As part of Screen International’s guide to the films to watch this awards season, we round up some of the key documentary contenders.
2000 Meters To Andriivka
Dir. Mstyslav Chernov
Chernov, who won the documentary Oscar and Bafta in 2024 with 20 Days In Mariupol, is back in serious contention with this missive from a summer 2023 Ukrainian counter-offensive. The film mixes soldiers’ bodycam footage with material captured on phones and cameras to tell the story of one slow, arduous and costly liberation of a captured village. Following a directing win for Chernov at Sundance for World Cinema Documentary and a major festival tour, the film is Ukraine’s submission to the international feature Oscar, and was nominated for five Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
The Alabama Solution
Dirs. Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman
Jarecki (Capturing The Friedmans) and Kaufman mix their own footage with video shot on prisoners’ contraband cell phones to expose a suspicious death in an Alabama prison and the inmates’ campaign against a brutal prison system. The Sundance-launched HBO Documentary Films production, which won best political doc at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, is competing at the Oscars but was not submitted for the Bafta Film Awards at press time.
Apocalypse In The Tropics
Dir. Petra Costa
Brazilian filmmaker Costa, whose The Edge Of Democracy was nominated for the feature documentary Oscar in 2020, examines a decade of spiritual and political upheaval in her country, with access to current and former presidents and an influential televangelist. After its premiere at Venice Film Festival in 2024, the quadruple Critics Choice Documentary Awards-nominated film was acquired by Netflix and given a limited US cinema release this July, a few days before its global streaming debut.
Come See Me In The Good Light
Dir. Ryan White
A triple Emmy nominee for The Case Against 8, Pamela: A Love Story and doc series The Keepers, White focuses his camera on poet lovers Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley as they navigate the former’s terminal ovarian cancer. Winner of the Festival Favorite award at Sundance, the film was acquired by Apple TV+ in April and began streaming in mid-November. Producers include Tig Notaro, who appears.
Cover-Up
Dirs. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus
Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh and the institutional violence he has uncovered are the subject of the latest from Poitras — an Oscar and Bafta winner for Citizenfour and nominee for All The Beauty And The Bloodshed — here directing with Emmy winner Obenhaus. Premiered at Venice and bought by Netflix, Cover-Up, which was nominated for two Critics Choice Documentary Awards, has a limited US theatrical release and global streaming launch in December.
Mistress Dispeller
Dir. Elizabeth Lo
An unfolding love triangle and the new Chinese industry of helping couples stay married in the face of infidelity are intimately documented in this Venice 2024 Horizons selection, winner of two of the festival’s parallel awards. Oscilloscope Laboratories picked up the Mandarin-language film — Lo’s follow-up to her Hot Docs prize-winning first feature Stray — for North America and gave it a limited US theatrical release in October.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Dir. Raoul Peck
A Bafta winner and Oscar nominee for 2016’s I Am Not Your Negro, Peck here interweaves historical clips, readings from the author’s diary and recent news footage to portray George Orwell and show the present-day relevance of his work. Acquired for North America by Neon before its premiere at Cannes, the film, winner of Critics Choice Documentary Awards for score and narration, had a national release in the US last month.
The Perfect Neighbor
Dir. Geeta Gandbhir
A tough and timely watch, this documentary, assembled largely from police bodycam footage, explores a neighbourhood dispute in Ocala, Florida that escalated with tragic consequences. A former editor, Gandbhir has previously won two Primetime Emmys, including one in 2007 for editing Spike Lee’s When The Levees Broke. The Perfect Neighbor premiered at Sundance, where Gandbhir won the directing award in the US Documentary section, and was acquired by Netflix, enjoying a spell as the streamer’s most-watched film in the US and going on to earn five wins at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
Predators
Dir. David Osit
An Emmy winner for Thank You For Playing and Mayor, Osit now tells the story of NBC series To Catch A Predator (2004-07), which used actor decoys to help entrap men pursuing young teenagers for sex. Also exploring current online copycat versions of the show, the doc launched at Sundance and was then acquired by MTV Documentary Films for the US and Dogwoof for the UK.
Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk
Dir. Sepideh Farsi
This France-Palestine co-production captures life under siege in Gaza through a series of video calls between Paris-based Iranian filmmaker Farsi and young Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed in an airstrike the day after the film was selected to premiere in the Acid parallel section at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Kino Lorber picked up North America rights and gave it a limited US theatrical launch in October.
Riefenstahl
Dir. Andres Veiel
Veiel uses previously unseen footage, recordings and letters from the Leni Riefenstahl estate to examine the legacy of the filmmaker and Nazi propagandist. Winner of the parallel Cinema & Arts award when it launched at Venice 2024, the doc opened in Germany last October and earned inclusion on the European Film Awards shortlist. Kino Lorber released in US cinemas in September, and Dogwoof in the UK in May.
The Tale Of Silyan
Dir. Tamara Kotevska
Kotevska’s Honeyland earned documentary and international Oscar nominations in 2019 and her latest, about the bond between a struggling farmer and an injured stork, has likewise been submitted by North Macedonia in the international feature category. National Geographic acquired worldwide rights to Silyan after its premiere in Venice — where it shared the parallel Cinema & Arts Award — and has set US and UK theatrical releases ahead of streaming on Disney+.
Films eligible for both Oscar and Bafta unless stated.
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