The Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film is an award for documentary films. In 1941, the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight. They have since been bestowed competitively each year, with the exception of 1946. Copies of every winning film are held by the Academy Film Archive.
Mike Nichols was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude for getting the best out of actors regardless of their experience. Nichols began his career in the 1950s with the comedy improvisational troupe The Compass Players, predecessor of The Second City, in Chicago. He then teamed up with his improv partner, Elaine May, to form the comedy duo Nichols and May. Their live improv act was a hit on Broadway, and each of their three albums was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album; their second album, An Evening With Mike Nichols and Elaine May, won the award in 1960.
The Grammy Award for Album of the Year is presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry, without regard to album sales, chart position, or critical reception." Album of the Year is the most prestigious award category at the Grammys, and it is one of the general field awards alongside Best New Artist, Record of the Year and Song of the Year, presented annually since the 1st Annual Grammy Awards in 1959. Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon and Taylor Swift are the biggest winners of the award, with each of them having won it three times.
Joshua David Bell is an American violinist and conductor. He plays the Gibson Stradivarius.
Paul Thomas Anderson, also known by his initials PTA, is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and cinematographer. He developed an interest in filmmaking from a young age. He made his feature-film debut with Hard Eight (1996). He found critical and commercial success with Boogie Nights (1997) and received further accolades with Magnolia (1999), an ensemble piece set in the San Fernando Valley, and Punch-Drunk Love (2002), a romantic comedy-drama film.
American Masters is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the United States. It is produced by WNET in New York City. The show debuted on PBS in 1986.
Taylor Edwin Hackford is an American film director and former president of the Directors Guild of America. He won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for Teenage Father (1979). Hackford went on to direct a number of highly regarded feature films, most notably An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) and Ray (2004), the latter of which saw him nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Josh Ralph, known professionally as J. Ralph, is an American composer, producer, singer/songwriter and social activist who focuses on creating awareness and change through music and film.
Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. Her discography spans multiple genres, and her narrative songwriting—often inspired by her personal life—has received critical praise and widespread media coverage. Born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift moved to Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 14 to pursue a career in country music. She signed a songwriting contract with Sony/ATV Music Publishing in 2004 and a recording deal with Big Machine Records in 2005, and released her eponymous debut studio album in 2006.
Paul Taylor Dance Company, is a modern dance company, formed by dancer and choreographer Paul Taylor (1930—2018). The modern dance company is based in New York, New York and was founded in 1954.
Jerry Kupfer is an American television producer who has worked on shows such as 30 Rock and Strangers with Candy.
Matthew Diamond is an American film and television director, producer and choreographer best known for directing Dancemaker.
Patrick Corbin, is an American dancer and founder of CorbinDances.
A Year Toward Tomorrow is a 1966 American short documentary film about the Volunteers in Service to America, directed by Edmond Levy. In 1967, it won an Oscar for Documentary Short Subject at the 39th Academy Awards.
Paul Belville Taylor Jr. was an American dancer and choreographer. He was one of the last living members of the third generation of America's modern dance artists. He founded the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1954 in New York City.
The Secret Land is a feature-length 1948 documentary film about a United States Navy expedition code-named "Operation Highjump" to explore Antarctica and to evaluate its potential for military operations in 1946. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
Rebel in Paradise is a 1960 American documentary film on the artist Paul Gauguin produced by Robert D. Fraser, a San Francisco real estate developer. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story is a 1996 American documentary film directed by Susan Warms Dryfoos about the artist Al Hirschfeld. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After its theatrical release, PBS broadcast the film in 1999 in a shortened version on American Masters.
Monument to the Dream is a 1967 American short documentary film about the Gateway Arch National Park directed by Charles Guggenheim and narrated by Paul Richards. At the time of the film's production, the park was known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.
Lesley Ann Patten is a film director, screenwriter, and producer whose first feature documentary Loyalties won the 1999 Canada Award.
