The final shorts category at the Oscars is documentary short. To be eligible for nomination, these films had to win at one of the qualifying film festivals. Continue reading Best Documentary Short
Tag: Best Documentary Short
Oscars 2016 – Best Documentary Short
Documentary short is a difficult category to gauge since most people don’t have any chances to check them out. This year there are two Netflix nominees so you can check out The White Helmets and Extremis and we’ve got your back with descriptions of each below!
Best Documentary Feature
A few of the topics of documentaries this year feel like they’ve been in the public consciousness so much, but we don’t know everything. Amy Winehouse has been talked about so much we feel like we know her, but after Amy you’ll realize just how much you had yet to hear. Of the nominees, it was the big box office success and has the best chance of winning here.
Luckily, Netflix has you covered with three of the nominees this year: Winter on Fire, What Happened Miss Simone, and Cartel Land.
Ukraine’s recent unrest in 2013-14 is detailed in Winter on Fire. RT 95%,
The Look of Silence chooses a personal study of an optician confronting the men who killed his brother in the Indonesian genocide. RT 96%.
The Mexico-America border has a big drug problem which Cartel Land hastens to investigate. RT 90%.
What Happened, Miss Simone? studies the legendary American musician Nina Simone. RT 83%, on Netflix.
Amy follows the short career of Winehouse using archival footage and interviews with those close to her. RT 96%, it’s interesting more for the subject matter than the routine delivery.
- Amy
- The Look of Silence
- Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom
- Cartel Land
- What Happened, Miss Simone?
Best Documentary Short
HBO is nominated three times this year, but they’re not the only powerful documentary shorts. Injustice and suffering is the prominent theme running through all five nominees, with few lighthearted breaks to relax and recoup. Pakistan’s A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness looks at honour killings, and the 1000+ women killed each year through the life of one woman who survived. This is also produced by HBO.
Last Day of Freedom is unique both in its delivery (somewhat a stream of consciousness storyline) and its style (beautifully drawn animation). Bill turned in his brother Manny, a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD, after Manny killed an elderly woman while experiencing flashbacks.
Chau, Beyond the Lines follows a Vietnamese teenager disabled by Agent Orange who lives in a child care facility and dreams of becoming an artist and clothing designer. Although he faces many obstacles and doubtful people, his story is one of inspiration and hope.
Body Team 12 is HBO’s documentary on Liberia’s ebola crisis. Told through the eyes of the only female member of the team collecting bodies, this short explores both the heartbreaking realities the team faces and their overwhelming strength.
Another HBO short, Claude Lanzmann explores the life and work of the French director. Known for his 1985 Holocaust documentary the Shoah, this short looks at his decision to investigate the tragedy and produce his own documentary.
Oscars 2015 — Documentary Short Film
As veterans issues are a big topic of the past few years, Crisis Hotline has a big chance to win, especially as it is the most moving and poignant of the five nominees.
- Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 is the heartbreaking story of the treatment American soldiers receive upon returning home. By following a few of the counsellors operating the 24 hour crisis line, we see the unknown trauma of veterans.
- Joanna follows a woman from the time she has cancer onwards as she lives her life in the small moments.
- Our Curse is another story of loss, this time of the director’s discovery that his newborn son has an incurable disease.
- White Earth focuses on themes of the American dream as an immigrant woman and her children travel to the Northern Plains in winter for work in the oil fields.
- The Reaper (La Parka) follows a man who has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years.
Oscars 2014 — Best Documentary Short
The Documentary Short category can be a difficult one to predict as most people don’t have the opportunity to see the nominees and we don’t get many other award shows as predictors. Each of the nominees focus on transformation this year. Both CaveDigger and Prison Terminal are strong contenders, but that isn’t to discount the powerful, emotional turns in Lady in Number 6 or Facing Fear. Karama seems to be a good companion piece to feature length documentary nomination The Square that focuses on the Egyptian revolution.
For all trailers, click the title of the documentary.
The Review Weekly 