The Road to the Oscar Documentary Shortlist Requires More Than Just Money for Most

variety.com:

Addie Morfoot Contributor In the last several years, it has become glaringly obvious that garnering a coveted spot on the Oscar documentary feature shortlist requires quality filmmaking and, perhaps more important, a whole lot of money.If a film does not have both, the chances of making the 15-film shortlist is, arguably, near impossible.

But this year, streaming services like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple have turned the doc distribution landscape into a tiny arena that supports a handful of documentarians in their quest for the little gold man.

The number of filmmakers with streamer support is so small that docus that don’t have colossal award season campaign budgets have a shot at making this year’s shortlist, which will be announced on Dec.

21.In all, the Academy’s documentary branch has 167 feature-length films to choose from this year. The majority of those docus were either self-distributed or have a theatrical distributor with nominal awards season campaign budgets.