Wednesday, December 02, 2015

Oscars: 15 Documentary Features Make Shortlist

Oscars: 15 Documentary Features Make Shortlist. The Academy announced the 15 films that have been shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature of 2015. The list is below. I've seen the ones in bold:

  • Amy - Really good doc about Amy Winehouse 4/5
  • Best of Enemies - about the Buckley/Vidal debates and I feel like I saw something about that on cable recently, but I can't figure out if it was this.
  • Cartel Land - The half about a doctor in Mexico leading uprising against the cartels is really great, the other half about US citizens patroling the US border looking for smugglers isn't as strong. 4/5
  • Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief - Exposing the cult for what it is 4/5
  • He Named Me Malala
  • Heart of a Dog
  • The Hunting Ground
  • Listen to Me Marlon
  • The Look of Silence - Astounding companion piece to The Act of Killing 5/5
  • Meru
  • 3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets - This is on HBO this month
  • We Come As Friends
  • What Happened, Miss Simone?
  • Where to Invade Next - Michael Moore picks successful policy ideas from European countries to bring back to the US 3/5
  • Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

Also, there's no doubt that Call Me Lucky was robbed. It's one of the best films I've seen this year. I also really liked Finders Keepers and Welcome to Leith.

2 comments:

Ryan said...

I agree that "Call Me Lucky" was robbed. Great movie. If you are interested in a follow-up to the movie, Barry Crimmins is appearing at Johnny D's later this month - http://johnnyds.tunestub.com/event.cfm?id=219463 - Unfortunately, I'm going to be out of town.

I saw "What Happened Miss Simone?" on Netflix. It was well done and Nina Simone's story is fascinating but I always cringe when I see scenes with documentary "recreations".

Howard said...

I'm going to miss Crimmins too, fortunately I saw him at IFFBoston.