Move over Ken Burns, this year’s Best Documentary Feature nominees aren’t messing around.
Documentaries are more than Dad’s favorite Netflix category; they are the only Academy Award given to an entire film, besides Best Picture. Since the 13th Academy Awards in 1942, the film industry has been awarding the best nonfiction films that both inform and inspire. The official Academy Award rules state that the film can use any technique, “as long as the emphasis is on fact and not on fiction.”
None of the directors of this year’s Best Documentary Feature nominees have ever been nominated for Academy Awards before. Documentary filmmaking is more accessible in that films can be low-budget. The 2013 Oscars Best Documentary (Short Subject) went to “Inocente,” a Kickstarter-funded flick.
Past winners include The Cove (2009), An Inconvenient Truth (2006), March of the Penguins (2005).
The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
This film is about how Indonesia’s death squads, whose duty it is to kill all who oppose the country’s political regime, are considered heroes. According to the film’s official website, “Unlike ageing Nazis or Rwandan genocidaires, Anwar and his friends have not been forced by history to admit they participated in crimes against humanity. Instead, they have written their own triumphant history, becoming role models for millions of young paramilitaries.” The Act of Killing did extraordinarily well at film festivals, taking home 31 awards on both the national and international scale.
Cutie and the Boxer by Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
This human interest documentary captures the eccentric relationship of 80-year-old New York avant-garde artist Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko, who is 22 years his junior. The film explores their relationship, especially the role of Noriko as Ushio’s assistant turned successful artist herself. 29-year-old director Zach Heinzerling won Best Director at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. According to the committee, “It’s rare to see a film so beautifully crafted in all aspects. It captures the complex nature of love and art in a mesmerizing and deeply human way.”
Dirty Wars by Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
Director Richard Rowley follows journalist Jeremy Scahill in this war documentary about the discovery of the U.S.’s Joint Special Operations Command, a secret government organization that has the power to defend the country by killing anybody they deem a threat. Filled with questions about wartime and journalistic ethics, this thrilling documentary is also visually stunning, taking home the 2013 Sundance Film Festival’s Cinematography Award.
The Square by Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
This documentary, backed by Netflix, focuses on Cairo’s Tahrir Sqaure, the location of some of the most intense political moments that Egypt has experienced over the past two and a half years. The power of the people is at the heart of this political documentary, which is also reflective in its distribution decision to put the film on Netflix and also allow people to host screenings at local theaters, schools and community organizations. The film was also created in an experimental way, as the filmmakers gave cameras to young revolutionaries. If this film wins, Netflix original works will have pervaded the Emmys, Golden Globes and Academy Awards.
20 Feet From Stardom by Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers
This heartbreaking film seeks to shine a light on the backup singers of famous artists that music documentaries are usually about. It profiles the lives of Lisa Fischer, Darlene Love, Merry Clayton and Claudia Lennear, who worked as background singers for a number of artists (most famously The Rolling Stones) and their struggle to become successful solo recording artists. If the film wins Darlene Love, who has a slew of singles and albums, will be able to put “Oscar Winner” on her list of accomplishments, right next to “2011 Rock N Roll Hall of Fame inductee.”