November 16, 2005

DOC DOC GOOSE

18% of Oscar qualified docs were included on the short list this year.

And still no room for Grizzly Man, which may have suffered from being made up of so much found footage.

Another $3 million-plus grosser The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill didn't make it. Nor did the $6 million hit, The Aristocrats.

Perhaps this shouldn't surprise too much. Last year, two docs that grossed more than $2 million - Control Room and The Corporation - failed to get short-listed. (Control Room was DQ'd.) Also coming up short were Festival Express and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

Also not making this cut were the very high profile (at least in NY and L.A. and the fest circuit) Ballets Russes, Gunner Palace, Protocols Of Zion, Reel Paradise and Touch The Sound.

As one tries to divine some insight into the short list, it's very challenging. It is good to be one of the top two highest grossing qualified docs of the year, as the top two made it the last three seasons. (That includes #2 and #3 last year, after Fahrenheit 9/11 stayed out of the race.)

No political documentaries made the short list last year. And only two made it this year. So I guess that hasn't changed much.

The vast majority of short listers have distribution or have already been distributed this year. That is worth looking at. Only three of the films are from studio Dependent distributors.

A significant majority were also in Park City this year. (Mad Hot Ballroom hails from Slamdance instead of Sundance.) This is partially because of the September 1 qualifying date, which makes Toronto somewhat irrelevant to this competition.

After looking at the history a few weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter's Gregg Kilday and I both seemed to agree that IDA involvement was not a key to getting onto the short list in years past. But that changed this year. This year, nine of the fifteen films on the new, bigger short list were either IDA nominated or part of IDA's qualifying DocWeek.

Two more were commercial hits: March of the Penguins and Rize.

Two others were Sundance award winners - After Innocence and The Devil and Daniel Johnston - the first already released by New Yorker Films and the other due from Sony Classics in early 2006. Unknown White Male was also a hit at Sundance last January, due out via Wellspring in 2006.

And then there is On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report, which was finished sometime in August, has not played any festivals that I know of and was way off the radar because I don't think anyone knew it was Oscar qualified by the time the qualification closed on September 1. But it was somehow qualified… and I'll tell ya what… without seeing the film myself, I wouldn't be shocked to see it be the surprise winner of the Oscar this year.

Of course, this is a blind guess, but whatever drew Oscar winners Kevin Costner and Hillary Swank to narrate the film, and whatever cemented it on the nominating committee's radar has to be interesting. And, with due respect to procreating penguins, a great 9/11 doc could become a very muscular contender indeed.

Seven of the first short listers are set in countries other than the United States.

Only two of the films are profiles of specific people.

Women are poorly represented by this group of films, though five of the titles have woman directors or co-directors.

This could be one of the most interesting doc seasons yet, with so many contenders and so many titles that have some buzz, but have not had viewing opportunities.

IDA Winners will be shown at the Arclight on December 10 as part of IDA's DocuDay and MCN will try to screen as many of these films as possible in the next six weeks as well.

The Academy Short List:
After Innocence
The Boys of Baraka
Darwin's Nightmare
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Favela Rising
Mad Hot Ballroom
March of the Penguins
Murderball
Occupation: Dreamland
On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report
Rize
Street Fight
39 Pounds of Love
Unknown White Male

E-ME.