This is a list of shortlisted finalists for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film . The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Documentary branch has used it as a preliminary round, before the final five nominated films are announced in mid-January. [1]
Since 1999, twelve to twenty films are usually announced alongside other categories shortlists in mid-December. The movement came after several controversies in the 1980s and 90s, such as the omission of critically acclaimed and popular favorites: Shoah (1985), The Thin Blue Line (1988), Roger & Me (1989), [2] Paris Is Burning (1990), Hoop Dreams (1994) and Crumb (1995). [3] [4] The process also allows more voters to participate in the nomination second phase.
Even though the shortlisting process has been well established for nearly three decades, various other acclaimed documentaries have not been nominated: Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), Grizzly Man (2005), Red Army (2014), [5] Jane (2017), They Shall Not Grow Old (2018) and Apollo 11 (2019). [3] [6]
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amargosa | Todd Robinson | Marta Becket and the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel | Not nominated | [7] | |
| American Movie | Chris Smith | The making of a low budget horror movie in Wisconsin | Not nominated | ||
| Beyond the Mat | Barry W. Blaustein | The lives of professional wrestlers outside of the ring, primarily Mick Foley, Terry Funk, and Jake Roberts, as well as some aspiring wrestlers | Not nominated | ||
| Buena Vista Social Club | Wim Wenders | Follows the contemporary history of Cuban music, featuring the musicians who recorded the 1996 acclaimed album Buena Vista Social Club | Nominated | ||
| Genghis Blues | Roko Belic | Paul Pena and the art of Tuvan throat singing | Nominated | ||
| Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. | Errol Morris | Fred A. Leuchter Jr., capital punishment and Holocaust denial | Not nominated | ||
| On the Ropes | Brett Morgen and Nanette Burstein | Three young boxers and their coach | Nominated | ||
| One Day in September | Kevin Macdonald | Terrorist attacks at the 1972 Summer Olympics | Won Academy Award | ||
| Pop & Me | Chris Roe | The director's travels around with his own father, interviewing fathers and sons about their own father-son relationships | Not nominated | ||
| Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial | Torrie Rosenzweig | Tobacco in the United States | Not nominated | ||
| The Source | Chuck Workman | The Beat Generation | Not nominated | ||
| Speaking in Strings | Paola di Florio | Italian-born violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Agronomist | Jonathan Demme | Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti-Inter, the country's first independent radio station | Not nominated | [8] | |
| Balseros | Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domenech | Balseros emigrating from Cuba during the Período especial and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis | Nominated | ||
| Bus 174 | Jose Padilha | The June 2000 hijacking of Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Not nominated | ||
| Capturing the Friedmans | Andrew Jarecki | Follows closely an American family accused of pedophilia | Nominated | ||
| Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin | Richard Schickel | The life and times of Golden Age of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin | Not nominated | ||
| The Fog of War | Errol Morris | Robert McNamara and his involvement in the Vietnam War | Won Academy Award | ||
| Heir to an Execution: A Granddaughter's Story | Marc Levin | Explores the lives and deaths of her grandparents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were executed as spies in 1953. | Not nominated | ||
| Inheritance: A Fisherman's Story | Peter Hegedus | After the River Tisza was poluted with tons of cyanide from an Australian-Romanian gold mine, local fisherman Balazs Meszaros struggled to survive. Travelling to Australia, he decides to confront the mining company officials. | Not nominated | ||
| Lost Boys of Sudan | Megan Mylan and Jou Shenk | Two boys from the Dinka tribe of Sudan who emigrated to the United States, who were part of the refugee group commonly known as the Lost Boys of Sudan | Not nominated | ||
| My Architect | Nathaniel Kahn | The career and familial relationships of the director's father, architect Louis Kahn | Nominated | ||
| My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | The adopted children of Susan Tom, most of whom have significant physical disabilities | Not nominated | ||
| The Weather Underground | Sam Green and Bill Siegel | The rise and fall of the radical political group of the same name | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born into Brothels | Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman | Children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district. | Won Academy Award | ||
| Home of the Brave | Paola di Florio | The 1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo | Not nominated | [9] [8] | |
| Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train | Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller | Historian and activist Howard Zinn | Not nominated | ||
| In the Realms of the Unreal | Jessica Yu | Outsider artist Henry Darger's magnum opus. The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion | Not nominated | ||
| Riding Giants | Stacy Peralta | Surfing, Big wave riding | Not nominated | ||
| The Ritchie Boys | Christian Bauer | Holocaust survivors share their story of fleeing to the United States, joining the US Army and returning to Europe to fight in World War II | Not nominated | ||
| The Story of the Weeping Camel | Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni | A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert trying to save the life of a rare white bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf after it was rejected by its mother. | Nominated | ||
| Super Size Me | Morgan Spurlock | A filmmaker eating nothing but McDonald's fast food for 30 days | Nominated | ||
| Tell Them Who You Are | Mark Wexler | The son of acclaimed cinematographer Haskell Wexler turns the camera on his father and their complicated history | Not nominated | ||
| Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald | Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' near-fatal descent after making the first successful ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes | Not nominated | ||
| Tupac: Resurrection | Lauren Lazin | Late rapper Tupac Shakur from his upbringing to his untimely death | Nominated | ||
| Twist of Faith | Kirby Dick | Sexual abuse by a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, Ohio | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autism: The Musical | Tricia Regan | Children on the autism spectrum performing their own stage musical | Not nominated | [11] | |
| Body of War | Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue | The experiences of Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, including his paralysis from enemy gunshot wounds and his subsequent anti-war activism | Not nominated | ||
| For the Bible Tells Me So | Daniel G. Karslake | Follows how homosexuality is perceived in contemporary Christianity, as well as various interpretations of what the Bible says about sexual orientation | Not nominated | ||
| Lake of Fire | Tony Kaye | Follows the history of Abortion in the United States and the never-ending debate | Not nominated | ||
| Nanking | Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman | Follows the Nanjing Massacre, committed in 1937 by the Imperial Japanese Army during the World War II in Nanjing, the former capital city of China. | Not nominated | ||
| No End in Sight | Charles Ferguson | Follows the American occupation of Iraq during the Iraq War | Nominated | ||
| Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience | Richard E. Robbins | The writings of U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars | Nominated | ||
| The Price of Sugar | Bill Haney | Exploitation of Haiti immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation | Not nominated | ||
| Please Vote for Me | Weijun Chen | Elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China | Not nominated | ||
| Sicko | Michael Moore | Follows the Health insurance and Healthcare in the United States | Nominated | ||
| Taxi to the Dark Side | Alex Gibney | The December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base | Won Academy Award | ||
| War/Dance | Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine | Three Acholi children living in a Ugandan refugee camp, who are preparing to compete in the National Music Competition in Kampala | Nominated | ||
| White Light/Black Rain | Steven Okazaki | The atermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the humanitarian crise and its survivors | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Betrayal – Nerakhoon | Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath | After the United States Secret War in Laos, a Laotian immigrant living in New York City tries assimilating into American life | Nominated | [12] | |
| Encounters at the End of the World | Werner Herzog | Filmmaker Werner Herzog and cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger travel to Antarctica to meet the people who live and work there | Nominated | ||
| The Garden | Scott Hamilton Kennedy | Follows the story of the now demolished South Central Farm; a community garden and urban farm located in Los Angeles | Nominated | ||
| Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts | Scott Hicks | Follows the Classical music composer Philip Glass | Not nominated | ||
| I.O.U.S.A. | Patrick Creadon | Analyses the shape and impact of the National debt of the United States | Not nominated | ||
| Man on Wire | James Marsh | Highwire artist Philippe Petit's walking between the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York | Won Academy Award | ||
| Trouble the Water | Tia Lessin and Carl Deal | Follows a young couple surviving Hurricane Katrina and facing their own troubled past | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exit Through the Gift Shop | Banksy | It tells the story of Thierry Guetta, who over several years filmed a host of street artists at work, including Shepard Fairey and Banksy, but failed to do anything with the footage. Eventually, Banksy decided to use the footage to make his own documentary | Nominated | [13] | |
| Gasland | Josh Fox | It focuses on communities in the United States where natural gas drilling activity is a concern and, specifically, on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), a method of stimulating production in otherwise impermeable rock | Nominated | ||
| Inside Job | Charles Ferguson | The systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption | Won Academy Award | ||
| Restrepo | Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger | It explores the year that Junger and Hetherington spent, on assignment for Vanity Fair, in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley | Nominated | ||
| The Tillman Story | Amir Bar-Lev | The untimely death of former football player turned soldier Pat Tillman | Not nominated | ||
| Waiting for "Superman" | Davis Guggenheim | Follows the American public education system by following several students as they strive to be accepted into competitive charter schools | Not nominated | ||
| Waste Land | Lucy Walker | Follows artist Vik Muniz as he travels to the world's largest landfill in Jardim Gramacho, just outside Rio de Janeiro, to collaborate with a lively group of " catadores " (workers who salvage recyclable materials from the garbage) to make contemporary art using some of the materials they have picked | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buck | Cindy Meehl | Focuses on the life, career, and philosophy of the real-life "horse whisperer" Buck Brannaman | Not nominated | [14] | |
| Bill Cunningham New York | Richard Press | Photographer Bill Cunningham, for decades has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high-society charity soirées for The New York Times Style section in his columns "On the Street" and "Evening Hours" | Not nominated | ||
| Battle for Brooklyn | Michael Galinsky Suki Hawley | Follows the stories of a Brooklyn neighborhood as the residents fight to save their homes from being destroyed by an impending real estate project | Not nominated | ||
| Hell and Back Again | Danfung Dennis | Follows a sergeant in the United States Marine Corps who returns from the Afghanistan conflict with a badly broken leg and post-traumatic stress disorder | Nominated | ||
| If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front | Marshall Curry | The rise and fall of radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front | Nominated | ||
| Jane's Journey | Lorenz Knauer | Follows Dr. Jane Goodall late career as a primatologist | Not nominated | ||
| The Loving Story | Nancy Buirski | Follows the Mildred and Richard Loving love story and the their landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia (1967), which ended all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. | Not nominated | ||
| Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory | Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky | Third and final installment in the documentary trilogy about the West Memphis Three, three teenage boys wrongfully accused of the May 1993 murders and sexual mutilation of three prepubescent boys | Nominated | ||
| Pina | Wim Wenders | During the preparation for the original documentary idea, Pina Bausch died unexpectedly, so Wenders cancelled the project, but the dancers of Bausch's company, Tanztheater Wuppertal, convinced him to proceed as planned, memorializing Bausch and her work | Nominated | ||
| Project Nim | James Marsh | Follows the chimpanzee named Nim Chimpsky, who was the center of a 1970s research project to determine whether a primate could learn to speak using American Sign Language | Not nominated | ||
| Semper Fi: Always Faithful | Tony Hardmon and Rachel Libert | After the Death of Janey Ensminger, the nine-year-old daughter of Jerry Ensminger, from a rare type of leukemia, a grief-stricken father search for answers led to the shocking discovery of a Marine Corps cover-up of one of the largest water contamination incidents in U.S. history, the Camp Lejeune water contamination | Not nominated | ||
| Sing Your Song | Susanne Rostock | Recounts the life and legacy of singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte | Not nominated | ||
| Undefeated | Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin | Follows a high school American football team, the Manassas Tigers of Memphis, as they attempt a winning season after years of losses. The team is turned around by coach Bill Courtney, who helps form a group of young men into an academic and athletic team | Won Academy Award | ||
| Under Fire: Journalists in Combat | Martyn Burke | Follows war journalists experiences of reporting from the frontline | Not nominated | ||
| We Were Here | David Weissman | Follows the HIV/AIDS crisis in San Francisco | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bully | Lee Hirsch | Follows the lives of five students who face bullying on a daily basis in U.S. schools | Not nominated | [15] | |
| Chasing Ice | Jeff Orlowski | Follows the efforts of nature photographer James Balog and his Extreme Ice Survey (EIS) to publicize the effects of climate change. Nominated - Best Original Song | Not nominated | ||
| 5 Broken Cameras | Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi | A first-hand account of protests in Bil'in, a West Bank Palestinian village affected by the Israeli West Bank barrier | Nominated | ||
| The Gatekeepers | Dror Moreh | Follows the Israeli internal security service, Shin Bet, from the perspective of six of its former heads | Nominated | ||
| How to Survive a Plague | David France | The beginnings of ACT UP and TAG during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s | Nominated | ||
| The Invisible War | Kirby Dick | Follows reports of sexual assault in the United States military | Nominated | ||
| Searching for Sugar Man | Malik Bendjelloul | Details the efforts in the late 1990s of two Cape Town fans to find out whether the rumored death of American musician Sixto Rodriguez was true and, if not to discover what had become of him. Rodriguez's music, which had never achieved success in his home country of the United States, had become very popular in South Africa, although little was known about him there. | Won Academy Award | ||
| This Is Not a Film | Jafar Panahi | Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi documents his own house arrest and resistance to censure in Iran | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Act of Killing | Joshua Oppenheimer and Christine Cynn | Follows individuals who participated in the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66, wherein alleged communists and people opposed to the New Order regime were tortured and killed, with the killers, many becoming gangsters, still in power throughout the country | Nominated | [16] | |
| Blackfish | Gabriela Cowperthwaite | Controversies surrounding the mistreatment of whales at Sea World | Not nominated | ||
| Cutie and the Boxer | Zachary Heinzerling | Follows the chaotic 40-year marriage of two artists, Noriko Shinohara and her husband the boxing painter Ushio | Nominated | ||
| Dirty Wars | Richard Rowley | Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill travels to Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other countries where the United States has taken military action in the war on terror | Nominated | ||
| God Loves Uganda | Roger Ross Williams | It explores connections between evangelicalism in North America and in Uganda, suggesting that the North American influence is the reason behind the controversial Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, which at one point raised the possibility of the death penalty for gays and lesbians | Not nominated | ||
| The Square | Jehane Noujaim | Depicts the Egyptian Crisis (2011–2014), starting with the 2011 Egyptian revolution at Tahrir Square | Nominated | ||
| 20 Feet from Stardom | Morgan Neville | Using archival footage and new interviews, it details the behind-the-scenes experiences of such backup singers as Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Jo Lawry, Claudia Lennear, and Tata Vega | Won Academy Award |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citizen Koch | Tia Lessin and Carl Deal | Follows the political influence of American plutocrats on the political process following the US Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC which granted corporations the ability to anonymously spend unlimited money to influence public policy and elections | Not nominated | [17] | |
| Citizenfour | Laura Poitras | Edward Snowden and his whistle-blowing movement on American espionage of foreign officials through his WikiLeaks website | Won Academy Award | ||
| Finding Vivian Maier | John Maloof and Charlie Siskel | Street photographer Vivian Maier and the rediscovery of her photography | Nominated | ||
| The Internet's Own Boy | Brian Knappenberger | Aaron Swartz and the case of United States v. Swartz | Not nominated | ||
| Jodorowsky's Dune | Frank Pavich | Cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempts at adapting the classic sci-fi novel Dune | Not nominated | ||
| Last Days in Vietnam | Rory Kennedy | During the chaotic final weeks of the Vietnam War, the North Vietnamese Army closes in on Saigon as the panicked South Vietnamese people desperately attempt to escape. On the ground, American soldiers and diplomats confront whether to obey White House orders to evacuate American citizens only | Nominated | ||
| Life Itself | Steve James | Based on based on Roger Ebert's 2011 memoir of the same name, follows the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic life and memories | Not nominated | ||
| The Salt of the Earth | Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado | It portrays the works of Salgado's father, the Brazilian acclaimed photographer Sebastião Salgado | Nominated | ||
| Virunga | Orlando von Einsiedel | Focuses on the conservation work of park rangers within the Congo's Virunga National Park during the rise of the violent M23 Rebellion in 2012 and investigates the activity of the British oil company Soco International within the UNESCO World Heritage Site | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amy | Asif Kapadia | The life and death of singer Amy Winehouse | Won Academy Award | ||
| Best of Enemies | Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville | The televised arguments between conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr and progressive novelist Gore Vidal | Not nominated | [18] [19] | |
| Cartel Land | Matthew Heineman | Vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels during Mexican drug war | Nominated | ||
| Going Clear | Alex Gibney | An exposé on the practices of the Church of Scientology | Not nominated | ||
| He Named Me Malala | Davis Guggenheim | The life of young activist Malala Yousafzai | Not nominated | ||
| Heart of a Dog | Laurie Anderson | Composer Laurie Anderson's meditative ode to canines | Not nominated | ||
| The Hunting Ground | Kirby Dick | The incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and the reported failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately Nominated - Best Original Song | Not nominated | ||
| Listen to Me Marlon | Stevan Riley | Archival footage examining the life of Academy Award-winning actor Marlon Brando | Not nominated | ||
| The Look of Silence | Joshua Oppenheimer | A companion piece to Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary The Act of Killing follows the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66 | Nominated | ||
| Meru | Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | The first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas | Not nominated | ||
| 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets | Marc Silver | Murder of Jordan Davis | Not nominated | ||
| We Come as Friends | Hubert Sauper | War-ravaged South Sudan fighting for independence from North Sudan and its President Omar al-Bashir | Not nominated | ||
| What Happened, Miss Simone? | Liz Garbus | The life and troubled times of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone | Nominated | ||
| Where to Invade Next | Michael Moore | Director Michael Moore spending time in various countries where he experiences alternative methods of dealing with social and economic ills experienced in the United States | Not nominated | ||
| Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom | Evgeny Afineevsky | Ukraine's fight for freedom during the Revolution of Dignity | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameraperson | Kirsten Johnson | A cinematographer's collection of documentary footage | Not nominated | [20] | |
| Command and Control | Robert Kenner | 1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980 | Not nominated | ||
| The Eagle Huntress | Otto Bell | Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia | Not nominated | ||
| Fire at Sea | Gianfranco Rosi | Life at Lampedusa, Italy | Nominated | ||
| Gleason | Clay Tweel | Former football player Steve Gleason and his journey living with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) Nominated - Best Original Song | Not nominated | ||
| Hooligan Sparrow | Nanfu Wang | A child rape case in China involving a government official and the subsequent protests led by activists | Not nominated | ||
| I Am Not Your Negro | Raoul Peck | Author James Baldwin's unfinished memoir about being black in America | Nominated | ||
| The Ivory Game | Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani | The poaching of elephants in Africa, related to the ivory trade in China and Hong Kong, and the repercussions of elephant poaching | Not nominated | ||
| Life, Animated | Roger Ross Williams | Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, diagnosed with autism learning about life and communication through classic Disney animated movies | Nominated | ||
| OJ: Made in America | Ezra Edelman | The examination of racial divides in America during the O. J. Simpson saga | Won Academy Award | ||
| 13th | Ava DuVernay | A look at the 13th amendment and its effect on African Americans | Nominated | ||
| Tower | Keith Maitland | The 1966 University of Texas shooting perpetrated by Charles Whitman | Not nominated | ||
| Weiner | Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg | The rise and fall of politician Anthony Weiner due to the sexting scandals that derailed his Congressional career | Not nominated | ||
| The Witness | James D. Solomon | The murder of Kitty Genovese and the subsequent investigation led by her brother, Bill | Not nominated | ||
| Zero Days | Alex Gibney | The phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games." | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abacus: Small Enough to Jail | Steve James | A family-owned community bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, the only financial institution to face criminal charges following the subprime mortgage crisis | Nominated | [21] [22] [23] | |
| Chasing Coral | Jeff Orlowski | A team of divers, scientists and photographers around the world who document the disappearance of coral reefs | Not nominated | ||
| City of Ghosts | Matthew Heineman | The Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently after their homeland is taken over by ISIS in 2014 | Not nominated | ||
| Ex Libris: The New York Public Library | Frederick Wiseman | The role of the New York Public Library as an egalitarian network of exploration, exchange and learning | Not nominated | ||
| Faces Places | Agnes Varda and JR | Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across | Nominated | ||
| Human Flow | Ai Weiwei | The current global refugee crisis | Not nominated | ||
| Icarus | Bryan Fogel | Fogel's exploration of the option of doping to win an amateur cycling race and happening upon a major international doping scandal when he asks for the help of Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory | Won Academy Award | ||
| An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power | Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk | Former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change | Not nominated | ||
| Jane | Brett Morgen | Iconic anthropologist Jane Goodall | Not nominated | ||
| LA 92 | Daniel Lindsay and T. J. Martin | Archival coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots | Not nominated | ||
| Last Men in Aleppo | Feras Fayyad | The lives of three White Helmets founders, Khaled Omar Harrah, Subhi Alhussen and Mahmoud as they grapple the dilemma to flee their country or stay and fight for it | Nominated | ||
| Long Strange Trip | Amir Bar-Lev | The career of the rock band the Grateful Dead | Not nominated | ||
| One of Us | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady | The lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn | Not nominated | ||
| Strong Island | Yance Ford | The April 1992 murder of William Ford, the director's brother | Nominated | ||
| Unrest | Jennifer Brea | Brea faced chronic fatigue syndrome that struck just before she married her husband Omar Wasow | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charm City | Marilyn Ness | A community in Baltimore, Maryland, over the span of three years of high violence | Not nominated | [24] | |
| Communion | Anna Zamecka | Ola, a 14-year-old girl who takes care of her dysfunctional, alcoholic father, autistic brother, mother who lives separately, and her preparation of family celebration of her brother's Holy Communion sacrament | Not nominated | ||
| Crime + Punishment | Stephen T. Maing | A group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and a private investigator who risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities | Not nominated | ||
| Dark Money | Kimberly Reed | The effects of corporate money and influence in the American political system | Not nominated | ||
| The Distant Barking of Dogs | Simon Lereng Wilmont | The life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year during the war in Donbas | Not nominated | ||
| Free Solo | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin | Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite National Park's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall | Won Academy Award | ||
| Hale County This Morning, This Evening | RaMell Ross | The lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama | Nominated | ||
| Minding the Gap | Bing Liu | The lives and friendships of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois, united by their love of skateboarding | Nominated | ||
| Of Fathers and Sons | Talal Derki | Radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria | Nominated | ||
| On Her Shoulders | Alexandria Bombach | Human rights activist Nadia Murad, as she met with politicians and journalists to alert the world to the massacres and kidnapping happening in Iraq | Not nominated | ||
| RBG | Betsy West and Julie Cohen | The life, legacy and career of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg | Nominated | ||
| Shirkers | Sandi Tan | The making of an independent thriller featuring a teenage assassin set in Singapore | Not nominated | ||
| The Silence of Others | Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar | The silenced fight of the victims from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco | Not nominated | ||
| Three Identical Strangers | Tim Wardle | The lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families | Not nominated | ||
| Won't You Be My Neighbor? | Morgan Neville | The life, legacy and guiding philosophy of children's television host Fred Rogers | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advocate | Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaïche | Human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel as she navigates through the Israeli judicial system in defense of Palestinians accused of terrorism | Not nominated | [25] [26] | |
| American Factory | Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert | Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant | Won Academy Award | ||
| The Apollo | Roger Ross Williams | The history of Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City | Not nominated | ||
| Apollo 11 | Todd Douglas Miller | The 1969 Apollo 11 mission | Not nominated | ||
| Aquarela | Viktor Kossakovsky | Climate change depicted by water and ice around the world | Not nominated | ||
| The Biggest Little Farm | John Chester | John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California | Not nominated | ||
| The Cave | Feras Fayyad | Dr. Amani Ballour, a physician in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital nicknamed "the Cave" during the Syrian Civil War | Nominated | ||
| The Edge of Democracy | Petra Costa | Political past of Costa in a personal way, in context with the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the events leading to impeachment of Dilma Rousseff | Nominated | ||
| For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts | Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian civil war uprising as she and her husband raise their daughter Sama | Nominated | ||
| The Great Hack | Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer | The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal | Not nominated | ||
| Honeyland | Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov | The life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of wild bees who lives in the remote mountain village of Bekirloja, North Macedonia | Nominated | ||
| Knock Down the House | Rachel Lears | Four female democrats who run for Congress in the 2018 United States elections: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin | Not nominated | ||
| Maiden | Alex Holmes | Tracy Edwards and the crew of the Maiden as they compete as the first all-woman crew in the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race | Not nominated | ||
| Midnight Family | Luke Lorentzen | Ochoa family who run a private ambulance business | Not nominated | ||
| One Child Nation | Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang | The fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1980 to 2015 | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All In: The Fight for Democracy | Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés | Voter suppression and the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives | Not nominated | [27] [28] | |
| Boys State | Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine | A thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up | Not nominated | ||
| Collective | Alexander Nanau | The 2016 public health scandal following the Colectiv nightclub fire | Nominated | ||
| Crip Camp | Nicole Newnham and James Lebrecht | Camp Jened campers who turned themselves into activists for the disability rights movement in the 1970s and follows their fight for accessibility legislation | Nominated | ||
| Dick Johnson Is Dead | Kirsten Johnson | Johnson's father Richard "Dick", who suffers from dementia, portraying different ways in which he could ultimately die | Not nominated | ||
| Gunda | Viktor Kossakovsky | The daily life of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken | Not nominated | ||
| MLK/FBI | Sam Pollard | The investigation and harassment of activist Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation | Not nominated | ||
| The Mole Agent | Maite Alberdi | A private investigator, Rómulo, hires Sergio, an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile | Nominated | ||
| My Octopus Teacher | Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed | A year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest | Won Academy Award | ||
| Notturno | Gianfranco Rosi | Different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives | Not nominated | ||
| The Painter and the Thief | Benjamin Ree | Barbora Kysilkova, an artist, forming a friendship with Karl-Bertil Nordland, a man who stole her artwork | Not nominated | ||
| 76 Days | Hao Wu and Weixi Chen | The struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan | Not nominated | ||
| Time | Garrett Bradley | Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery | Nominated | ||
| The Truffle Hunters | Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw | A group of aging men hunt in the woods in Northern Italy, for a prized quarry, the Alba truffle | Not nominated | ||
| Welcome to Chechnya | David France | LGBT Chechen refugees as they made their way out of anti-gay purges in Chechnya of the late 2010s | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ascension | Jessica Kingdon | The pursuit of the Chinese Dream | Nominated | [29] | |
| Attica | Stanley Nelson Jr. and Traci Curry | The infamous 1971 Attica Prison riot | Nominated | ||
| Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry | R. J. Cutler | The career and creative process of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish | Not nominated | ||
| Faya Dayi | Jessica Beshir | The rituals of khat, a psychoactive plant that plays an important role in Ethiopia's economy and culture | Not nominated | ||
| The First Wave | Matthew Heineman | A hospital in New York City, as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | ||
| Flee | Jonas Poher Rasmussen | Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time | Nominated | ||
| In the Same Breath | Nanfu Wang | The response of the Chinese and American governments to the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | ||
| Julia | Julie Cohen and Betsy West | The life of cooking teacher and television personality Julia Child | Not nominated | ||
| President | Camilla Nielsson | The career of Nelson Chamisa who takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe | Not nominated | ||
| Procession | Robert Greene | The six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace | Not nominated | ||
| The Rescue | Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin | The 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue | Not nominated | ||
| Simple as Water | Megan Mylan | The Syrian families across five countries, revealing the impact of war, separation, and displacement | Not nominated | ||
| Summer of Soul | Ahmir Khalib Thompson | The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival | Won Academy Award | ||
| The Velvet Underground | Todd Haynes | The life and times of influential rock band The Velvet Underground | Not nominated | ||
| Writing with Fire | Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas | The journalists running the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya , as they shift from 14 years of print to digital journalism using smartphones | Nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A House Made of Splinters | Simon Lereng Wilmont | The care of the staff of an institution for children who have been removed from their homes. | Nominated | [30] | |
| All That Breathes | Shaunak Sen | Two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite | Nominated | ||
| All the Beauty and the Bloodshed | Laura Poitras | The life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family | Nominated | ||
| Bad Axe | David Siev | David Siev's Asian-American family struggles to keep their local restaurant afloat amidst racial tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic | Not nominated | ||
| Children of the Mist | Ha Le Diem | The Di Hmong teenager faces challenges growing up. In traditional Di culture, girls are married at the age of 14. But at school he learns that there are alternatives. | Not nominated | ||
| Descendant | Margaret Brown | The community of Africatown and the descendants of some of the last known enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States | Not nominated | ||
| Fire of Love | Sara Dosa | The life and career of the daring French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who were ultimately killed in the 1991 eruption of Mount Unzen | Nominated | ||
| Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song | Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine | The story of Leonard Cohen, and his song "Hallelujah" | Not nominated | ||
| Hidden Letters | Violet Du Feng Qing Zhao | 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. | Not nominated | ||
| The Janes | Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes | The story of a clandestine service for women seeking safe, affordable, and illegal abortions, calling themselves JANE | Not nominated | ||
| Last Flight Home | Ondi Timoner | In his final days, we discover Eli Timoner and an extraordinary life of wild achievements, tragic loss and most of all, enduring love | Not nominated | ||
| Moonage Daydream | Brett Morgen | David Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey | Not nominated | ||
| Navalny | Daniel Roher | The poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny | Won Academy Award | ||
| Retrograde | Matthew Heineman | The events that took place during the last nine months of the United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan | Not nominated | ||
| The Territory | Alex Pritz | The attempts of a young indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau, an Amazonian tribe contacted by the Brazilian government only in 1980 | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 32 Sounds | Sam Green | Sound and its effects on human's perception of time and the world. | Not nominated | [31] | |
| American Symphony | Matthew Heineman | A year in the life of musician Jon Batiste chronicling his career in music and his marriage with Suleika Jaouad as they deal with her leukemia. Nominated - Best Original Song | Not nominated | ||
| Apolonia, Apolonia | Lea Glob | The coming-of-age story of Apolonia Sokol as she finds her place in the art world, told through 13 years. | Not nominated | ||
| Beyond Utopia | Madeleine Gavin | The work of Pastor Sungeun Kim, a South Korean human rights activist who has helped rescuing North Korean defectors. | Not nominated | ||
| Bobi Wine: The People's President | Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp | The campaign trail of Ugandan politician, singer, and actor Bobi Wine leading to the 2021 Ugandan general election. | Nominated | ||
| Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy | Nancy Buirski | The journey of making and producing John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy . | Not nominated | ||
| The Eternal Memory | Maite Alberdi | The relationship between actress Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora as they struggle with Gongora's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis. | Nominated | ||
| Four Daughters | Kaouther Ben Hania | After two daughters of a Tunisian woman disappeared, the filmmaker invites professional actresses to compensate for the loss. | Nominated | ||
| Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project | Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson | The life of American poet Nikki Giovanni and the historical periods she lived through from civil rights movement and Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter. | Not nominated | ||
| In the Rearview | Maciek Hamela | Following the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Polish van travels through Ukraine's streets serving as a refuge for citizens. | Not nominated | ||
| Stamped from the Beginning | Roger Ross Williams | A hybrid documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's 2016 non-fiction book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas . | Not nominated | ||
| Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie | Davis Guggenheim | The life of American actor Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson's disease. | Not nominated | ||
| A Still Small Voice | Luke Lorentzen | A chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency facing the challenges and spiritual questions that come from her experiences with her patients. | Not nominated | ||
| To Kill a Tiger | Nisha Pahuja | A family in Jharkhand, India campaigning for justice for the teenage daughter, who has brutally raped. | Nominated | ||
| 20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov | The twenty days spent by the filmmaker and his colleagues in besieged Mariupol after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. | Won Academy Award |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Bibi Files | Alexis Bloom | The leaked interrogation footage of the trial of Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel. | Not nominated | [32] [33] | |
| Black Box Diaries | Shiori Itō | The investigation into Shiori's own sexual assault case, committed by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, director of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. | Nominated | ||
| Dahomey | Mati Diop | Dramatised account of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Republic of Benin), which were held in a museum in France. | Not nominated | ||
| Daughters | Natalie Rae and Angela Patton | The account of 4 young girls as part of afatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail. | Not nominated | ||
| Eno | Gary Hustwit | An account of English ambient music artist Brian Eno, produced with a computer software capable to select footage and edit the film in 52 quintillion possible iterations. | Not nominated | ||
| Frida | Carla Gutierrez | The life of Frida Kahlo told through her own writings and interviews. | Not nominated | ||
| Hollywoodgate | Ibrahim Nash'at | The daily life of Taliban air force commander Mawlawi Mansour, and the fundamentalist M.J. Mukhtar, following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. | Not nominated | ||
| No Other Land | Basel Adra Hamdan Ballal Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor | The struggle of Palestinian activist Basel Adra over the destruction of the Masafer Yatta villages due to the occupation of the Israeli army. | Won Academy Award | ||
| Porcelain War | Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev | The experience of Ukrainian artists as they face the current Russian occupation in Ukraine. | Nominated | ||
| Queendom | Agniia Galdanova | The art and activism of Gena Marvin, a queer artist from Russia challenging her country's anti-LGBTQ+ laws. | Not nominated | ||
| The Remarkable Life of Ibelin | Benjamin Ree | The secret life of Mats Steen, a World of Warcraft gamer with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. | Not nominated | ||
| Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat | Johan Grimonprez | The political background of the crash of Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach at the UN Security Council in protest of the murder of Patrice Lumumba. | Nominated | ||
| Sugarcane | Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie | The investigation into the abuse and disappearances of Canadian indigenous children in the nearby Sugarcane Reserve. | Nominated | ||
| Union | Brett Story and Stephen Maing | The journey of Amazon Labor Union to unionize Amazon's JKF8 warehouse on Staten Island. | Not nominated | ||
| Will & Harper | Josh Greenbaum | A road trip across the United States between Will Ferrel and his friend Harper Steele, who completed her gender transition. | Not nominated |
| Film | Director(s) | Countrie(s) | Subject(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Alabama Solution | Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman | Prison system in Alabama from the perspective of incarcerated leaders | Pending | [34] | |
| Apocalypse in the Tropics | Petra Costa | The influence of evangelical Christianity on far-right politics in Brazil | Pending | ||
| Coexistence, My Ass! | Amber Fares | Israeli comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi tackles inequality and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | Pending | ||
| Come See Me in the Good Light | Ryan White | Poet/activist Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley navigate an examination of love and mortality after Gibson is diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer | Pending | ||
| Cover-Up | Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus | Explores the investigative journalism career of Seymour Hersh, who covered the U.S. Army torture scandals during the Vietnam War and the Iraq War | Pending | ||
| Cutting Through Rocks | Mohammadreza Eyni and Sara Khaki | Follows the first Iranian woman elected as councilwoman in a rural poor village | Pending | ||
| Folktales | Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady | Follows teenagers at a folk high school in Norway, where they must rely on each other and a pack of sled dogs as they grow | Pending | ||
| Holding Liat | Brandon Kramer | Follows Liat Beinin Atzili and her husband, who were kidnapped from their kibbutz during the October 7 attacks | Pending | ||
| Mr Nobody Against Putin | David Borenstein | Follows Pavel Talankin, a teacher in a poor mining town near the Ural Mountains, who documents the Putin administration movements to control public perception during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war | Pending | ||
| Mistress Dispeller | Elizabeth Lo | Follows a woman in China who hires a professional to go undercover and break up her husband's affair | Pending | ||
| My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow | Julia Loktev | Follows the persistence of several independent Russian journalists to resist Russia's repression of press free speech | Pending | ||
| The Perfect Neighbor | Geeta Gandbhir | Follows the racially motivated assassination of Ajike Owens, by her white neighbor Susan Louise Lorincz, in Ocala, Florida | Pending | ||
| Seeds | Brittany Shyne | Follows Black generational family farmers in the American South | Pending | ||
| 2000 Meters to Andriivka | Mstyslav Chernov | Follows a Ukrainian platoon during a mission to liberate the Russian-occupied village of Andriivka, during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War | Pending | ||
| Yanuni | Richard Ladkani | Indigenous chief Juma Xipaia fights to protect native lands in Brazil despite assassination attempts | Pending |