The field of 74 Documentary Short Subject contenders has been whittled down to 10 films, the Academy announced Monday.
And the shortlists for another Oscars season begin!
The field of 74 Documentary Short Subject contenders has been whittled down to 10 films, the Academy announced Monday. (This is up from 58 last year and from 40 two years ago and 31 three years ago.) Five will earn Oscar nominations.
With new rules for the category approved in June, the number of films shortlisted for nominations voting was increased from 8 to 10 titles. Also, the number of nominees is now set at five (formerly three to five).The deadline to submit entries for Documentary Short was Sept. 1.
Voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation.
Here are the films, listed in alphabetical order by title, along with their production company:
- “Body Team 12,” RYOT Films and Vulcan Productions
- “Chau, beyond the Lines,” Cynasty Films
- “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah,” Jet Black Iris America
- “50 Feet from Syria,” Spin Film
- “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” SOC Films
- “Last Day of Freedom,” Living Condition
- “Minerita,” Kanaki Films
- “My Enemy, My Brother,” Fathom Film Group
- “Starting Point,” Munk Studio – Polish Filmmakers Association
- “The Testimony,” Atria Film in association with Escape Artists
Trailers and synopses
The Gold Knight searched the web for trailers and information about each film. Here's what we found:
Set in Monrovia, Liberia, "Body Team 12" follows a group tasked with collecting the bodies of the dead from the height of the ebola outbreak. The film is set through the eyes of Garmai Sumo, the only female member of the team. 13 minutes. (Links: Official Website)
A teenager named Chau has a dream to become a professional artist. He is at the center of “Chau, beyond the Lines.” He lives in Vietnam in a care center for kids disabled by Agent Orange. 34 minutes. (Links: Official Website | Facebook)
"Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah" explores the life and work of French director Claude Lanzmann and his 12-year journey to make his 1985 nine-and-a-half-hour-long Holocaust documentary, "Shoah." HBO is set to air the documentary in 2016. 40 minutes. (Links: Twitter | Facebook)
"50 Feet from Syria" follows Syrian-American orthopedic surgeon Hisham Bismar as he travels to the Turkish/Syrian border for two weeks to volunteer operating on victims from the Syrian civil war. 39 minutes. (Links: Official Website)
"A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness" features the story of a rare survivor "who falls in love and lives to tell the tale," with more than a 1000 women killed in the name of "honor" in Pakistan every year. This short comes from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the Oscar-winner director of "Saving Face." 40 minutes.
No video available yet.
Animated documentary “Last Day of Freedom” tells the true story of a man who must decide whether or not to turn his brother into the police. The film uses 32,000 hand-drawn animations from actually footage and archives to tell the story. 32 minutes. (Links: Official Website | Twitter | Facebook)
“Minerita” features three women — Lucía, 40, Ivone ,16, and Abigail, 17 — who work in the Potosi mines in Bolivia as night watchwomen or inside the mine, struggling to survive "in an inhuman inferno." Their only weapon is their courage and dynamite. 28 minutes. (Links: Official Website | Facebook)
"My Enemy, My Brother" is a story of a chance encounter between two former enemy soldiers in the Iran-Iraq War who become blood brothers for life. 18 minutes. (Links: Official Website | Twitter | Facebook)
Watch a version of the short, via The New York Times:
"Starting Point" follows a woman named Aneta, who at 19 was imprisoned for murder. Nine years later, she finds herself helping the elderly. A chance meeting with one of its residents, Helena, changes everything. (Links: Official Website)
"The Testimony" documents the largest rape trial in the history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with an unprecedented look at the lives and resilience of its women. (Links: Facebook)
No video available yet.
We are less than 80 days away from the 88th Academy Awards nominations announcement on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016.
The 88th Academy Awards, for outstanding film achievements of 2015, will be presented on Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 225 countries worldwide.
