will advance in the Documentary Short Film category for the 98th Academy Awards. One hundred seventeen films qualified in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.
Nominations voting begins on Monday, January 12, 2026, and concludes on Friday, January 16, 2026. Nominations for the 98th Academy Awards will be announced on Thursday, January 22, 2026. The 98th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 15, 2026, 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 THE EMPTY ROOMS • Netflix
Joshua Seftel | Director
Joshua Seftel, Conall Jones, James Costa, Trevor Burgess | Producers
ALL THE WALLS COME DOWN • LA Times Studios
Ondi Timoner | Director
Ondi Timoner, Eli Timoner, Maggie Contreras | Producers
Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud • HBO Documentary Films
Brent Renaud, Craig Renaud | Directors
Juan Arredondo, Jon Alpert, Christof Putzel, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Tina Nguyen, Jeff Newton, Mami Kuwano Reunad, Naomi Mizoguchi, Tami Alpert | Producers
THE DEVIL IS BUSY • HBO Documentary Films
Geeta Gandbhir, Christalyn Hampton | Directors
Amber Fares, Christalyn Hampton | Producers
Perfectly a Strangeness • Second Sight Pictures
Alison McAlpine | Director/Producer
WHY I CHOSE THOSE FIVE?
Subject matter, precursors, and gut instinct are about all you can rely on when predicting the Short Film categories, and the same holds true for Best Documentary Short Subject. All the Empty Rooms is the film I’ve seen pop up the most throughout the season, which makes it feel like a lock. I’ve also selected two HBO Documentary Films, which may be a stretch, but both have won at prior festivals and awards ceremonies and feature striking subject matter.
Armed Only with a Camera follows the life and death of documentarian Brent Renaud as he covered the Russo–Ukrainian War. It’s timely and deeply emotional — two qualities that are often hard for voters to ignore. The other HBO title is The Devil Is Busy, which centers on the staff and patients of an Atlanta abortion clinic, a subject the Academy may feel compelled to elevate. It’s also directed by Geeta Gandbhir, who helmed the frontrunner in the Best Documentary Feature race, The Perfect Neighbor. If voters respond to her work there, it’s easy to imagine that goodwill carrying over here as well.
Perfectly a Strangeness has been on my radar for much of the awards season. The striking imagery in its stills and poster immediately caught my attention, and it’s also the most awarded film of the group, making a nomination feel well within reach. My final pick has no precursor support, but its focus on the Los Angeles fires feels like subject matter that may be too close to home for the Academy to overlook.
If I hadn’t gone with that film, Rovina’s Choice would have been my next pick. Its subject matter is timely, shining a light on the consequences of eliminating USAID, and while it also lacks precursors, it looks visually striking. There are several other documentaries with compelling premises that I wouldn’t be surprised to see break through. Chasing Time follows James Balog and his work documenting melting glaciers, offering what appear to be stunning visuals. Last Days on Lake Trinity focuses on residents in South Florida forced to leave a trailer park owned by a Christian television station, while We Were the Scenery centers on Vietnamese extras cast in Apocalypse Now as they fled the country in 1975.
“All the Empty Rooms”
December 1, 2025 | Netflix | 34 min | English
Joshua Seftel
Synopsis: Follows correspondent Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp as they embark on a seven-year-long project to document the empty bedrooms of children killed in school shootings.
✰ Hamptons International Film Festival Winner
✰ International Documentary Association Awards Winner
✰ Toronto International Film Festival Nominee
✰ Savannah Film Festival Winner
✰ Virginia Film Festival Winner
✰ Santa Fe International Film Festival Winner
✰ Montclair Film Festival Winner
✰ Critics Choice Documentary Awards Nominee
“All the Walls Came Down”
September 30, 2025 | LA Times Studios | 39 min | English
Ondi Timoner
Synopsis: Provides a personal and heartrending chronicle of the aftermath of the fires that devastated Los Angeles, including her own Altadena house. Yet, the wreckage of a neighborhood is fertile ground for new friendships and energies.
“Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud”
October 21, 2025 | HBO Documentary Films | 37 min | English, Ukrainian, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Somali
Brent Renaud & Craig Renaud
Synopsis: An intimate chronicle about documentary filmmaker Brent Renaud, the first American journalist killed while reporting on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
✰ SXSW Film Festival Winner
“Bad Hostage”
June 13, 2024 | Sebastopol Siege | 39 min | English, Swedish
Mimi Wilcox
Synopsis: Stories of kidnappings and bank heists intersect with the director’s own thrilling family tale, as this electrifying film reveals the true origins of Stockholm Syndrome.
✰ Florida Film Festival Winner
✰ St. Louis International Film Festival Nominee
✰ Woodstock Film Festival Nominee
✰ BendFilm Festival Winner
✰ Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival Winner
✰ Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Nominee
“Cashing Out”
June 13, 2024 | Nine Patch Pictures | 40 min | English
Matt Nadel
Synopsis: At the height of the AIDS crisis, many queer people sold their life insurance policies to investors for quick cash. This documentary charts the rise and fall of the “gay-death-profiteering” industry that grew out of their desperation.
✰ Out on Film Atlanta Awards Winner
“Chasing Time”
May 11, 2024 | Exposure Labs | 40 min | English
Sarah Keo & Jeff Orlowski-Yang
Synopsis: After bringing some of the first and most striking visual evidence of our changing planet to the fore through the groundbreaking study of melting glaciers, James Balog returns to Iceland to close the last chapter of his life’s work.
“Children No More:
Were and Are Gone”
November 13, 2025 | Full Story Films | 36 min | Hebrew
Hilla Medalia
Synopsis: Israeli peace activists hold silent vigils in Tel Aviv, displaying photos of Gaza’s young victims. Despite facing public backlash, their wordless demonstrations powerfully highlight war’s human cost.
“Classroom 4”
April 2, 2025 | PBS | 39 min | English
Eden Wurmfeld
Synopsis: Classroom 4 is the story of an award-winning history professor leading a group of students, half incarcerated and half free, in a class titled “The History of Crime and Punishment in the United States.”
✰ Aspen Shortsfest Winner
✰ Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Nominee
“The Devil Is Busy”
September 23, 2025 | HBO Documentary Films | 31 min | English
Geeta Gandbhir & Christalyn Hampton
Synopsis: At an Atlanta abortion clinic besieged by protesters, the director of operations takes necessary risks to safeguard staff and patients.
✰ Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival Winner
✰ Palm Springs International ShortFest Winner
✰ RiverRun International Film Festival Winner
✰ Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Winner
✰ Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Nominee
“Heartbeat”
March 30, 2025 | Jay Rosenblatt Films | 31 min | English
Stephanie Rapp & Jay Rosenblatt
Synopsis: This emotionally raw and intimate documentary, shot 25 years ago, follows a couple – the filmmakers – in their complicated journey towards bringing a new life into the world. In today’s landscape of reproductive rights, this story takes on a new meaning and offers a rare view into this moment in their lives.
✰ Krakow Film Festival Nominee
✰ VIS Vienna Independent Shorts Nominee
✰ IndieLisboa International Independent Film Festival Nominee
✰ It’s All True – International Documentary Film Festival Nominee
“Last Days on Lake Trinity”
August 31, 2025 | The New Yorker | 29 min | English
Charlotte Cooley
Synopsis: When a South Florida trailer park is slated for closure by its owner, Trinity Broadcasting Network – the world’s largest Christian TV station – the residents have until the end of the year to fight the eviction or find new homes. In Last Days on Lake Trinity, three friends navigate this crisis with humor, compassion, and resilience.
“On Healing Land, Birds Perch”
March 29, 2024 | LA Times Studios | 34 min | English, Vietnamese
Naja Pham Lockwood
Synopsis: Tells the remarkable stories behind one of the most iconic photos in history, while acting as a portal into the “varied carols,” to borrow from Walt Whitman, of trauma and the American journey.
✰ Cleveland International Film Festival Winner
“Perfectly a Strangeness”
October 24, 2024 | Second Sight Pictures | 15 min
Alison McAlpine
Synopsis: In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.
✰ Athens International Film and Video Festival Winner
✰ Cannes Film Festival Nominee
✰ Chicago International Film Festival Winner
✰ Hamptons International Film Festival Nominee
✰ International Documentary Association Awards Winner
✰ Toronto International Film Festival Nominee
✰ Uppsala International Short Film Festival Nominee
✰ Full Frame Documentary Film Festival Winner
✰ Miami Short Film Festival Winner
✰ THESS International Short Film Festival Winner
✰ Cinema Eye Honors Awards Nominee
✰ Canadian Screen Awards Nominee
✰ Salem Film Fest Nominee
✰ Nevada City Film Festival Winner
✰ Trento Film Festival Winner
✰ Planet in Focus Awards Winner
✰ Toronto International Film Festival’s Canada’s Top Ten Winner
✰ Les Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois Winner
✰ Imagine Science Film Festival Winner
✰ FICMEC Awards Winner
✰ Le Gala Quebec Cinema Awards Nominee
✰ Festival international de court métrages Images en Vue Winner
✰ i-Fest International Film Festival Winner
“Rovina’s Choice”
September 26, 2025 | The New Yorker | 22 min | English
Thomas Jennings & Annie Wong
Synopsis: Documentary about how millions of people have been killed by the decision to eliminate USAID.
“We Were the Scenery”
February 21, 2024 | PBS | 39 min | Spanish, Arabic, French
Christopher Radcliff
Synopsis: After fleeing Vietnam by boat in 1975, Hoa Thi Le and Hue Nguyen Che arrived in the Philippines and were cast as extras in Apocalypse Now.
✰ Nashville Film Festival Nominee
✰ Sundance Film Festival Winner
✰ Kaohsiung Film Festival Winner
✰ Champs-Élysées Film Festival Nominee
✰ Dokufest International Documentary Film Festival Winner
✰ OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival Nominee
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