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.
Majid Majidi is an Iranian film director, producer, and screenwriter, who started his film career as an actor. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous international awards.
Vidhu Vinod Chopra is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. His well-known films as director are Parinda (1988), and 1942: A Love Story (1994). He is also known for producing the Munna Bhai film series, 3 Idiots (2009), PK (2014), and Sanju (2018) under his banner Vinod Chopra Films.
Kevin Brownlow is a British film historian, television documentary-maker, filmmaker, author, and film editor. He is best known for his work documenting the history of the silent era, having become interested in silent film at the age of eleven. This interest grew into a career spent documenting and restoring film. Brownlow has rescued many silent films and their history. His initiative in interviewing many largely forgotten, elderly film pioneers in the 1960s and 1970s preserved a legacy of early mass-entertainment cinema. He received an Academy Honorary Award at the 2nd Annual Governors Awards given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 13 November 2010. This was the first occasion on which an Academy Honorary Award was given to a film preservationist.
Govindan Aravindan was an Indian film director, screenwriter, musician, cartoonist, and painter. He was one of the pioneers of parallel cinema in Malayalam. He was known for his unorthodox way of filmmaking; he changed his cinematic forms consistently and experimented in storytelling without regular narrative styles.
Satyajit Ray was an Indian filmmaker who worked prominently in Bengali cinema and who has often been regarded as one of the greatest directors of world cinema. Ray was born in Calcutta to a Bengali family and started his career as a junior visualiser. His meeting with French film director Jean Renoir, who had come to Calcutta in 1949 to shoot his film The River (1951), and his 1950 visit to London, where he saw Vittorio De Sica's Ladri di biciclette (1948), inspired Ray to become a film-maker. Ray made his directorial debut in 1955 with Pather Panchali and directed 36 films, comprising 29 feature films, five documentaries, and two short films.
In Beaver Valley is a 1950 American short documentary film directed by James Algar. The film was produced by Walt Disney as part of the True-Life Adventures series of nature documentaries. It won an Oscar in 1951 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel). At the 1st Berlin International Film Festival it won the Golden Bear (Documentaries) award.
The Face of Lincoln is a 1955 short documentary film in which sculptor Robert Merrell Gage models the features of Abraham Lincoln while narrating the story of Lincoln's life. It won an Oscar at the 28th Academy Awards in 1956 for Best Short Subject (Two-Reel) and was also nominated for Documentary Short Subject. The film was directed by Edward Freed and produced by USC School of Cinematic Arts instructor Wilbur T. Blume.
Seawards the Great Ships is a 1961 British short documentary film directed by Hilary Harris. It won an Oscar in 1962 for Best Short Live Action Subject, the first Scottish film to win an Academy Award. The film chronicles the Shipbuilding industry of the River Clyde during the early 1960s, featuring footage from the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, John Brown & Company and Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company. It was produced by Glasgow-based Templar Films for the Clyde Shipbuilders' Association and the Central Office of Information (COI). It was released onto Blu-ray by Panamint in 2010 as part of their 'Faces of Scotland' compilation.
Casals Conducts: 1964 is a 1964 American short film directed by Larry Sturhahn. It is a documentary about the cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. It won an Oscar at the 37th Academy Awards in 1965 for Best Short Subject. The Academy Film Archive preserved Casals Conducts: 1964 in 2013.
The Alaskan Eskimo is a 1953 American short documentary film produced by Walt Disney. It was the initial film in Disney's People & Places series. In 1954, it won an Oscar for Documentary Short Subject at the 26th Academy Awards.
Thursday's Children is a 1954 British short documentary film directed by Guy Brenton and Lindsay Anderson about The Royal School for the Deaf in Margate, Kent, UK, a residential school then teaching lip reading rather than sign language. Apart from music and narration, the film is nearly silent and focuses on the faces and gestures of the little boys and girls. It features methods and goals not now used, and notes that only one child in three will achieve true speech. Filmmakers Lindsay Anderson and Guy Brenton were unable to gain distribution for the film until it won an Oscar in 1955 for Documentary Short Subject. The Academy Film Archive preserved Thursday's Children in 2005.
Men Against the Arctic is a 1955 American short documentary film directed by Winston Hibler. It was part of Disney's People & Places series. It won an Oscar at the 28th Academy Awards in 1956 for Documentary Short Subject. It was also entered into the 6th Berlin International Film Festival.
The Flight of the Gossamer Condor is a 1978 American short documentary film directed by Ben Shedd, about the development of the Gossamer Condor, the first human-powered aircraft, by a team led by Paul MacCready. The Academy Film Archive preserved The Flight of the Gossamer Condor in 2007.
The Face of a Genius is a 1966 American documentary film about Eugene O’Neill, produced by Alfred R. Kelman for WBZ-TV Boston. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, the first time that a film originally produced for television was recognized by the Academy as a nominee for Best Documentary Feature.
The Lovers' Wind is a 1978 French documentary film directed by Albert Lamorisse about the landscape of Iran. Lamorisse was killed in a helicopter crash while filming the documentary, during a helicopter-tour of Iran. His widow and son completed the film, based on his production notes, and released the film eight years later in 1978. It was nominated for a posthumous Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Adventures in Perception is a 1971 Dutch short documentary film directed by Han Van Gelder. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short., and won the Best Short Film on Art at the 1971 Cork Film Festival. It is a study on the works of M. C. Escher.
Blackwood is a 1976 Canadian short documentary film about Newfoundland artist David Blackwood, directed by Tony Ianzelo and Andy Thomson for the National Film Board of Canada.
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square is a 1998 short animated documentary directed by Shui-Bo Wang and distributed by the National Film Board of Canada. It is an autobiography about the director's life, career and ultimate disillusionment with the Chinese Communist Party. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short, but lost to The Personals.
