Best Documentary has been narrowed to a shortlist of 15 films. Raises my chances of not screwing this up, right?
- City of Ghosts
- Faces Places
- Icarus
- Jane
- Strong Island
- An Inconvenient Sequel
- Ex Libris: The New York Public Library
- LA 92
- Last Men in Aleppo
Jane and Faces Places have perhaps the most buzz at this point in awards season. If I had to put money on it now, I would say Agnes Varda’s Faces Places will win the award. City of Ghosts would be my upset pick.
Icarus and Strong Island are both Netflix properties, and I have this feeling that only one of the two will get in. But both are quite good docs, so I don’t know which to focus on. Not to mention…I haven’t seen many of the other candidates, so I don’t know how to stack them up.
An Inconvenient Truth won this award in 2007. That film also was much more acclaimed than Al Gore’s follow-up. All the same, it is a political film in a highly politicized time, so it could conceivably get a nomination.
And this seems an unlikely choice, but I can’t not bring it up. Legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman released a film in 2017 that was a three hour and 20 minute exploration of the New York Public Library. Seriously. A long-shot choice, yeah, but did I mention legendary documentarian? One that has never been nominated for an Oscar before, at that.
As always, thanks for reading!
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—Alex Brannan (@TheAlexBrannan)
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