A Record 240 Documentary Features Eligible – are Five Slots Still Enough?

Steve Pond over at The Wrap runs down the record breaking number of 240 Oscar docs for contention. And how voters will be assigned to various films to make sure all of them are seen in time:

The Oscars Best Documentary Feature race, which set a new record for entries in December when it passed the previous record of 170, has now left all previous years in the dust with 240 eligible films.

An additional 25 documentary features were placed in the members-only online screening room devoted to the category on Saturday, in what the Academy told voters would be “the final batch” of this year’s entries. It was the last of seven groups of documentaries that qualified and were placed into the screening room: 25 in July, 12 in August, 16 in September, 33 in October, 36 in November, a huge group of 93 in December and now 25 in January.

This massive, unfathomable number will be winnowed down to a short list of 15 during the first round of voting from February 1 through 5.

There are always a massive amount of submissions for both Documentary and International Feature. Perhaps it’s time to rethink these categories a bit.

Here is my proposal to the Academy for the Doc Feature category – make a whole separate Oscars for nonfiction film. The Documentary Oscars could have film nominated in separate categories even – politics, biography, etc. Screenplays, directors, cinematography, editing The industry is exploding. There is no other word for it and why not find a way to expand or maximize the abundance of films on offer. Five is not adequate to meet the output.

This would be a bit like the Sci-Tech awards but really could even expand to include categories that are different mediums than film. After all, technology, how we capture ourselves, how we showcase ourselves, how we make films is changing. For instance, there could be a whole category for new mediums for non-fiction films. I’m thinking about movies made on the fly that go “viral” but tell a truth not captured anywhere else. I’m thinking about PSAs and Youtube. Yes, it’s probably not exactly feature film level but once the Documentary category detaches from the Oscars they can do anything they want and they can modernize along with a changing culture. Just a thought!

I’m reposting Steve’s list of the 240, and he puts an asterisk next to the films in the last batch in January — I will bold any doc I’ve heard anything about or seen myself but I really need to see more asap:

“Acasa, My Home”
“Addicted to Ralphie” *
“Aggie”
“All I Can Say”
“All In: The Fight for Democracy”
“The American Sector”
“American Selfie: One Nation Shoots Itself”
“America’s Forgotten”
“The Antidote”
“Apocalypse ’45”
“The Art of Living in Danger” *
“The Art of Political Murder”
“Assassins”
“Aswang” *
“Athlete A”
“Babenco – Tell Me When I Die”
“Be Water”
“Beastie Boys Story”
“Beautiful Something Left Behind”
“Becoming”
“Bedlam”
“Belly of the Beast”
“Belushi”
“Beyond the Visible: Hilma Af Klint”
“The Big Scary ‘S’ Word” *
“Billie”
“Black Boys”
“Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets”
“The Booksellers”
“Born to Be”
“Boys State”
“Bulletproof”
“Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn”
“Capital in the Twenty-First Century”
“Chicago: America’s Hidden War” *
“Childhood 2.0”
“Chuck Berry”
“Circus of Books”
“City Dream”
“City Hall”
“Coded Bias”
“Collective”
“Colombia in My Arms”
“Coming Clean”
“Coronation”
“Coup 53”
“Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words”
“Creem: America’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll Magazine”
“Crip Camp”
“Crock of Gold – A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan”
“The Curve”
“Dads”
“Dave Grusin: Not Enough Time”
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
“Days of Cannibalism”
“Dear Santa”
“Death Protocol” *
“Descent”
“Desert One”
“Diana Kennedy: Nothing Special”
“Dick Johnson Is Dead”
“Disclosure”
“The Dissident”
“The Dog Doc”
“The Donut King”
“Dope Is Death”
“Down a Dark Stairwell”
“Downstream to Kinshasa”
“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”
“Elementa”
“Ending Disease” *
“Epicentro”
“Erased, ____ Ascent of the Individual”
“Escape From Extinction”
“Everybody Flies”
“F11 and Be There”
“Fandango at the Wall”
“Father Soldier Son”
“Feels Good Man”
“The Fight”
“Find Your Groove”
“Finding Yingying”
“Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds”
“First Vote”
“First We Eat” *
“Flannery”
“For They Know Not What They Do”
“The Forbidden Reel”
“40 Years a Prisoner”
“The Ghost of Peter Sellers”
“Giving Voice”
“A Glitch in the Matrix” *
“Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb”
“Freedia Got a Gun”
“The Go-Go’s”
“Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind”
“Gunda”
“Harry Chapin: When in Doubt, Do Something”
“He Dreams of Giants” *
“House of Cardin”
“The Human Factor”
“Human Nature”
“I Am Greta”
“I Am Not Alone”
“I Owe You a Letter About Brazil”
“iHuman”
“In My Skin” *
“Indian Space Dreams”
“Influence”
“Irmi”
“The Infiltrators”
“(In)visible Portraits”
“Irradies (Irradiated)”
“Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President”
“John Lewis: Good Trouble”
“Journey to Royal: A WWII Rescue Mission” *
“Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl”
“A Kid from Coney Island”
“Kingdom of Silence”
“Kings of Capitol Hill”
“Kiss the Ground”
“La Madrina: The (Savage) Life of Lorine Padina”
“Lance”
“Landfall”
“The Last Blockbuster”
“Last Call for Tomorrow”
“Lennox: The Untold Story” *
“Lessons of Love”
“The Letter”
“Libelu – Down With the Dictatorship”
“Life Is Deadly”
“Lift Like a Girl”
“Lost Course”
“Lost in Face”
“The Lost Paradise”
“Love Child”
“Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art”
“Man in the Arena”
“Martin Margiela: In His Own Words”
“Mayor”
“Mighty Ira”
“Miss Americana”
“MLK/FBI”
“The Mole Agent”
“The Monster Inside Me”
“A Most Beautiful Thing”
“Mother to Earth: The Untold Story of Earth Bound”
“Mr. Soul!”
“Mucho Mucho Amor: The Legend of Walter Mercado”
“Music Got Me Here”
“My Darling Vivian”
“My Darling Supermarket”
“My Octopus Teacher”
“My People: The Jews of Greece”
“My Psychedelic Love Story”
“My Rembrandt”
“Napoli Eden”
“Narciso Em Ferias”
“Nasrin”
“The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel”
“9/11 Kids”
“915” *
“9to5: The Story of a Movement”
“Notturno”
“Oliver Sacks: His Own Life”
“Olympia”
“On the Record”
“Once Upon a Time in Venezuela”
“Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band”
“Ottolenghi and the Cakes of Versailles”
“Our Time Machine”
“Pahokee”
“The Painter and the Thief”
“A Pandemic: Away From the Motherland”
“The Phenomenon”
“Planet of the Humans”
“The Plot Against the President” *
“The Pollinators”
“The Power of Movement”
“Pray: The Story of Patrick Peyton”
“Public Trust” *
“Queen of Hearts: Audrey Flack”
“The Reason I Jump”
“Rebuilding Paradise”
“Red Penguins”
“Reunited”
“Rewind”
“The Right Girls” *
“Ringside”
“Rising Phoenix”
“River City Drumbeat”
“River Tales”
“Runner” *
“Searching for Mr. Rugoff”
“Self Portrait”
“17 Blocks the Final Cut”
“76 Days”
“Sky Blossom”
“Slay the Dragon”
“The Social Dilemma”
“Softie”
“Some Kind of Heaven”
“Songs of Repression”
“Soros”
“Spaceship Earth”
“Stars and Strife”
“The State of Texas vs. Melissa”
“Stray”
“Strip Down, Rise Up”
“System K”
“They Call Me Babu” *
“This Is Not a Movie”
“This Is Paris” *
“A Thousand Cuts”
“Through the Night”
“Time”
“The Times of Bill Cunningham” *
“Totally Under Control”
“Transhood”
“The Truffle Hunters”
“Trust Me” *
“Uncle Tom” *
“#Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump”
“Us Kids”
“The Walrus and the Whistleblower”
“The Way I See It”
“WBCN and the American Revolution”
“We Are the Radical Monarchs”
“We Don’t Deserve Dogs”
“Welcome to Chechnya”
“White Noise”
“Who Is Gatsby Randolph” *
“Wild Daze”
“Wim Wenders, Desperado”
“With Drawn Arms”
“A Woman’s Work: The NFL’s Cheerleader Problem” *
“Women in Blue”
“You Cannot Kill David Arquette”
“Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”
“Zappa”