The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences released its documentary shortlists for the 98th Oscars on Tuesday, narrowing the field to 15 contenders in Documentary Feature Film and 15 in Documentary Short Film. The feature list ranges from war reporting and political portraits to intimate character studies, with shortlisted titles including “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” “Holding Liat,” “Mr. Nobody against Putin,” “My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 – Last Air in Moscow,” “Apocalypse in the Tropics” and “The Alabama Solution.”
Industry observers pointed to the list’s strong international reach and its emphasis on hard-edged real-world subjects rather than celebrity profiles that have crowded the marketplace in recent years. The same pattern shows up in the short-doc list, which includes “Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,” “All the Walls Came Down,” “Bad Hostage,” “Classroom 4,” “Perfectly a Strangeness” and “We Were the Scenery.”
The shortlists leave out several high-profile submissions that had circulated as likely players on the awards trail. Among the films that missed the documentary feature cut, according to documentary coverage and awards-watch reporting, were Raoul Peck’s “Orwell: 2+2=5” and Mariska Hargitay’s “My Mom Jayne.” Observers also noted “The Tale of Silyan” failing to surface in the documentary race while missing the international-feature shortlist, ending early talk of a rare cross-category run.
The Academy said 201 films were eligible for documentary feature consideration and 117 titles qualified for documentary short. Nominations voting runs Jan. 12-16, with nominations set for Jan. 22. The Oscars ceremony is scheduled for March 15 on ABC, hosted by Conan O’Brien.
One documentary did break out beyond the doc field: “Come See Me in the Good Light” landed on the documentary feature shortlist and has an original song (“Salt Then Sour Then Sweet”) advancing in the music race, giving the film a second lane into nomination morning.
