144 Films Eligible for Best Documentary Feature for the 95th Oscars

by Nathaniel R

The Academy has revealed the list of Eligible films for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. There are 144 in total. Next week the Academy will vote in the preliminary round which will narrow down the titles to 15 (announced on December 21st, 2022) from which they'll choose 5 nominees (announced January 24th, 2023). In other words this month is the last hurrah (Oscar-wise) for 90% of the contenders. After the jump the full list, where you can see the films, and our reviews if we've done them...

144 ELIGIBLE FEATURES (links go to our reviews)
If a film is in bold it has been either been placed on the Doc NYC Shortlist, the Doc NYC Winners Circle, the Cinema Eye "Unforgettables", the IDA finals, or been nominated for the top documentary prize at either CCA, Gotham, Spirit, or EFA, eight notable precursor honors for documentary features. This is not to say that a film that hasn't received any of those honors can't make the finals. It can! But with those precursor notices, the films in bold have a (theoretical) advantage in terms of media coverage and reknown, which (again theoretically) leads to more interest and thus to Academy eyeballs and votes. 

We've also noted other awards wins or notes of interest beside the titles. Though the majority of the titles are available to rent, if they're streaming somewhere that's noted. 

ALL THAT BREATHES

• “Aftershock” HULU
• “All That Breathes” - Cannes Jury Prize, Gotham Winner, APSA Winner
• “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed”  -CURRENTLY IN THEATERS.  NYFCC winner, Venice Golden Lion. Director Laura Poitras is a two time nominee in this category, winning for Citizenfour (2014)
• “America Boxed In” 
• “Anonymous Club” 
• “Art & Krimes by Krimes” PARAMOUNT+
• “At Home Walking” 
• “The Automat” HBOMAX
• “Bad Axe” - SXSW Winner
• “The Balcony Movie”
• “Battleground”
• “Beba”  HULU
• “The Bengali” 
• “Bitterbrush” HULU
• “Black Ice” 
• “Black Notebooks – Ronit” 
• “Blue Island” 
• “The Book Keepers”
• “Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power” 
• “Breaking Bread”
• “Buried: The 1982 Alpine Meadows Avalanche”
• “Calendar Girls” 
• “The Camera of Doctor Morris” 
• “Cat Daddies”
• “The Cathedral” MUBI
• “Children of the Mist” 
• “Civil” 
• “Claydream” 
• “The Corridors of Power” - Director Dror Moreh was previously nominated in this category for The Gatekeepers (2012)
• “Cow” -AMC+  Director Andrea Arnold previously won an Oscar for the short film Wasp (2004)
• “The Day the Music Died: The Story of Don McLean’s American Pie” PARAMOUNT+
•  “Deep in the Heart: A Texas Wildlife Story”
•  “Descendant”  NETFLIX
•  “Disturbed Earth” 
• “Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel”
•  “Eami” 
• “The Eclipse” 
• “Eternal Spring” - also eligible for Best International Feature (Canada)
•  “The Exiles”
•  “Exposure” 
• “Fanny: The Right to Rock” 
• “Father”
•  “Fiddler’s Journey to the Big Screen” PARAMOUNT+
•  “Fire of Love” DISNEY+
• “Four Winters” 

FRAMING AGNES

• “Framing Agnes” 
• “Free Chol Soo Lee”
•  “Free Puppies!” 
• “Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” - Director Evgeny Afineevsky was previously nominated in this category for Winter on Fire: Ukraines Fight for Freedom (2015)
•  “From the Hood to the Holler”
•  “Gabby Giffords Won’t Back Down” Directors Julie Cohen & Betsy West were previously nominated in this category for RBG (2018)
•  “Gamestop: Rise of the Players” HULU
• “Girl, Taken” 
• “Good Night Oppy”  -AMAZON PRIME. Critics Choice Award Gold Medalist. Director Ryan White has previously been nominated for two Emmys for his documentaries The Case Against 8 (2014) and The Keepers (2017)
• “Gratitude Revealed” 
• “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song” - This was one of only three theatrically released documentary films of 2022 to crack $1 million at the US box office this year. The others were Moonage Daydream and Fire of Love
• “Hello, Bookstore” ROKU
• “Hidden Letters” 
• “Hold Your Fire” AMC+
• “A House Made of Splinters” 
• “How to Survive a Pandemic” -HBOMAX. Director David France was previously nominated in this category for the masterful AIDS doc How to Survive a Plague (2012)
•  “The Human Trial” 
• “I Am Here” FREEVEE
• “I Didn’t See You There”
•  “I’m Wanita”
•  “In Her Hands” NETFLIX
•  “Invisible Demons” MUBI
•  “Is That Black Enough for You?!?” NETFLIX

THE JANES

•  “The Janes” - HBOMAX. Co-director Tia Lessin was previously nominated in this category for the astounding Hurricane Katrina doc Trouble the Water (2008)
•  “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story”
• “Katrina Babies” HBOMAX.
• “Keep Stepping”
•  “Killing Me Softly with His Songs”
•  “Las Hostilidades” 
• “Last Flight Home” PARAMOUNT+
•  “The Last of the Winthrops”
•  “Leave No Trace” HULU
•  “Let Me Be Me” 
• “Let the Little Light Shine” 
• “Life & Life”
•  “Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege” 
• “Look at Me: XXXtentacion” HULU
•  “Loudmouth”
•  “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” 
• “Loving Highsmith” 
• “Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power” 
• “Master of Light” - HBOMAX. San Francisco International Film Festival Winner
• “Midwives” 
• “Mija”
•  “Mr Landsbergis” 
• “Moonage Daydream” The biggest documentary box office hit of 2022, making $12 million in global release. Director Brett Morgen was previously nominated in this category for On the Ropes (1999)
• “Motherland” 
• “My Old School” HULU
• “Myanmar Diaries”
•  “Navalny” - HBOMAX. Sundance Audience Award Winner
•  “Nelly & Nadine”
•  “The New Abolitionists” 
• “Nothing Compares ” SHOWTIME
• “Nothing Lasts Forever” 
• “Oleg” 
• “Only in Theaters”
•  “Our American Family” FUBO
• “Out of Breath” 
• “The Princess”
•  “Project Iceman”
•  “Punch 9 for Harold Washington” 
• “The Quiet Epidemic” 

RETROGRADE

• “Retrograde” Director Matthew Heineman was previously nominated in this category for Cartel Land (2015)
• “The Return of Tanya Tucker - Featuring Brandi Carlile”
•  “Riotsville, U.S.A.” 
• “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams” - Director Luca Guadagnino was previously nominated for Oscar for producing Call Me By Your Name (2017)
•  “Sansón and Me”
•  “2nd Chance” -Director Ramin Bahrini was previously nominated for an Oscar for writing The White Tiger (2021)
• “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me” APPLETV+
• “Send Me” FREEVEE
•  ““Sr.”” NETFLIX
•  “752 Is Not a Number”
•  “Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic” 
• “Sidney” - APPLETV+ Director Reginald Hudlin was previously nominated for an Oscar for producing Django Unchained (2012)
•  “The Silence of the Mole” - Also Eligible for Best International Feature (Guatemala)
•  “Sirens” 
• “Souls in Transit” 
• “A Star without a Star”
•  “The Story Won’t Die” TUBI
•  “Stutz” NETFLIX
• “Surviving Sex Trafficking” 
• “Tantura” 

THE TERRITORY

• “The Territory” DISNEY+
•  “Three Minutes: A Lengthening ” 
• “Tiger 24” 
• “To the End” 
• “Trenches” 
• “Turn Every Page – The Adventures of Robert Caro and Robert Gottlieb”
•  “The Unredacted (Jihad Rehab)” 
• “Users”
• “¡Viva Maestro!” HBOMAX
• “The Voice of Dust and Ash”
•  “The Volcano: Rescue from Whakaari” NETFLIX ON DECEMBER 15TH
•  “We Are Art Through the Eyes of Annalaura”
•  “What We Leave Behind” NETFLIX
•  “Wildcat” 
• “The Will to See” 
• “The Wind Blows the Border” 
• “Young Plato”

UPDATED OSCAR CHART FOR THIS CATEGORY

Comments

[MJS]

Surprised to see "The Cathedral" on there. I was under the impression that was a scripted film. Neither Wikipedia nor IMDB list it as a documentary and it appears to have a full cast of actors playing roles.

[Kris]

I did reveal the list already in one of the comments here a week ago or so...also the short docs list.

The Cathedral is a documentary..check the credits here: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19799096/reference/

[NATHANIEL R]

Kris -- which post was that on? The Academy has not announced the short docs but i'd love to get a peek beause knowing in advance helps coverage a lot (it sucks that they wait so long or dont' reveal the longlists at all anymore)

[MJS]

@Kris. Ah, I thought they were talking about this other movie that is streaming on MUBI and was nominated for some spirit awards and Gothams https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13658076/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

[Cláudio Alves]

EAMI is also Paraguay's official oscar submission in the Best International Film race.

[Kris]

The lists are under Glenn's doc post on 24th of November