91st Academy Awards Best Documentary shortlist announced

Films narrowed down from 166

by Anne-Katrin Titze

Morgan Neville, director of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and the Oscar-winning 20 Feet From Stardom
Morgan Neville, director of Won’t You Be My Neighbor? and the Oscar-winning 20 Feet From Stardom Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The 91st Academy Awards Oscar Best Documentary shortlist has been announced.

Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Free Solo directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Free Solo, directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin; Marilyn Ness's Charm City; Anna Zamecka's Communion (Komunia); Stephen Maing's Crime + Punishment: Kimberly Reed's Dark Money; Simon Lereng Wilmont's The Distant Barking Of Dogs; RaMell Ross's Hale County This Morning, This Evening; Bing Liu's Minding The Gap; Talal Derki's Of Fathers And Sons (Kinder Des Kalifats); Alexandria Bombach's On Her Shoulders; Julie Cohen and Betsy West's RBG; Sandi Tan's Shirkers; Robert Bahar and Almudena Carracedo's The Silence Of Others (El Silencio De Otros); Tim Wardle's Three Identical Strangers; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, directed by Morgan Neville (Oscar-winner for 20 Feet From Stardom) are another step closer to garnering a Best Documentary Oscar nomination.

DOC NYC had nine of the films selected in their Short List program last month.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch determined the shortlist in a preliminary round of voting on the 166 submitted titles. This year, for the first time, films that have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival or have been submitted in the Foreign Language Film category as their country’s official selection, are also eligible in the category. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles.

The five films to receive nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebration takes place on February 24, 2019.

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