My Award Nominations: Documentary

Documentary filmmaking continues to thrive in the digital age, in which tools and broadcast platforms have never been more accessible to storytellers and audiences alike. I don't envy the doc branch of the Academy, who are forced to screen growing numbers of submissions every year. If, like me, you've only got time for a few, you could do a lot worse than these five:

Spotlight Shines Bright, but Oscar Frontrunner?

After stirring up a lot of talk at Telluride and TIFF in September, most markets finally got to set eyes on Tom McCarthy's Spotlight. Gripe as I may about sluggish release schedules, this one was worth the wait.

The journalistic docudrama about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer-winning investigation of pedophilia, corruption and complicity within the Catholic Church is dense, and in the best way. McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer's screenplay packs a lot of content into a swift, focused procedural. It requires attention, and rewards attention.

Granted, talking heads aren't always easy to make jump off the screen, but the cast is greater than the sum of their considerable parts. This is marvelous group acting, with each performer carving out distinctive personalities for a roster of characters who could have become homogenized. The SAG Ensemble prize may be sewn up, and if pundits are to be believed, perhaps the Best Picture Oscar?...

I'm not so sure.

My Award nominations: Documentary

As is the case every year, I never get to see as many documentaries as I should like. This shortlist is more representative of what docs I did manage to see, rather than what I consider the best. If I catch up with better ones at some point down the road I'll probably amend this list retroactively, but for now, my nominees for Best Documentary are: