15 Documentary Features Advance in Oscar race

The year’s best documentaries – Ken Burns, The Central Park Five doc, Queen of Versailles, Samsara, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and West of Memphis shut out of the Oscar race. That is mind-blowing. The new rules were supposed to stop this kind of assfuckery from happening. I remain astounded. Then again, they always have their weird ways of doing things and can’t be predicted. They seem to always resent it when others try to predict what they will or won’t do. This, I have to say, is a NEW LOW.  It’s a terrible thing, too, to have the Central Park Five win the New York Film Critics the same day AMPAS releases its 15 finalists:

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies:

• “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry,” Never Sorry LLC
• “Bully,” The Bully Project LLC
• “Chasing Ice,” Exposure
• “Detropia,” Loki Films
• “Ethel,” Moxie Firecracker Films
• “5 Broken Cameras,” Guy DVD Films
• “The Gatekeepers,” Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil
• “The House I Live In,” Charlotte Street Films, LLC
• “How to Survive a Plague,” How to Survive a Plague LLC
• “The Imposter,” Imposter Pictures Ltd.
• “The Invisible War,” Chain Camera Pictures
• “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God,” Jigsaw Productions in association with
• Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films
• “Searching for Sugar Man,” Red Box Films
• “This Is Not a Film,” Wide Management
• “The Waiting Room,” Open’hood, Inc.

The Documentary Branch viewed the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 85th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 10, 2013, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.