DOC NYC Holds Influential Place in Awards Calendar

Addie Morfoot
·3 min read

In just 13 yearsDOC NYC has become America’s most influential documentary festival.

The nine-day affair, which runs Nov. 9-17, will feature more than 124 short docus and 112 feature-length nonfiction films that will screen at New York City’s IFC Center, SVA Theater and Cinépolis Chelsea. (The 2022 version will be both in person in New York and accessible online across the U.S.)

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One key factor in the festival’s success has to do with where it falls on the calendar — one month before the AMPAS documentary branch begins voting to determine the Oscar documentary shortlist. Then there’s DOC NYC’s 15-feature film shortlist, which has become famous for including docus that eventually earn Oscar nominations and/or wins.

“Summer of Soul,” “American Factory,” “Free Solo,” “Icarus,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” and “Undefeated” are all films that won the Academy Award for feature documentary between 2012 and 2022. Before garnering a little gold man each film made the DOC NYC feature short list. In all, the Manhattan-based festival has screened 44 of the past 50 Oscar-nominated documentary features.

Created in 2012 by DOC NYC’s former artistic director Thom Powers, the feature docu shortlist has, arguably, become a voting guide to nonfiction branch Academy members, making the list a top priority to distributors and filmmakers alike who are seeking Oscar glory.

This year DOC NYC’s new artistic director Jaie Laplante curated the feature shortlist, which includes Laura Poitras’ “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” Margaret Brown’s “Descendent” and Daniel Roher’s “Navalny.”

“It’s a compilation of what we think are the 15 best films of the year,” says Laplante.

In addition to the influential shortlist and being held in November, DOC NYC’s annual Visionaries Tribute luncheon has helped solidify the festival as a top tier nonfiction event.

The gala attracts the who’s who of the docu community from both coasts. Hundreds of documentary filmmakers, cinematographers, producers, editors, publicist and distributors hob knob with Academy doc branch members in hopes of winning their votes.

“The luncheon is Mount Everest of documentary events,” says Oscar winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams. “It’s just insane.”

Williams will be at the event with “Master of Light,” a doc about George Anthony Morton who begins to heal the traumas of his childhood via art. Williams produced the film, which is directed by first-time feature docu helmer Rosa Ruth Boesten.

While “Master of Light” didn’t make the coveted DOC NYC shortlist, Williams believes the HBO film could be a sleeper hit.

“Even though it won awards at South by Southwest, the San Francisco Film Festival and the Sheffield Film Festival, I feel like people haven’t seen it yet,” says Williams. “Being at DOC NYC will give Academy members in New York the chance to discover the film. And I will be dragging Rosa around that luncheon introducing her to everybody.”

Among those Williams will most likely introduce Boesten to is Vinnie Malhotra, Showtime’s executive VP of nonfiction programming. He and fellow nonfiction commissioners from platforms including Netflix, Disney and Apple TV + will all attend the lunch to tout their respective films.

Dror Moreh’s “The Corridors of Power,” Matt Tyrnauer’s “The End of the World,” and Ramin Bahrani’s “2nd Chance” are three Showtime docus screening at the festival.

“Being at that DOC NYC luncheon is not only fun, but it’s important,” says Malhotra. “That lunch represents a lot more than just, ‘Hey. This is an opportunity for us to drum up more attention for our films.’ It’s a chance for the documentary community to come together and really, even though we might compete with one another, celebrate one another.”

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