Fifteen Docs Vie for Oscar Top Five; Wenders is In, Herzog is Out

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• Kuba | November 18, 2011 10:21 PMReply

  Truly surprised that "The Bully Project" did not make the cut.

• Steve | November 19, 2011 2:56 PM

  I believe that Weinstein decided to hold The Bully Project and qualify it next year.

• GE | November 18, 2011 8:55 PMReply

  I long ago gave up trying to figure out what mood the prescreeners must be in when they watch the docs submitted. They see them at home where they can scan through them at double speed take a break for dinner or a phone call, check email, take a nap and we'll leave the rest to your imagination. I would hate to be the maker of the 5th film screened in a day.
  
  These are all respectable films, a few even approaching greatness. But there were several brilliant films that missed the cut in favor of movies that only played festivals and TV/cable, presumably with a one week qualifying run sneaked in somewhere.
  
  Herzog and Morris deserve special awards for their amazing body of documentary work since they continue to be ignored.

• Nel | November 18, 2011 8:31 PMReply

  Shame that the Academy has snubbed world cinema docs and instead put forward 12 x US films, 1 x Canadian film, 1 x German dance film by name filmmaker, and 1 x German Animal Planet bio. What message does this give considering the world class films and stories out there this year? Makes a joke of it being a top world documentary award. Something needs changing to restore credibility to the documentary branch.

• MJ | November 19, 2011 7:09 PM

  WMH, these are the Academy Awards we are talking about, not the LA Film Fest or Hollywood Awards. Yes, the Academy Awards are based in Hollywood but for Feature Documentaries they represent the ultimate recognition as a filmmaker and there is not a rest of world category. The feature documentary category is supposedly for both US and International films all treated equally. The entire nomination process was set up by the Academy documentary filmmakers to reflect the global theatrical documentary community. Favoritism to US only films is a very embarrassing and sad development. The global filmmaking community is watching.
  
  The Cesars are the French National Film awards and should not be compared to the Academy Awards. Even regular film festivals reflect a global industry. Could you image Cannes to snub totally from selecting US films. This years top honours went to "Drive" due to the jury being an international mix. The problem seems to be having a 100% US election committee who are unable to be objective to the outside world. In one year the Academy has stepped back 20.

• WMH | November 19, 2011 4:13 AM

  This is the award ceremony of Hollywood though, not the entire world. That's what film festivals/Critic's awards are for. You can't really blame members for showing favoritism to their own. It would be like complaining that the César Awards show favoritism to French films.

• James | November 18, 2011 8:27 PMReply

  Bill Cunningham New York was an excellently reviewed film and somewhat of a hit at the box office. I'm so pleased it made the cut. Out of 51 reviews on rottentomatoes, only 1 review is negative and it's courtesy of, you guessed it, the infamous Mr. Armond White. Who cares if a few acclaimed films didn't made the cut? Critics have their own awards. The Oscars are voted on by industry insiders and I admire their unpredictable choices in the documentary category. How boring would it be if the Oscars were just award to whatever films the critics loved best.

• JB | November 18, 2011 7:56 PMReply

  A slightly ridiculous list. Must be something wrong with the voting system?
  
  Where are: ARBOR, INTERRUPTERS, POSITION AMONG THE STARS, MARATHON BOY, BETTER THIS WORLD, GIVE UP TOMORROW, TABLOID, HOW TO DIE IN OREGON, ARMADILLO, to name just a few...?

• RayWats | November 18, 2011 7:12 PMReply

  It's kind of interesting that out of all these films, only one of them -- "We Were Here" -- is on BOTH the Metacritic and Rotten Tomatotes lists of the best movies of the year and only two of them -- "We Were Here" and "Hell and Back Again" have 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Which isn't to say that 99% for "The Interruptors" is anything to sneeze at. But, out of the 15 films recognized by the Academy, only THREE are also recognized by critics as among the year's best. Very interesting.

• Keil Shults | November 18, 2011 7:01 PMReply

  I'm also directing a documentary entitled The Interrupters. It's about a group of former Academy doc branch voters who failed to recognize films like The Thin Blue Line, Hoop Dreams, and Crumb. They show up at the doorsteps of current Academy voters, slap the ballots out of their hands, and fiercely declare things like, "You don't wanna make the same mistakes I did!" It should be ready in time for SXSW.