Academy Awards

Academy Awards

Documentaries nominated or shortlisted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
THE ETERNAL MEMORY
2024 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Winner of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary Cinema, The Eternal Memory is directed by the first Chilean woman to be nominated for an Academy Award, Maite Alberdi (The Mole Agent). The documentary tells a profound and moving love story that balances vibrant individual and collective remembrance with the longevity of an unbreakable human bond. 
THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING
THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING
2024 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short. Over 2,000 books have been removed from school districts in the U.S. The ABCs of Book Banning, directed by Sheila Nevins in her inaugural debut, follows the human toll the future will pay for depriving children of their right to read and learn about a complex world. Interviews with children and authors shed light on this ongoing dangerous precedent.
ASCENSION
ASCENSION
2022 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature. Nominated for Best Documentary by the Director's Guild, Producer's Guild, Independent Spirit Awards, and Gotham Awards, and winner of Best Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival, Ascension explores the paradoxical pursuit of wealth and progress in China. This extraordinary documentary follows factory workers, middle class consumers and elites as they chase the elusive "Chinese Dream.”
76 DAYS
76 DAYS
On January 23rd, 2020, China locked down Wuhan, a city of 11 million, to combat the emerging COVID-19 outbreak. Set deep inside the frontlines of the crisis in four hospitals, 76 Days tells indelible human stories at the center of this pandemic. These raw and intimate stories bear witness to the death and rebirth of a city under a 76-day lockdown, and to the human resilience that persists in times of profound tragedy.
LYNCHING POSTCARDS: TOKEN OF A GREAT DAY
LYNCHING POSTCARDS: TOKEN OF A GREAT DAY
From 1880 to 1968, over 4000 African Americans were lynched in the United States. Like picnics or parties, lynchings were often carnival-like events commemorated through photos and postcards. This film tells the story of how Black activists subverted these souvenirs, which were celebrations of white supremacy, in the fight against lynching.
ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN
ST. LOUIS SUPERMAN
2020 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject. Bruce Franks Jr., a Ferguson activist and battle rapper who was elected to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives, must overcome both personal trauma and political obstacles to pass a bill critical for his community.
CODED: THE HIDDEN LOVE OF J.C. LEYENDECKER
CODED: THE HIDDEN LOVE OF J.C. LEYENDECKER
J.C. Leyendecker was one of the most prominent artists of his time, but his story is largely forgotten. Forced to keep his sexuality a secret, his coded imagery spoke directly to the gay community and laid the foundation for LGBTQ+ representation in advertising today.
HUNGER WARD
HUNGER WARD
2021 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject. Filmed inside two of the most active therapeutic feeding centers in conflict-ridden Yemen, Hunger Ward documents two women fighting to thwart the spread of starvation against the backdrop of a forgotten war. With unprecedented access within a sensitive conflict-zone, the documentary reveals the bravery of deeply committed doctors working in the middle of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
HYSTERICAL GIRL
HYSTERICAL GIRL
In 1900, Sigmund Freud began treating a 17-year old girl he called "Dora." Her parents brought her to therapy after she accused a family friend of sexual assault. Freud's account of his sessions with Dora was the only major case history he published of a female patient. Intercutting his published text with a scripted version told from Dora's point of view, Hysterical Girl, from the acclaimed director of The Gospel According to André, revisits this landmark case.
IN THE ABSENCE
IN THE ABSENCE
2020 Academy Award Nominee Best Documentary Short Subject. When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice. This acclaimed documentary combines intimate interviews with archival footage and audio recordings for an investigation into a tragic incident which ultimately led to the impeachment and imprisonment of the country's president.
HEAVEN IS A TRAFFIC JAM ON THE 405
HEAVEN IS A TRAFFIC JAM ON THE 405
2018 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary Short Subject, Heaven is an extraordinary documentary, a portrait of artist Mindy Alper, whose astonishing body of work – drawings and sculptures of powerful psychological clarity – reveals a lifetime of struggle with debilitating mental illness.
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
LAST MEN IN ALEPPO
2018 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Syrian filmmaker Feras Fayyad’s breathtaking work – a searing example of boots-on-the-ground reportage – follows the efforts of the internationally recognized White Helmets; ordinary citizens who are the first to rush towards military strikes in the hope of saving lives.
STARTING POINT
STARTING POINT
A pilot program in which female prisoners work at a nursing home for the elderly and disabled while serving out their sentences.
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM
LAST DAY OF FREEDOM
2016 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Short Subject, an extraordinary, animated documentary exploring some of the most pressing social issues of our day - racial bias, veteran’s care, mental health and criminal justice.
MINERITA
MINERITA
An acclaimed, award winning documentary about the women of a remote mining town in Bolivia where life above ground is just as dangerous as below.