When the Oscar nominations were announced last month, it marked a watershed moment for the Documentary Feature category. All the nominated films focused on international subjects – stories from Uganda, Tunisia, Ukraine, India and Chile — and not a single American director was recognized.
Two prominent documentaries by major U.S. filmmakers were among the leading contenders that got snubbed: Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony, and Davis Guggenheim’s Still: A Michael J.
Fox Movie. A headline in a recent Variety piece described the doc community as “reeling” over the nominations. An unnamed documentary producer quoted in the article expressed deep concern over the lack of recognition for American filmmakers and said it was a “giant mistake” that the Documentary branch – which determines the nominees – “did not nominate some of the most successful and most beloved films of the year.” RELATED: Deadline Launches Streaming Site For Contenders Film: Documentary – Check Out All The Panels On the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we step into the debate over the Oscar documentary feature nominations.
Did the Doc branch get it right by nominating Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger, and 20 Days in Mariupol?
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