Netflix Is Back In The Documentary Race With A Slew Of Projects, But Competition Is Strong

deadline.com:

For three years, Netflix has gone without a Best Documentary Feature Oscar nomination for one its originals, a surprising dry spell for a streamer used to dominating the category.

But it looks like the drought is about to end. The platform has fielded an exceptional slate of contenders in 2024, many with a strong shot at making the Oscar Documentary Feature shortlist — the first step toward an Academy Award nomination.

The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, Daughters, Will & Harper, Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, Power, The Greatest Night in Pop, Martha, Skywalkers: A Love Story, Yintah — they all present a solid opportunity for Netflix to compete for the top documentary prize. “I feel very honored to be a part of this incredible slate of movies,” says Josh Greenbaum, director of Will & Harper, a kind of buddy comedy about the friendship between actor Will Ferrell and his pal Harper Steele, who came out as trans. “As a doc filmmaker, I applaud their support for our artform.

Our industry, by and large, is going through a change — not just the doc space, but the narrative space as well. And, so, to have a company like Netflix clearly show that they believe in nonfiction and believe in documentaries means the world to me as a filmmaker.