Fifteen Documentaries Advance in 2015 Oscar Race

Fifteen documentaries have advanced one step closer to the Academy Award as the Documentary Feature shortlist was revealed Tuesday. Several of the years’ most high profile and successful non-fiction films made the list including Amy, the latest film from director Asif Kapadia (director of the similarly styled 2011 doc Senna). Amy, which centers on the rise and tragic fall of singer Amy Winehouse, premiered to great acclaim at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The film is currently the highest grossing documentary of the year and just this morning one the Documentary prize at the National Board of Review.

Other highlights on the list include two Netflix docs- What Happened, Miss Simone?– which centers on music great Nina Simone- and Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (both films are currently available to stream on Netflix). Michael Moore’s latest Where to Invade Next made the list as did Alex Gibney’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Gibney’s second pony the race- Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine– did not make the shortlist). Also, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence (winner at the Gotham Awards) made the shortlist as well- Oppenheimer received nod two years ago for The Act of Killing– both films focus the 1960s genocide in Indonesia. Noteworthy documentaries snubbed from the shortlist include Sundance hit The Wolfpack, Iris, Janis: Little Girl Blue and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck. Check out the full list below. Oscar nominations will be announced on January 14, 2016. The 88th Academy Awards will take place on February 28, 2016.

• Amy– directed by Asif Kapadia
• Best of Enemies– directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon
• Cartel Land– directed by Matthew Heineman
• Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief– directed by Alex Gibney
• He Named Me Malala– directed by Davis Guggenheim
• Heart of a Dog– directed by Laurie Anderson
• The Hunting Ground– directed by Kirby Dick
• Listen to Me Marlon– directed by Stevan Riley
• The Look of Silence– directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
• Meru– directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
• 3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets– directed by Marc Silver
• We Come as Friends– directed by Hubert Sauper
• What Happened, Miss Simone?– directed by Liz Garbus
• Where to Invade Next– directed by Michael Moore
• Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom– directed by Evgeny Afineevsky