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:

DGA doc nominees

Here they are:

Alison Klaymon, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
David France, How to Survive a Plague
Kirby Dick, The Invisible War
Lauren Greenfield, The Queen of Versailles
MalikBendjelloul, Searching for Sugar Man

This makes Sugar Man the only one to score with all the guilds that honour documentaries. It's clearly the popular favourite for the Oscar, but I'm glad to see the tragically Oscar-snubbed Queen of Versailles get a mention from the DGA.

2012 Capsule Reviews

As the season revs up I tend to spend less time on full reviews, but often deposit a paragraph or two for new films (or old ones I've just caught up with) in one post throughout the winter.

Documentary Shortlist once again replete with infuriating exclusions

The Academy's documentary branch has a tendency to do this. Despite changes to their voting procedures that were supposedly to the benefit of high profile docs, buzzed-about titles such as West of Memphis, The Central Park Five (which just one the NYFCC award today), and The Queen of Versailles (which I've seen and thought was a very good bet) were knocked out of the running early. The fifteen lucky docs that will fight it out for five nominations are:

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

Bully

Chasing Ice

Detropia

Ethel

5 Broken Cameras

The Gatekeepers

The House I Live In

How to Survive a Plague

The Imposter

The Invisible War

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

Searching for Sugar Man

This is Not a Film

The Waiting Room