December 21, 2021

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) has announced the short list for Documentary features and shorts. 

 

Feature Films

Ascension
Attica
Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry
Faya Dayi
The First Wave
Flee
In the Same Breath
Julia
President
Procession
The Rescue
Simple as Water
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
The Velvet Underground
Writing with Fire

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Doc Shorts (Under 40 minutes)

Águilas
Audible
A Broken House
Camp Confidential: America’s Secret Nazis
Coded: The Hidden Love of J. C. Leyendecker
Day of Rage
The Facility
Lead Me Home
Lynching Postcards: “Token of a Great Day”
The Queen of Basketball
Sophie & the Baron
Takeover
Terror Contagion
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies

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Dec 15, 2021

Oscar Campaign worth the Cost? Read the story by Anthony Kaufman here in the latest IDA newsletter. 

 

Here is the complete list of 138 films eligible for the next Documentary Feature Academy Awards Oscar®

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December 2, 2021

The Hollywood Reporter

panel with some of the best documentary filmmakers this year.

See the full story and video here. 

Photographed by Charles W. Murphy

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Nov 19, 2021

How Documentaries are making a major impact. See the story in the Washington Post here. 

 

Nov. 14, 2021

An amazing story in the NY Post about Sheila Nevins (Westdoc episode #46) and her departure from HBO can be read here.

 

October 25, 2021

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IDA Documentary Awards 2021 Features Shortlist:

Ailey (USA / NEON. Director: Jamila Wignot. Producer: Lauren DeFilippo.)

Apenas el sol (Nothing but the Sun) (Switzerland, Paraguay/ Film republic. Director/Producer: Arami Ullón. Producer: Pascal Trächslin.) 

Ascension (USA. Director/Producer: Jessica Kingdon. Producers: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell.)

Black Power: A British Story of Resistance (United Kingdom / Amazon Studios. Director: George Amponsah. Producer: Helen Bart.)

Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters (USA / Kino Lorber. Director: Tom Hurwitz. Director/Producer: Rosalynde LeBlanc. Producer: Duana C. Butler.)

Charm Circle (USA. Director/Producer: Nira Burstein. Producer: Betsy Laikin.)

Convergence: Courage in a Crisis (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Orlando von Einsiedel. Producers: Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby, Laura McNaught.)

Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground (USA / HBO Max. Director: Sophia Nahli Allison.)

Faya Dayi (Ethiopia, USA, Qatar / Janus Films. Director/Producer: Jessica Beshir.)

FLEE (Denmark, France, Norway / NEON. Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Producers: Monica Hellstrӧm,Signe Byrge Sørensen.)

FRUITS OF LABOR (USA / Grasshopper Films, POV. Director/Producer: Emily Cohen Ibañez.)

In the Same Breath (USA, China / HBO, HBO Max. Director/Producer: Nanfu Wang. Producers: Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn.)

Jacinta (USA / Hulu, ABC News. Director: Jessica Earnshaw. Producers: Jessica Earnshaw, Holly Meehl, Nimisha Mukerji.)

Life of Crime 1984-2020 (USA / HBO, HBO Max. Director/Producer: Jon Alpert. Producers: Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller.)

Miguel’s War (Lebanon, Germany, Spain. Director/Producer: Eliane Raheb.)

North By Current (USA / POV. Director/Producer: Angelo Madsen Minax. Producer: Felix Endara.)

Not Going Quietly (USA / Greenwich Entertainment. Director: Nicholas Bruckman. Producer: Amanda Roddy.)

President (Denmark, USA, Norway. Director: Camilla Nielsson. Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Joslyn Barnes.)

Rebel Hearts (USA / discovery+. Director: Pedro Kos. Producers: Kira Carstensen, Shawnee Isaac-Smith, Judy Korin.)

So Late So Soon (USA / Oscilloscope Laboratories. Director: Daniel Hymanson. Producers: Trace Henderson, Josh Penn, Kellen Quinn, Noah Stahl.)

Storm Lake (USA / Independent Lens. Director: Beth Levison, Jerry Risius. Producer: Beth Levison.)

Summer of Soul (USA / Hulu, Searchlight Pictures. Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Producers: Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, David Dinerstein.)

Taming the Garden (Switzerland, Germany, Georgia. Director/Producer: Salomé Jashi. Producers: Vadim Jendreyko, Erik Winker, Martin Roelly.)

This Stained Dawn (Pakistan, Canada. Director/Producer: Anam Abbas.)

Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre (USA / History. Director/Producers: Stanley Nelson, Marco Williams. Producer: Julie Sisson.)

Who Are You, Charlie Brown? (USA / Apple TV+. Director: Michael Bonfiglio. Producers: Kimberly Small, Marcella Steingart.)

Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker (USA / Kino Lorber. Director: Chris McKim. Producers: Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey.)

Writing With Fire (India / ITVS, Music Box. Director/Producers: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh.)

Wuhan Wuhan (USA / Starlight Media Inc., SA Inc., Kartemquin Films. Director: Yung Chang. Producers: Peter Luo, Donna Gigliotti, Diane Quon.)

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IDA Documentary Awards 2021 Shorts Shortlist:

A Broken House (USA, Lebanon / Condé Nast Entertainment, The New Yorker, POV. Director/Producer: Jimmy Goldblum. Producers: Matt Weaver, Harrison Nalevansky.)

Águilas (USA / The New Yorker. Director/Producers: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Maite Zubiaurre.)

Ain't No Time For Women (Canada / Travelling. Director: Sarra El Abed. Producer: Isabelle Grignon-Francke)

Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol (USA / The New York Times. Directors: Malachy Browne, David Botti. Producers: Haley Willis, Christiaan Triebert, Evan Hill, Cora Engelbrecht, Stella Cooper.)

E14 (United Kingdom / Fifth Season LTD. Director: Peiman Zekavat. Producer: Sanam Jehanfard.)

Joe Buffalo (Canada / Condé Nast Entertainment, The New Yorker. Director/Producer: Amar Chebib. Producers: Hayley Morin, Mack Stannard)

Joychild (USA / The New Yorker, Stanford University. Director/Producer: Aurora Brachman)

Kalsubai (India / Film and Television Institute of India. Director: Yudhajit Basu)

Open Shutters (USA, Republic of Korea / Field of Vision. Director/Producer: Do Youjin.)

Red Taxi  (USA, Hong Kong / Field of Vision. Director/Producer: Anonymous)

same/different/both/neither (Brazil / Photogram Films Distribution. Director/Producer: Adriana Barbosa, Fernanda Pessoa.)

Senior Prom (USA / PBS, Independent Lens. Director/Producer: Luisa Conlon. Producer: Jessica Chermayeff.)

Since you arrived, my heart stopped belonging to me (Desde que llegaste, mi corazón dejó de pertenecerme) (USA / The New Yorker. Director/Producer: Erin Semine Kökdil)

Status Pending (USA / Al Jazeera English - Witness. Director: Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz. Producer: Laura Reich.)

Takeover (USA. Director: Emma Francis-Snyder. Producer: Tony Gerber.)

The Last Cruise (USA / HBO Max. Director/Producer: Hannah Olson. Producers: Shane Boris, Joe Beshenkovsky, James A Smith.)

The Seeker (USA / Topic. Director: Lance Edmands. Producers: Kyle Martin, Sarah Tihany.) 

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October 14, 2021

The latest episode of Westdoc Online is a conversation with first time feature director Rachel Fleit and her film is a must see, "Introducing Selma Blair." The New York Times has story here today and Good Morning America video can be seen here. 

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October 11, 2021 

The Documentary Award Entry Form for the 74th Annual DGA Awards is now available on the DGA's website. If you have directed a documentary that was, or will be, released by December 31, 2021, we encourage you to consider entering your documentary. Please note, the Documentary Award category is open for submission to DGA and non-DGA directors.

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CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE DOCUMENTARY AWARD ENTRY FORM

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Deadlines for receipt of all Documentary Award Entry Forms and HD link submissions are as follows:

• For Documentary entries with a theatrical release or broadcast during the period of March 1 through June 14, 2021, the deadline is Friday, October 22, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. PST.
   

• For Documentary entries with a theatrical release or broadcast during the period of June 15 through December 31, 2021, the deadline is Monday, November 8, 2021 at 6:00 p.m. PST.

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Please visit the DGA website to see all the key dates for the 74th Annual DGA Awards, which will take place on Saturday, March 12, 2022.

Should you have any questions, please contact the DGA Awards Office at (310) 289-2038 or Awards@dga.org.

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September 18, 2021​​

 PATRICIA AUFDERHEIDE is at it again. This time she wrote to the Federal Trade Commission about why they should Not let Amazon buy MGM. It's a compelling read and you can see it here on the IDA web site. 

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Episode 79 is an in depth conversation with producer director NICK DAVIS about his four part ESPN doc on the Mets called "Once Upon a Time In Queens." He discusses his family history starting with his father Peter Davis who won the doc Oscar for the powerful Viet Nam film "Hearts and Minds." If that was enough, his grandfather, Herman Mankiewicz won an Oscar for writing "Citizen Kane." Davis wrote a book about Herman and brother Joe Mankiewicz and by coincidence, the book and the Mets doc both premiere September 14th. Nick tells more in this short story about his family here. And the LA Times reviews the book "Competing With Idiots: Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, a Dual Portrait" here. Go to a local book store and buy the book. 

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PATRICIA AUFDERHEIDE has been a powerful voice in the documentary world for years. I first became aware of her when she started writing and informing everyone about "Fair Use." She is the author of several books and is a University Professor in the School of Communication at American University in Washington DC. They just published a report and survey on "The State of Journalism on the Documentary Filmmaking Scene." Thought provoking good read can be seen here.​

 

The deadline for submitting new films for this year's Oscar nominations is just around the corner. 

Feature documentary is 11-01-2021 5 PM

Doc short is 10-15-2021  5 PM

https://submissions.oscars.org/

 

August 24, 2021   YouTube paid its creators $30 Billion over the last three years! Read the story in The Wrap here. 

 

August 16, 2021   Time to brag a bit. The last three years I have been an adjunct professor teaching "Documentary Producing and Directing" at CSUN, Cal State University, Northridge. Last year I taught the first documentary thesis class 441 for Seniors. The students pitch proposed projects to me and the students and I pick the best. The young filmmakers whose projects were not chosen, are picked as crew in different positions on the new projects. The university wanted and needed some recognition for all the good work they have been doing. USC, UCLA, and NYU are perceived as the best film schools in the country, and they certainly are very good. (I graduated from USC Cinema department) but CSUN is getting up there. This year there were seven films picked as Finalists by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for best Domestic Documentary. Two from NYU, two from Columbia, one from USC, UC Berkeley, and one from my 441 class at CSUN! The film is "Translucent" by Avery Fox and Kayla Hoeflinger and congrats to them. See all the nominations here. 

 

August 12, 2021 

Jukin Media (Westdoc Online episode # 37) has been acquired by the parent company of Readers Digest. Last year alone Jukin licensed over 2,000 video clips for ad campaigns and more.  Read the full story in Variety here. 

 

August 5, 2021.  

The Hollywood Reporter has a story by Eriq Gardner about FAIR USE that should be of interest to many documentary filmmakers. It deals with footage from 9/11 that was distributed all around the world to major players without permission from the filmmakers. Read it here. 

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July 16, 2021   

Morgan Neville's new documentary "Roddrunner" about TV superstar Anthony Bourdain is getting a good deal of press. The New Yorker magazine has a compelling story about the making of the film and the AI  VO controversy. Take a look here. 

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July, 13, 2021

There were 8,762 nominations for Emmy awards today. Below is the list for Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program. If you want to see the unending full list of nominees in all categories, click here. 

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Allen v. Farrow • Episode 3 • HBO • HBO Documentary Films presents in association with Impact Partners and Chicago Media Project, a Jane Doe Films Production
Kirby Dick, Directed by
Amy Ziering, Directed by

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The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend A Broken Heart • HBO • HBO Documentary Films And Polygram Entertainment Present A Kennedy/Marshall Production and a White Horse Pictures Production in association with Diamond Docs
Frank Marshall, Directed by

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Boys State • Apple TV+ • Apple / A24 / Concordia Studio / Mile End Films
Amanda McBaine, Directed by Jesse Moss, Directed by

Dick Johnson Is Dead • Netflix • A Netflix Original Documentary / A Big Mouth Productions Film
Kirsten Johnson, Directed by

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The Social Dilemma • Netflix • An Exposure Labs Production in association with Argent Pictures for Netflix
Jeff Orlowski, Directed by

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Tina • HBO • HBO Documentary Films presents a Lightbox Production
Dan Lindsay, Directed by TJ Martin

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July 9, 2021

BARRY DILLER tells NPR that "The Movie Business is Dead!"

Read the full story here

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars) just sent out an email announcing the invitation to 395 new members. Here is part of their message and the names of the new Documentary Branch invitees;

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LOS ANGELES, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 395 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures.

Membership selection decisions are based on professional qualifications, with representation, inclusion and equity remaining a priority of Academy Aperture 2025.  The 2021 class is 46% women, 39% underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% international from 49 countries outside of the United States.  There are 89 Oscar® nominees, including 25 winners, among the invitees.

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Documentary
Karen Akerman – “The Trial,” “Simonal – Nobody Knows the Hard I Had”
Raney Aronson-Rath – “For Sama,” “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
João Atala – “The Edge of Democracy,” “The Daily Death”
Philippe Bellaiche – “Advocate,” “The Settlers”
Julie Cohen – “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” “RBG”
Charlotte Cook – “Do Not Split,” “The Gospel of Eureka”
Heino Deckert – “Aquarela,” “Human Flow”
Alice Elliott – “Miracle on 42nd Street,” “The Collector of Bedford Street”
Rodney Evans – “Vision Portraits,” “The Unveiling”
Kristin Feeley
Bryan Fogel – “The Dissident, “Icarus”
Nick Fraser – “The Lovers and the Despot,” “Man on Wire”
Jacqueline Glover – “True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality,” “Jim: The James Foley Story”
T. Griffin – “Boys State,” “Life, Animated”
Maya Daisy Hawke – “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”
Wolfgang Held – “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” “Children Underground”
Kathy K. Im 
Judy Karp – “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “Citizenfour”
Lesli Klainberg – “Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema,” “In the Company of Women”
Susan Margolin – “A Crime on the Bayou,” “The Rape of Recy Taylor”
Ousmane William Mbaye – “Président Dia,” “Mère-Bi (Mother)”
Lucila Moctezuma – “Living Los Sures,” “The New Americans”
Bill Morrison – “Dawson City: Frozen Time,” “The Great Flood”
Alexander Nanau* – “Collective,” “Toto and His Sisters”
Xan Parker – “Rebuilding Paradise,” “Tigerland”
Kellen Quinn – “Time,” “Midnight Family”
Brenda Robinson – “The Great American Lie,” “United Skates”
Kim A. Snyder – “Us Kids,” “Newtown”
Kathryn Townsend – “Cold Case Hammarskjöld,” “Shirkers”
Angela Tucker – “Belly of the Beast,” “(A)Sexual”
Betsy West – “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” “RBG”
Justin Wilkes – “Rebuilding Paradise,” “What Happened, Miss Simone?”
Peter Yam – “Lost Course,” “Yellowing”

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June 13, 2021

Imax was an important and innovative development in the history of film. I saw the first Imax film at Expo '70 in Osaka, Japan and became a fan. In the '90's I was involved with the production of a couple of Imax films. Graeme Ferguson was the co-inventor and his obit is in the NY Times today. https://nyti.ms/3cAsmNh

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 2021 OSCAR® DOCUMENTARY NOMINEES

Click on the title to view the film

Shorts

"Colette" (#67) Oscar Winner

"A Concerto Is a Conversation"

"Do Not Split" (#70)

"Hunger Ward"

"A Love Song For Latasha"

 

Feature Docs

"Collective"

"Crip Camp"

"The Mole Agent"

"My Octopus Teacher" (#63) Oscar Winner

"Time" (#62)

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April 11, 2021   

News Flash

Directors Guild of America

"THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS"

Episode # 65

Best Documentary 

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April 18, 2021

I hope I am wrong, but I am afraid that this year's Oscars will be less relevant than ever after very low tv ratings. Read today's NY Times story here about the Oscar show.  On the other hand, the documentaries are better than ever. 

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April 4, 2021

The last few days on Facebook I have been following a story line about doc filmmakers complaining about all the many hours PBS has given to KEN BURNS. Now The Guardian has pitched in with a story of 140 non fiction filmmakers signing a petition criticizing PBS for lack of diversity and transparency.  Read the full story here. 

Would China censor the Oscars over a documentary short? See The Wrap story here. 

 

March 19, 2021

Documentaries are changing public opinion about celebs in the

Washington Post here. 

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March 15, 2021

Oscar-Nominated Documentary Being Auctioned As An NFT

Read the story here.

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Director Leon Gast spent 22 years making the Oscar winning doc "When We Were Kings," about the Ali-Foreman fight. Read the amazing obit in the NY Times here

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Directors Guild of America

Documentary nominees:

 

MICHAEL DWECK & GREGORY KERSHAW

The Truffle Hunters

(Sony Pictures Classics)

 

PIPPA EHRLICH & JAMES REED

My Octopus Teacher

(Netflix)

 

DAVID FRANCE

Welcome to Chechnya

(HBO)

 

AMANDA McBAINE & JESSE MOSS

Boys State

(Apple/A24)

 

BENJAMIN REE

The Painter and the Thief

The Hollywood Reporter takes a closer look at the 15 short listed documentary feature films here.