Oscar Doc Shortlist Scores & Shockers: ‘American Symphony Earns Trifecta, But Two Doc Legends Snubbed
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UPDATED 12/22/2023 with details on shortlisted A Still Small Voice. UPDATED with quotes, 1:37 PM: American Symphony, the Obamas-executive produced documentary about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste, scored a remarkable hat trick today as the Oscar shortlists were revealed, but a couple of documentary icons were left on the bench.
In more headlines from the announcement, a beloved documentary filmmaker who died unexpectedly in August earned a place on the nonfiction feature shortlist. And the film about cherished actor Michael J. Fox, directed by Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim, made the list. Two films earned double recognition – making shortlists for doc feature and International Feature Film. [See full shortlists for doc feature and doc short below].
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The most eye-popping takeaway is the recognition for American Symphony, the Netflix film directed by Oscar nominee Matthew Heineman and produced by Higher Ground, the production company of former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. It made the documentary feature shortlist as well as two other shortlists announced today: Musical Score and Original Song, where Batiste’s “It Never Went Away” made the cut.
Heineman’s film focuses on Batiste and his wife, musician and writer Suleika Jouad. In the midst of an extraordinary year for Batiste that saw him claim a slew of Grammys, his wife was diagnosed with a recurrence of cancer and underwent chemotherapy treatment. (Read Deadline’s piece about the film here).
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In the doc feature category, the list of 167 eligible films was culled to 15. Two films made the shortlists for both doc feature and International Feature Film: Four Daughters, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, which represents Tunisia in the international competition, and 20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Pulitzer Prize-winner Mstyslav Chernov, which represents Ukraine.
The Mother of All Lies, Asmae El Moudir’s acclaimed film that shared the top prize for documentary with Four Daughters at the Cannes Film Festival, missed out on the documentary shortlist, but did secure a spot on the International Feature Film list, representing Morocco.
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Two of documentary’s most revered directors – Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman – were left off the doc feature shortlist in the biggest snubs of the day. Morris’s film The Pigeon Tunnel, from Apple Original Films, was overlooked, as was Wiseman’s Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros, the 44th film directed by Wiseman, who turns 94 on January 1.
Menus-Plaisirs clocks in at 4 hours, which may have hurt its chances. Another film with a four-hour run time, Steve McQueen’s Occupied City, also failed to make the shortlist. There was mixed news for another cinema titan, Wim Wenders. His 3D documentary Anselm, about the German artist Anselm Kiefer, didn’t make the doc feature shortlist, but Perfect Days, his narrative film, did advance in the race for International Feature Film, where it represents Japan.
Poignantly, the late Nancy Buirski’s documentary Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy made the feature shortlist. She died unexpectedly in August at the age of 78. Deadline spoke with her in June for an extensive piece about the film, which examines the legacy of Midnight Cowboy, the Oscar-winning classic 1969 film that starred Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Desperate Souls is produced by Buirski, Simon Kilmurry, and Susan Margolin.
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Michael J. Fox has never been nominated for a competitive Oscar, but his name is on the marquee in a prominent Oscar contender. Davis Guggenheim’s film about the Canadian-born star of film and TV, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, earned a spot on the doc shortlist. It is nominated for a leading 7 nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards, which will be presented next month.
National Geographic Documentary Films, a perennial doc powerhouse, saw one of its two main contenders continue in the Oscar hunt: Bobi Wine: The People’s President, directed by Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp. Its other hopeful, The Mission, directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, didn’t make the shortlist.
In another snub, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, Nicole Newnham’s documentary about the famed sex researcher, was left on the sidelines. Last week, that film earned a nomination for the Producers Guild Awards. Newnham earned an Oscar nomination for her 2020 documentary Crip Camp, co-directed by Jim LeBrecht, which was executive produced by the Obamas’ Higher Ground. Lisa Cortés, who qualified for Oscar competition with her award-winning Little Richard: I Am Everything, was left out (perhaps oddly fitting, given that the film examines how the rock ‘n’ roll legend always felt overlooked).
Kokomo City, D. Smith’s directorial debut that won two prizes at Sundance, as well as the audience award at the Berlinale, missed the cut. Its very frank depiction of Black trans women, all of whom discuss doing sex work at times, may have overpowered some Doc Branch voters, who by and large are an older crowd.
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In addition to American Symphony, Netflix is represented on the feature shortlist with Stamped From the Beginning, the latest from Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams (Music by Prudence; Life, Animated). Stamped, based on the nonfiction bestseller by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, untangles the origins of anti-Black racism and how it has manifested throughout American history, up to the present day.
Williams tells Deadline the success of his film on the Netflix platform, where it debuted in the top 10 in its opening week of release, and the shortlist recognition, offers hope that doc distributors will back more than just true crime and celeb-driven films.
“That’s a huge game-changing deal for documentary,” Williams said. “That’s contrary to what people are saying, that it’s hard to get a documentary that is serious and deals with an important social issue like racism — it’s hard to get that documentary made and seen. But when that happens, people watch it, and people pay attention and people realize how important it is.”
The shortlist recognition is particularly sweet for Stamped From the Beginning because the book that inspired it is one of the top targets of banning in the U.S., according to the American Library Association. Florida and South Carolina are among the states that have barred students from reading Stamped, as well as two other works by Dr. Kendi.
“The greatest thing, today, was when Dr. Kendi texted me, overjoyed and moved to tears,” Williams said. “This is a guy who just gets so much hate mail and death threats, and has to have security. And here he is, a film about his book shortlisted for the Oscars, and top 10 on Netflix. Just the message and the work and the response to it energizes me.”
Apolonia, Apolonia, despite having no U.S. distribution to date, made the shortlist cut today. The film directed by Lea Glob, from HBO Max Europe, won the international prize at IDFA last year and a major award at CPH:DOX earlier this year.
A Still Small Voice returns filmmaker Luke Lorentzen to the Oscar doc shortlist, a distinction earned by his previous documentary, Midnight Family. The film, about a hospital chaplain doing her year-long residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, is produced by Lorentzen and Kellen Quinn, the Oscar-nominated producer of Time. Read our piece about the film here.
Two films about the war in Ukraine earned their place on the shortlist – the aforementioned 20 Days in Mariupol (from Frontline), which documents the brutal siege of that port city in the opening days of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and In the Rearview, directed by Maciek Hamela, which centers on Ukrainian civilians fleeing the destruction wrought by Russia. Nearly the entirety of In the Rearview was shot within a minivan as Hamela, working as a volunteer, drove the very young, old and in between across the border to safety in Poland.
Hamela learned of making the Oscar shortlist in Warsaw, where he is based. “I’m thrilled at this distinction,” he told Deadline. “And I’m grateful for the honesty and bravery of all those who shared their stories with us during the evacuations. The power of their testimony speaks for itself.”
Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster made the shortlist with their HBO documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project, winner of the top prize for U.S. documentary at last January’s Sundance Film Festival. The winner of the top prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance, The Eternal Memory, also made the cut. That film, directed by Oscar nominee Maite Alberdi, tells the love story of two of Chile’s most prominent figures in the arts and media, Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s at the age of 62.
Nisha Pahuja’s To Kill a Tiger, one of the year’s most decorated films, also made the shortlist, as did Beyond Utopia, Madeleine Gavin’s documentary that exposes the hidden — and appalling — conditions of life for people in North Korea. Rounding out the feature shortlist, 32 Sounds, directed by Sam Green, continues in the hunt. His film “explores the elemental phenomenon of sound and its power to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.”
Turning to the Oscar short documentary shortlist, Ben Proudfoot continues in his quest for a third Academy Award nomination in the last four years with The Last Repair Shop, which he directed with Kris Bowers. The pair earned an Oscar nomination for their previous short, A Concerto Is a Conversation, and Proudfoot won the Academy Award for documentary short for his 2021 film The Queen of Basketball (excutive produced by Shaquille O’Neal and Stephen Curry, among others).
The Last Repair Shop uncovers the moving stories of a quartet of dedicated professionals who quietly keep musical instruments in good repair for tens of thousands of public school students in Los Angeles.
“I just got off a FaceTime with the music repair people,” Proudfoot told Deadline after the shortlist announcement, “and they were crying tears of joy. Nothing beats the feeling of people recognizing unsung heroes, and Kris [Bowers] and I are overwhelmed with gratitude and deeply honored to be included with so many remarkable and worthy short documentaries. Wow!”
Camp Courage, the Netflix short directed by Max Lowe, made the cut. Wings of Dust, the short directed by Giorgio Ghiotto that previously won the Student Academy Award, made the shortlist of 15 (culled from 114 eligible films).
And at the age of 84, doc legend Sheila Nevins remains in Oscar competition with her short film The ABCs of Book Banning, which marks her directorial debut. She has produced or executive produced hundreds of films over her unparalleled career, first with HBO Documentary Films and more recently with MTV Documentary Films. Nevins is one of the executive producers of Alberdi’s Oscar-shortlisted The Eternal Memory.
Oscar nomination voting it set to begin January 11, wrapping on January 16. The nominations for the 96th Academy Awards will be revealed on Tuesday, January 23. The 96th Oscars will take place Sunday, March 10 at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM
American Symphony
Apolonia, Apolonia
Beyond Utopia
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
In the Rearview
Stamped from the Beginning
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
A Still Small Voice
32 Sounds
To Kill a Tiger
20 Days in Mariupol
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Bear
Between Earth & Sky
Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games
Camp Courage
Deciding Vote
How We Get Free
If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis
Island in Between
The Last Repair Shop
Last Song from Kabul
Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó
Oasis
Wings of Dust
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