Director Eden Wurmfeld And E.P. Edward Norton On Why Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Classroom 4’ Brings People To Tears Professor Reiko Hillyer has taught at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, OR for over 20 years, but it’s a course she conducts away from campus that has put her at the center of an award-winning documentary, the Oscar-shortlisted short film Classroom 4. The classroom of the title is located within the walls of Columbia […]

Oscar-Shortlisted ‘All The Empty Rooms’ Shows The Spaces Left Behind By School Shootings Purple hair ties stretched over a door handle. SpongeBob plush toys arranged neatly on a bed. Unicorn figurines, a Champion brand hoodie, charm bracelets, seashells. These are some of the items left behind in the bedrooms of children killed in school shootings in the United States. Parents of these murdered children cannot bear to tamper […]

Soundtrack Releases For Oscar-Shortlisted ‘Yanuni,’ Documentary On Extraordinary Indigenous Leader From Director Richard Ladkani, Producer Leonardo DiCaprio EXCLUSIVE: The stirring soundtrack to Oscar-shortlisted documentary Yanuni, recorded on three continents, will be released on major music streaming platforms on Wednesday, including Spotify and Apple Music. The soundtrack is composed by H. Scott Salinas with the support of Argentinian composer Tomás Videla, in collaboration with Indigenous leader and musician Eric Terena, an executive producer […]

Three Netflix Titles Plus An ‘Undesirable’ Film Make Oscar Doc Feature Shortlist, But Mariska Hargitay, NatGeo’s ‘Silyan’ Snubbed Netflix and filmmaker Geeta Gandbhir scored big as the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature was released this morning. Netflix landed three films on the shortlist of documentaries that will continue in the race for an Oscar nomination: The Perfect Neighbor, directed by Geeta Gandbhir; Cover-Up, directed by Oscar winner Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus; […]

Changing Lives With Needle & Ink: Oscar Contender ‘They Call Me The Tattoo Witch’ Profiles Woman Who Transforms Scars Into Body Art There are tattoo artists, and then there is Tran Ngoc. What makes the woman from Hanoi, Vietnam so unique, apart from her talent, is her canvas: she has become known in her country for crafting tattoos around scars on the bodies of her clients. Ngoc’s work is explored in the Oscar-contending short documentary They Call […]

Arc Of A Diver: Oscar Contender ‘Voices From The Abyss’ Captures Brave Souls Who Hurl Themselves From Mexico’s La Quebrada Cliffs One by one, they ascend the craggy peaks, barefoot, gingerly searching for toeholds. Once they reach a suitable perch, they hurl themselves into the air before gravity pulls them to the turbulent ocean below. These are the famous La Quebrada Cliff Divers of Acapulco, known for their daring maneuvers, performed from heights that can equal […]

‘Exodus,’ Oscar Contender About Two Women Released From Long Prison Terms, Asks “What Comes After Freedom?” The Oscar-contending short documentary Exodus, directed by Nimco Sheikhaden, follows two women “endlessly plagued by their past, even as they fiercely seek to rebuild their future.” The women — Trinity Copeland and Assia Serrano – were both incarcerated in New York state for more than 20 years between them for crimes indelibly linked to abuse […]

In Oscar Contender ‘Sallie’s Ashes,’ Three “Alabama Grannies” Take On State’s Most Powerful Company In Urgent Battle Sarah Smith, known as Sallie, was facing very serious illness when she took on the single most powerful institution in her home state of Alabama – the electric utility Alabama Power. As her last act in life, she made it her mission to get the company to do something about a potential environmental catastrophe: coal […]

Oscar-Contending Short ‘Perfectly A Strangeness’ Takes Audience To Desert Terrain Of Donkeys And Cosmic Observatories One of the most cinematic documentaries of the year comes in short form, with no dialogue. Alison McAlpine’s Oscar contender perfectly a strangeness, winner of more than a dozen awards at film festivals around the world, runs a spare 15 minutes. “I wanted to tell a tall tale without any dialogue,” McAlpine tells Deadline, “and […]

Oscar Contender ‘Norita’ Explores Courageous Woman Who Turned Tragedy Into Triumph Over Military Dictatorship Diminutive Norita Cortiñas stood less than 5 feet tall — about a foot shorter than Argentina’s dictator, Gen. Jorge Videla, who ruled the country from 1976-1981. But in terms of moral stature, Cortiñas towered over Videla and his blood-soaked military junta. Nora Irma Morales de Cortiñas, or Norita as she was known, rose to prominence […]

Doc Talk Podcast At The IDA Documentary Awards: Hear From Winners Tamara Kotevska, Petra Costa, Brittany Shyne And More Today’s announcement of the documentary nominees for the Producers Guild of America Awards has given another lift to Oscar contender The Tale of Silyan, the National Geographic film that’s also representing North Macedonia in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category. Silyan, directed by Tamara Kotevska, was among seven nonfiction features to make the PGA nominations cut. And […]

Hottest Documentary Going Into Oscar Shortlist Voting? Arguably, It’s Mammoth ‘My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air In Moscow’ Julia Loktev’s documentary My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow enters Oscar shortlist voting with incredible momentum. On Sunday, the film was named Best Documentary/Nonfiction film by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, just days after it won Best Documentary Film at the Gotham Awards and Best Non-Fiction Film at the New […]

Oscar-Contending Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Doc ‘The Age Of Disclosure’ Becomes VOD Phenomenon, Outperforming ‘One Battle After Another’ & More EXCLUSIVE: The Age of Disclosure, Dan Farah’s explosive documentary that makes a potent case for the existence of Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena and the U.S. government’s alleged efforts to conceal that knowledge, is off to a tremendous start on VOD, boosting the film’s underdog bid for Oscar recognition. Within 48 hours of the film’s release on […]

‘The Tale Of Silyan,’ ‘Apocalypse In The Tropics’ Earn Top Prizes At IDA Documentary Awards, Boosting Oscar Chances – Full Winners List National Geographic’s The Tale of Silyan won Best Feature Documentary at the 41st Annual IDA Documentary Awards in Los Angeles today, significantly boosting its already promising bid for Oscar recognition. The film directed by Oscar nominee Tamara Kotevska (Honeyland) bested fellow nominees Apocalypse in the Tropics, Life After, Seeds, and Songs of Slow Burning Earth. […]

Amy Berg’s ‘It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley’ Becomes A Box Office Hit En Route To Oscar Contention It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley, Amy Berg’s Oscar-contending documentary about the late musician and singer, has become something of a box office phenomenon even before it opens theatrically abroad. The film distributed by Magnolia Pictures in the U.S. has earned nearly $1.5 million so far, virtual all of it at domestic theaters. “I think this […]

Doc Talk Podcast With Trio Of Top Oscar Contenders ‘The Tale Of Silyan’, ‘Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk’ & ‘Cover-Up’ When Oscar doc branch members prepare to cast their ballots for the shortlists beginning Monday, they will have a record-breaking 201 feature documentaries to choose from. By the time votes are tabulated, that list will have been culled to a mere 15 finalists with a shot at an Oscar nomination. On today’s edition of Deadline’s […]

Starting With Zero Money, She Amassed One Of World’s Greatest Art Collections. Oscar Contender ‘The Art Whisperer’ Explores Remarkable Ginny Williams Louise Bourgeois, Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Joan Mitchell and more – some of the greatest artists of recent times owe something to one person, art collector Ginny Williams. Before the art establishment recognized the talent of these women, Williams discerned it and bought their work. Eventually, her taste became so renowned […]

‘All The Empty Rooms’ Trailer: Joshua Seftel’s Netflix Film Documents Void Left By Innocent Victims Of School Shootings EXCLUSIVE: More than 200 children have been killed in school shootings in the U.S. since 1999, according to the nonprofit Brady group. That devastating reality underpins the Academy Award-contending documentary short All the Empty Rooms, directed by Joshua Seftel (Oscar nominated for 2023’s Stranger at the Gate), which peers into the void left by the […]

‘My Undesirable Friends’ Wins Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award, Besting Other Top Oscar Contenders EXCLUSIVE: Julia Loktev’s epic My Undesirable Friends: Part I – Last Air in Moscow has won the 2025 Indie Film Site Network Advocate Award, strengthening its bid for Academy Award recognition. The IFSN awards, created to “highlight independent films each year that illuminate a humanitarian issue with a singular artistic vision,” comes with a singular […]

‘Suburban Fury,’ Award-Winning Doc About Would-Be Presidential Assassin Sara Jane Moore, To Get Oscar-Qualifying Release, National Theatrical Rollout EXCLUSIVE: Argot Pictures will distribute Robinson Devor’s award-winning documentary Suburban Fury, qualifying the film for Oscar consideration ahead of a national rollout. The distribution plan will have the documentary play at Alamo Drafthouse in Lower Manhattan from December 12-18, before a 2026 theatrical release across the country and at museums. The film, which won the […]

He Was Frozen In Place, Conscious But Unable To Communicate. Remarkable Story Of Martin Pistorius Told In Oscar-Contending Doc ‘Ghost Boy’ EXCLUSIVE: For years, a boy named Martin Pistorius lived in a kind of waking coma, “conscious but unable to move or speak… Surrounded by people but unable to reach them.” Eventually, when he was in his late teens, a caregiver noticed Pistorius could respond to her words with his eyes, opening the possibility to communicate […]

The New Yorker Acquires ‘Rovina’s Choice,’ Documentary On “Gut-Punch Reality” Of Pres. Trump’s Decision To Kill Life-Saving Foreign Aid EXCLUSIVE: The New Yorker has acquired Rovina’s...

#Acquisitions #Documentary #News #Annie #Wong #Atul #Gwande #awardsdoc […]

[Original post on deadline.com]

Grasshopper Film Acquires Oscar Contender ‘I’m Not Everything I Want To Be; Watch Trailer For Doc About Incredible Czech Photographer EXCLUSIVE: Grasshopper Film has acquired U.S. rights to I’m Not Everything I Want To Be, the award-winning documentary about Czech photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková that’s contending for Oscars in multiple categories. Klára Tasovská’s film won two awards at the Czech Lions (the Czech Republic’s equivalent of the Academy Awards), including Best Documentary and Best Editing. It […]

Oscar-Contending Doc ‘WTO/99,’ About Massive Street Protests In Seattle Against World Trade Organization, Announces Self-Distribution Plan EXCLUSIVE: The award-winning documentary WTO/99 has revealed a self-distribution plan that will see the film open December 5 for a week-long run at DCTV’S Firehouse Cinema in New York City. The engagement will qualify the film, directed by Ian Bell and produced by Alex Megaro, for Oscar consideration. The documentary immerses audiences in the pulse-pounding […]

Oscar-Contending Documentary ‘Always’ On A Roll After Festival Wins in Camden, Copenhagen, Tirana The documentary Always (从来) is racking up awards at festivals, announcing itself as an Oscar contender despite a lack of theatrical distribution. The film directed by Deming Chen and produced by Hansen Lin, built around poetry of unexpected power and poignancy written by a Chinese schoolboy and his classmates, won the top documentary award at […]

Oscar-Contending Documentary ‘Always’ On A Roll After Festival Wins in Camden, Copenhagen, Tirana The documentary Always (从来) is racking up awards at festivals, announcing itself as an Oscar contender despite a lack of theatrical distribution. The film directed by Deming Chen and produced by Hansen Lin, built around poetry of unexpected power and poignancy written by a Chinese schoolboy and his classmates, won the top documentary award at […]

Oscar-Contending Documentary ‘Always’ On A Roll After Festival Wins in Camden, Copenhagen, Tirana The documentary Always (从来) is racking up awards at festivals, announcing itself as an Oscar contender despite a lack of theatrical distribution. The film directed by Deming Chen and produced by Hansen Lin, built around poetry of unexpected power and poignancy written by a Chinese schoolboy and his classmates, won the top documentary award at […]