The documentary branch of the Academy is beginning to get as crazy with it’s random snubs as the music branch, I have to say. Today’s announcement of 15 eligible contenders for the Best Documentary Feature category revealed outright snubs of two of the most acclaimed hopefuls of the year — “Senna” and “The Interrupters” — while perhaps less surprisingly, Werner Herzog got the shaft once again for his best film in years, “Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life.”
Errol Morris was also shafted for “Tabloid” (which is embroiled in a lawsuit threat from subject Joyce McKinney), while other high-profile hopefuls like “Being Elmo: A Pupeteer’s Journey” and “Page One: Inside the New York Times” were also ignored.
Interestingly, Wim Wenders’s 3D Pina Bausch ode (and German selection for Best Foreign Language Film) “Pina” made the cut. So did “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” which slated a one-week theatrical qualifying run ahead of its HBO premiere expressly for the purposes of being in this discussion.
Check out the full list of advancing titles below.
“Battle for Brooklyn” (RUMER Inc.)
“Bill Cunningham New York” (First Thought Films)
“Buck” (Cedar Creek Productions)
“Hell and Back Again” (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
“If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
“Jane’s Journey” (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
“The Loving Story” (Augusta Films)
“Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” (@radical.media)
“Pina” (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
“Project Nim” (Red Box Films)
“Semper Fi: Always Faithful” (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
“Sing Your Song” (S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
“Undefeated” (Spitfire Pictures)
“Under Fire: Journalists in Combat” (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
“We Were Here” (Weissman Projects, LLC)
Feel free to offer up your predictions of how this will all shake out in the comments section below. We’ll finally start charting this category via the Contenders section as of next week’s update.
For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.
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