Oscar Shortlist: Last News

Big outlets like HBO Documentary Films, Neon, and National Geographic dominate the Oscar documentary feature shortlist this year. But a few films without major backers managed to make it through, including one film with no American distributor at all – Simon Lereng Wilmont’s A House Made of Splinters.

Addie Morfoot ContributorIn the past decade, the inclusion of streaming services in the documentary market has made it increasingly harder for smaller docus struggling with funding to break into the nonfiction feature Oscar race. But in spite of the deep pockets they are up against, a number of cash-strapped docs inevitably make it onto the shortlist every year. This year was no exception.Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi” (Janus Films, pictured above), Camilla Nielsson’s “President” (Greenwich Entertainment) and Sushmit Ghosh and Rintu Thomas’ “Writing with Fire” (Music Box Films) are three films on this year’s feature doc shortlist that are up against competitors with multi-million-dollar campaign budgets being paid by media and tech conglomerates including Apple, Netflix, ViacomCBS, the Walt Disney Co.

Paramount+ Buys Oasis Concert Doc

‘The Rig’ First Look Up top is your first look at Amazon Prime Video’s upcoming series The Rig, which shot in Scotland this year. The show stars Iain Glen, Emily Hampshire and Martin Compston as the crew of the Kinloch Bravo oil rig stationed off the Scottish coast in the dangerous waters of the North Sea. When they are due to be collected and return to the mainland a mysterious and all-enveloping fog rolls through, cutting them off from the outside world. The series was created by David Macpherson and directed by John Strickland; Amazon will release in 2022.