Email here for additions & corrections.

Ishtar
(May, 1987)
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (OOP)
(Ross, 1976)
The Devils
(Russell, 1974)
The Pirates of Penzance
(Papp/Leach, 1983)
The Fortune
(Nichols, 1975)
-30-
(Webb, 1959)
Betrayal
(Jones, 1983)
Play It As It Lays
(Perry, 1972)
The Outfit
(Flynn, 1973)
Alex in Wonderland
(Mazursky, 1969)
The Legend of Lylah Clare
(Aldrich, 1968)
In The Cool of the Day
(Stevens, 1963)
That Cold Day in the Park
(Altman, 1969)
Thumb Trippin'
(Masters, 1972)
Midas Run
(Kjellin, 1969)
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1973)
Brewster McCloud
(Altman, 1972)
Outcast of the Islands
(Reed, 1951)

Reader Submissions
1930's-1950's
The Moon's Our Home
(Seiter, 1936)
Sh! The Octopus
(McGann, 1937)
The Mating Season
(Leisen, 1951)
Bad for Each Other
(Rapper, 1953)
The Phenix City Story
(Karlson, 1955)
Run of the Arrow
(Fuller, 1956)
House of Secrets
(Green, 1956)
Saint Joan
(Preminger, 1957)
Macabre
(Castle, 1958)
The Fiend Who Walked the West
(G. Douglas, 1958
Five Gates to Hell
(Clavell, 1959)
1960's
Key Witness
(Karlson, 1960)
Summer and Smoke
(Glenville, 1961)
The Chapman Report
(Cukor,1962)
Bachelor Flat
(Tashlin, 1962) [on Hulu]
The L Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1963)
The Chalk Garden
(Neame, 1964)
A Thousand Clowns
(Coe, 1965)
You're a Big Boy Now
(Coppola, 1966)
The Whisperers
(Forbes, 1967)
Dark of the Sun
(Cardiff, 1968)
Skidoo
(Preminger, 1968)
Last Summer
(Perry, 1969)
The Comic
(C. Reiner, 1969)
1970-1974
The Revolutionary
(Williams, 1970)
The Landlord
(Ashby, 1970)
Diary of a Mad Housewife
(Perry, 1970)
Tropic of Cancer
(Strick, 1970)
I Never Sang for My Father
(Cates, 1970)
Sometimes a Great Notion
(Newman, 1971)
Marriage of a Young Stockbroker
(Turman, 1971)
The Music Lovers
(Russell, 1971)
Drive, He Said
(Nicholson, 1971)
The Steagle
(Sylbert, 1971)
The Last Movie
(Hopper, 1971)
Made For Each Other
(Bean, 1971)
The Day the Clown Cried
(Lewis, 1972)
Hickey & Boggs (OOP)
(Culp, 1972)
The Carey Treatment
(Edwards, 1972)
Pete 'n' Tillie
(Ritt, 1972)
Slither
(Zieff, 1973)
Man on a Swing
(Perry, 1974)
Open Season
(Collinson, 1974)
The Tamarind Seed
(Edwards, 1974)
Law and Disorder
(Passer, 1974)
Homebodies
(Yust, 1974)
Stardust
(Apted, 1974)
Celine and Julie Go Boating
(Rivette, 1974)
1975-1979
Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins
(Richards, 1975
At Long Last Love
(Bogdanovich, 1975)
Hearts of the West
(Zieff, 1975)
Welcome to L.A.
(Rudolph, 1976)
W.C. Fields and Me
(Hiller, 1976)
Citizens Band
(Demme, 1977)
Twilight's Last Gleaming
(Aldrich, 1977)
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
(Brooks, 1977)
Girlfriends
(Weill, 1978)
Movie Movie
(Donen, 1978)
The Medusa Touch
(Gold, 1978)
American Hot Wax
(Mutrux, 1978)
Hot Stuff
(DeLuise, 1979)
Scavenger Hunt
(Schultz , 1979)
Players
(Harvey, 1979)
Rich Kids
(Young, 1979)
Nightwing
(Hiller, 1979)
Screams of a Winter's Night
(Wilson, 1979
When You Comin' Back Red Ryder?
(Katselas, 1979
1980's
Resurrection
(Petrie, 1980)
The Awakening
(Newell, 1980)
Simon
(Brickman, 1980)
God's Angry Man
(Herzog, 1980)
Fast-Walking
(Harris, 1982)
Twice Upon a Time
(Korty & Swenson, 1983)
Trouble in Mind
(Rudolph, 1985)
When the Wind Blows
(Murikami, 1986)
Housekeeping
(Forsyth, 1987)
The Glass Menagerie
(Newman, 1987)
Patty Hearst
(Schrader, 1988)
Drowning by Numbers
(Greenaway, 1988)
Haunted Summer
(Passer, 1988)
The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years
(Spheeris, 1988)
1990's
Old Times
(Curtis, 1991)
Prospero's Books
(Greenaway, 1991)
City of Hope
(Sayles, 1991)
The Baby of Macon
(Greenaway, 1993)
King of the Hill
(Soderbergh, 1993)
Dadetown
(Hexter, 1995)
SubUrbia
(Linklater, 1997)

Upcoming

March 5

Alice in Wonderland

Brooklyn's Finest

The Secret of Kells

March 12

The Exploding Girl

She's Out of My League

Stolen

SuicideGirls Must Die!

Tapes from the Script

March 17

Mid-August Lunch

Doc Short List

email this story
read comments (16)
post a comment

The 15 short-listed feature documentaries were announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For me the biggest mind-blower is the omission of Marina Zenovich's Roman Polanksi: Wanted and Desired -- one of the sharpest and most persuasive inside-the-legal-system docs ever made, as well as a perceptive portrait of a fascinating and haunted artist. My guess is that some Polanski haters didn't care for Zenovich's generally admiring (and yet thorough and fair-minded) approach.

I don't want to hear about any stupid disqualifiers because it played on HBO for a week or whatever. Academy disqualifiers is this realm are bullshit. Docs are always struggling for attention, and anything they can put together revenue- or attention-wise outside of theatrical should not be a penalty, for God's sake.

I'm also a bit surprised that Alex Gibney's Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson -- not a great film but certainly a professionally assembled and earnestly felt one -- wasn't included. And yet the dutiful and less-than-exceptional Trouble the Water -- a piece about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina that I've been calling the "King Kong of hand-held jiggle-pan docs" -- made the cut.

The 15 docs are At the Death House Door, The Betrayal, Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh, Werner Herzog's Encounters at the End of the World, Fuel, The Garden, Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, I.O.U.S.A., In a Dream, Made in America, the great Man on Wire, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure, They Killed Sister Dorothy and Trouble the Water.

The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, 1.22.09, at 5:30 a.m. Pacific in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

DiCaprio and Shannon<< previous | next >>Trek Peek

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 17, 2008 at 8:22 PM

comment #1

LYT says ...

"King Kong of hand-held jiggle-pan docs"

Would that be the original Cooper/Schoedsack Kong, DiLaurentiis Kong, or Peter Jackson Kong?

And where do you fall on WALTZ WITH BASHIR? Doc, or not?

Posted by LYT at November 17, 2008 9:07 PM

comment #2

erniesouchak says ...

What, is Vanity Fair losing all its clout in this town?

Posted by erniesouchak at November 17, 2008 9:13 PM

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

I'm rooting for MAN ON WIRE, as it's probably the 3rd or 4th best film of the year in any medium, but I was very transported by ENCOUNTERS and it's worth pointing out Herzog has never even been nominated for an Oscar, not for AGUIRRE, not for FITZCARRADLO, not for GRIZZLY MAN.

Posted by BurmaShave at November 17, 2008 9:26 PM

comment #4

MattM says ...

No AMERICAN TEEN? No RELIGULOUS? Both of those have to be surprise omissions.

Posted by MattM at November 17, 2008 9:36 PM

comment #5

scooterzz says ...

this is the first time (i think) that i've actually seen almost all the titles......and, i'm pretty amazed the polanski and thompson docs didn't make the cut... that said, i still think 'man on wire' should take it.... i've shown it to several friends and not gotten tired of it....

Posted by scooterzz at November 17, 2008 9:37 PM

comment #6

Cadavra says ...

Didn't the Polanski doc play on HBO prior to theatrical release? That would've disqualified it.

Posted by Cadavra at November 17, 2008 10:41 PM

comment #7

William Goss says ...

Whither Dear Zachary...?

Posted by William Goss at November 17, 2008 10:47 PM

comment #8

huntermdaniels says ...

I guess they didn't consider Bashir to be a doc because that movie was simply incredible. I can't imagine that 15 better films, much less 15 better documentaries came out this year.

Posted by huntermdaniels at November 17, 2008 11:16 PM

comment #9

The Hoyk says ...

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED had a one-week qualifying run in theatres before the HBO broadcast, so it was eligible.

Posted by The Hoyk at November 17, 2008 11:46 PM

comment #10

Ben C says ...

Hey, another Holocaust doc!

Who would have expected that?

Posted by Ben C at November 18, 2008 12:41 AM

comment #11

lbeale says ...

What happened to "Stranded," the doc about the Uruguayan plane crash? Easily one of the two or three bestof the year.

Posted by lbeale at November 18, 2008 5:55 AM

comment #12

gruver1 says ...

Good point, Lew. Of course. I don't know what I was thinking.

Posted by gruver1 at November 18, 2008 6:29 AM

comment #13

actionman says ...

Where is Bigger, Stronger, Faster? Weak that it isn't on this short list.

I have Encounters at the End of the World to watch tonight from Netflix...HUGE fan of Herzog...can't wait.

Still bummed I missed Man on Wire...that's out on DVD in a few weeks though.

Standard Operating Procedure was very good, but Taxi to the Dark Side was better.

The Polanski doc was great...pretty lame that didn't get a nod either.

Can't wait to see Gonzo...that's next in the queue I think.

Posted by actionman at November 18, 2008 7:22 AM

comment #14

MoisesChiu says ...

Stranded and Bigger Stronger Faster are missed nods I didn't remember, but it is odd neither made the cut. I quickly dashed my thoughts on Arthouse Cowboy, and in retrospect, I think I should see Wanted and Desired when not on narcotics for pain. Gonzo was ok, but didn't knock my socks off.

In a Dream is an excellent film and will be on HBO after the first of the year sometime...check their site. I think Actionman has a point about S.O.P. Good film, but I don't think it'll go the distance following Taxi's win last year.

Maybe Elsewhere needs a "15 films that didn't make the Doc shortlist that should have."

Posted by MoisesChiu at November 18, 2008 9:44 AM

comment #15

Joshua Mooney says ...

Absolute bullshit that "Wanted and Desired" didn't make the short list. I assumed that was a done deal, and fully expected it to get nominated. From the opening scene on, the film didn't pull any punches and I didn't, frankly, see it as a "generally admiring" take on Polanski. "Sympathetic," perhaps, but more to the point, it was, as you say, Jeff, "one of the sharpest and most persuasive inside-the-legal-system docs ever made." That was its quite specific raison d'etre.

Posted by Joshua Mooney at November 18, 2008 11:13 AM

comment #16

TheJERMSguy says ...

Bigger Stronger Faster is the best doc I've seen this year. Not that I've seen most of the finalists, but jeez, they left Standard Operating Procedure on the list, a movie so in love with its own artisticness that it had more dramatic re-enactments than actual footage. Taxi to the Dark Side puts it to shame.

Posted by TheJERMSguy at November 18, 2008 2:57 PM