Oscars: 15 Feature Documentaries Shortlisted

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced 15 films in the Documentary Feature category that will advance in the voting process for the 90th Academy Awards.

Notable titles include “Jane,” “Long Strange Trip,” “Chasing Coral” and “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power.”

The Academy’s Documentary Branch determined the shortlist in a preliminary round of voting from 170 films that were originally submitted. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Mitten Media, Motto Pictures, Kartemquin Educational Films and WGBH/FRONTLINE

“Chasing Coral,” Exposure Labs in partnership with The Ocean Agency & View Into the Blue in association with Argent Pictures & The Kendeda Fund

“City of Ghosts,” Our Time Projects and Jigsaw Productions

“Ex Libris – The New York Public Library,” Ex Libris Films

“Faces Places,” Ciné Tamaris

“Human Flow,” Participant Media and AC Films

“Icarus,” Netflix Documentary in association with Impact Partners, Diamond Docs, Chicago Media Project and Alex Productions

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” Paramount Pictures and Participant Media

“Jane,” National Geographic Studios in association with Public Road Productions

“LA 92,” Lightbox

“Last Men in Aleppo,” Larm Film

“Long Strange Trip,” Double E Pictures, AOMA Sunshine Films and Sikelia

“One of Us,” Loki Films

“Strong Island,” Yanceville Films and Louverture Films

“Unrest,” Shella Films and Little by Little Films

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” made the shortlist, 11 years after the original “An Inconvenient Truth” won the category for Davis Guggenheim. Both films starred former Vice President Al Gore. The original was a box office success with $50 million in worldwide grosses. Paramount and Participant gave “An Inconvenient Sequel” a July release with more than 500 North American locations and saw worldwide grosses reach $5.4 million.

Abramorama has generated $1.3 million in domestic grosses for “Jane,” which explores the work for anthropologist Jane Goodall. The National Board of Review gave “Jane” its top documentary award on Nov. 28.

“City of Ghosts,” “Faces Places,” “LA 92” and “Strong Island” are finalists for the International Documentary Association’s Best Feature Award, which will be announced Dec. 9.

This year’s winner in the category was “O.J.: Made in America” for Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow. The eight-hour documentary, the longest-running film ever nominated for an Oscar, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year, showed in limited qualifying theatrical runs in Los Angeles and New York before being broadcast as a five-part series on ABC and ESPN.

Less than two months after “O.J.: Made in America” won the Oscar, AMPAS barred multi-part and limited series from the best documentary feature category. Its announcement did not name “O.J. Made in America.”

“Chasing Coral” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and was released globally as a Netflix Original Documentary in July. The film won the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary at Sundance.

“Long Strange Trip,” a four-hour history of the Grateful Dead, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival and had a one-night nationwide screening on May 25 followed by a week-long limited theatrical release in New York and Los Angeles, resulting in a gross of $351,957 for Abramorama. The film became available for streaming on Amazon Video on June 2.

Besides “Chasing Coral,” Netflix also landed nominations for the sports doping movie “Icarus” and transgender filmmaker’s Yance Ford’s “Strong Island,” which explores the violent death of the filmmaker’s brother.

Prior to “O.J.: Made in America,” the previous four winners in the documentary category were “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom” and “Searching for Sugar Man.”

Nominations for the 90th Academy Awards will be announced on Jan. 23. The 90th Oscars will be held on March 4 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network.

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