Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film
Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film | |
---|---|
Country | United States |
Presented by | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) |
First awarded | 1941 |
Most recent winner | Ben Proudfoot Kris Bowers The Last Repair Shop for (2023) |
Website | oscars |
This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year. Copies of every winning film (along with copies of most nominees) are held by the Academy Film Archive.[1] Fifteen films are shortlisted before nominations are announced.
Rules and eligibility
Per the recent rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a Short Subject Documentary is defined as a nonfiction motion picture "dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects".[2] It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact, and not on fiction. It must have a run time of no more than 40 minutes and released during a special eligibility period which may vary from year to year, but generally begins the month of October of the prior year and ends in September of the award year. (This eligibility differs from most other Academy Award categories which only includes films released between January and December of the award year.) The documentary's release must also occur within two years of the film's completion, and there are also rules governing the formatting of audio and video used to produce and exhibit the picture.
In addition, to be eligible the film must meet one of the following criteria:
- complete a commercial showing of at least 7 days in either Los Angeles County, California or anywhere in New York City before being released to other non-theatrical venues such as DVD or TV; or
- regardless of any public exhibition or nontheatrical release the film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified by the Academy; or
- win a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award in the Documentary category of the Academy's Student Academy Award Competition.
The film must run daily for seven days, open to the public for paid admission, and must be advertised in one of the city's major circulars during its run, with screening times included. Additionally, the film must be shown at least once during every day of its qualifying run. Unlike the Best Documentary Feature award, whose rules mandate at least one screening starting between noon and 10 pm local time on each day of the qualifying run, there is no restriction on the start time of any screening. The film must have narration or dialogue primarily in English or with English subtitles, and must be the whole of an original work. Partial edits from larger works and episodes from serialized films are not eligible.[2][3]
Eligibility rules for prior years may have differed from these.
Nomination process
The Documentary Branch of the Academy first votes to select ten pictures for preliminary nomination, after which a second round of balloting is conducted to select the five documentary nominees. The entire Academy membership will then vote for one of these five for the Oscar. A maximum of two people involved with the production of the documentary may be nominated for the award, one of whom must be the film's credited director. One producer may also be nominated, but if more than one non-director producer is credited the Academy Documentary Branch will vet the producers to select the one they believe was most involved in the creation of the film.[4]
Winners and nominees
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
Year | Film | Nominees |
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1970 (43rd) | Interviews with My Lai Veterans | Joseph Strick |
The Gifts | Robert McBride | |
A Long Way from Nowhere | Bob Aller | |
Oisin | Patrick Carey and Vivien Carey | |
Time Is Running Out | Horst Dallmayr and Robert Menegoz | |
1971 (44th) | ||
Sentinels of Silence | Manuel Arango and Robert Amram | |
Adventures in Perception | Han van Gelder | |
Art Is... | Julian Krainin and DeWitt L. Sage Jr. | |
The Numbers Start with the River | Donald Wrye | |
Somebody Waiting | Hal Riney, Dick Snider and Sherwood Omens | |
1972 (45th) | ||
This Tiny World | Charles and Martina Huguenot van der Linden | |
Hundertwasser's Rainy Day | Peter Schamoni | |
K-Z | Giorgio Treves | |
Selling Out | Tadeusz Jaworski | |
The Tide of Traffic | Humphrey Swingler | |
1973 (46th) | ||
Princeton: A Search for Answers | Julian Krainin and DeWitt Sage | |
Background | Carmen D'Avino | |
Children at Work (Paisti Ag Obair) | Louis Marcus | |
Christo's Valley Curtain | Albert Maysles and David Maysles | |
Four Stones for Kanemitsu | Terry Sanders and June Wayne | |
1974 (47th) | ||
Don't | Robin Lehman | |
City Out of Wilderness | Francis Thompson | |
Exploratorium | Jon Boorstin | |
John Muir's High Sierra | Dewitt Jones and Lesley Foster | |
Naked Yoga | Ronald S. Kass and Mervyn Lloyd | |
1975 (48th) | ||
The End of the Game | Claire Wilbur and Robin Lehman | |
Arthur and Lillie | Jon Else, Steven Kovacs and Kristine Samuelson | |
Millions of Years Ahead of Man | Manfred Baier | |
Probes in Space | George V. Casey | |
Whistling Smith | Barrie Howells and Michael Scott | |
1976 (49th) | ||
Number Our Days | Lynne Littman and Barbara Myerhoff | |
American Shoeshine | Sparky Greene | |
Blackwood | Tony Ianzelo and Andy Thomson | |
The End of the Road | John Armstrong | |
Universe | Lester Novros | |
1977 (50th) | ||
Gravity Is My Enemy | John C. Joseph and Jan Stussy | |
Agueda Martinez: Our People, Our Country | Moctesuma Esparza | |
First Edition | Helen Whitney and DeWitt L. Sage Jr. | |
Of Time, Tombs and Treasures | James R. Messenger and Paul N. Raimondi | |
The Shetland Experience | Douglas Gordon | |
1978 (51st) | ||
The Flight of the Gossamer Condor | Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd | |
The Divided Trail: A Native American Odyssey | Jerry Aronson | |
An Encounter with Faces | K.K. Kapil | |
Goodnight Miss Ann | August Cinquegrana | |
Squires of San Quentin | J. Gary Mitchell | |
1979(52nd) | ||
Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist | Saul J. Turell | |
Dae | Risto Teofilovski | |
Koryo Celadon | Donald A. Connolly and James R. Messenger | |
Nails | Phillip Borsos | |
Remember Me | Dick Young |
1980s
Year | Film | Nominees |
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1980 (53rd) | Karl Hess: Toward Liberty | Roland Hallé and Peter Ladue |
Don't Mess with Bill | John Watson and Pen Densham | |
The Eruption of Mount St. Helens | George Casey | |
It's the Same World | Dick Young | |
Luther Metke at 94 | Richard Hawkins and Jorge Preloran | |
1981 (54th) | ||
Close Harmony | Nigel Noble | |
Americas in Transition | Obie Benz | |
Journey for Survival | Dick Young | |
See What I Say | Linda Chapman, Pam LeBlanc and Freddi Stevens | |
Urge to Build | Roland Hallé and John Hoover | |
1982 (55th) | ||
If You Love This Planet | Edward Le Lorrain and Terre Nash | |
Gods of Metal | Robert Richter | |
The Klan: A Legacy of Hate in America | Charles Guggenheim and Werner Schumann | |
To Live or Let Die | Freida Lee Mock | |
Traveling Hopefully | John G. Avildsen | |
1983 (56th) | ||
Flamenco at 5:15 | Cynthia Scott and Adam Symansky | |
In the Nuclear Shadow: What Can the Children Tell Us? | Vivienne Verdon-Roe and Eric Thiermann | |
Sewing Woman | Arthur Dong | |
Spaces: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph | Robert Eisenhardt | |
You Are Free (Ihr Zent Frei) | Dea Brokman and Ilene Landis | |
1984 (57th) | ||
The Stone Carvers | Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner | |
The Children of Soong Ching Ling | Gary Bush and Paul T.K. Lin | |
Code Gray: Ethical Dilemmas in Nursing | Ben Achtenberg and Joan Sawyer | |
The Garden of Eden | Lawrence R. Hott and Roger M. Sherman | |
Recollections of Pavlovsk | Irina Kalinina | |
1985 (58th) | ||
Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements | David Goodman | |
The Courage to Care | Robert Gardner | |
Keats and His Nightingale: A Blind Date | Michael Crowley and James Wolpaw | |
Making Overtures: The Story of a Community Orchestra | Barbara Willis Sweete | |
The Wizard of the Strings | Alan Edelstein | |
1986 (59th) | ||
Women – for America, for the World | Vivienne Verdon-Roe | |
Debonair Dancers | Alison Nigh-Strelich | |
The Masters of Disaster | Sonya Friedman | |
Red Grooms: Sunflower in a Hothouse | Thomas L. Neff and Madeline Bell | |
Sam | Aaron D. Weisblatt | |
1987 (60th) | ||
Young at Heart | Sue Marx and Pamela Conn | |
Frances Steloff: Memoirs of a Bookseller | Deborah Dickson | |
In the Wee Wee Hours... | Dr. Frank Daniel and Izak Ben-Meir | |
Language Says It All | Megan Williams | |
Silver into Gold | Lynn Mueller | |
1988 (61st) | ||
You Don't Have to Die | Malcolm Clarke and Bill Guttentag | |
The Children's Storefront | Karen Goodman | |
Family Gathering | Lise Yasui and Ann Tegnell | |
Gang Cops | Thomas B. Fleming and Daniel J. Marks | |
Portrait of Imogen | Nancy Hale and Meg Partridge | |
1989(62nd) | ||
The Johnstown Flood | Charles Guggenheim | |
Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9 | David Petersen | |
Yad Vashem: Preserving the Past to Ensure the Future | Ray Errol Fox |
1990s
Year | Film | Nominees |
---|---|---|
1990 (63rd) | Days of Waiting | Steven Okazaki |
Burning Down Tomorrow | Kit Thomas | |
Chimps: So Like Us | Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon | |
Journey Into Life: The World of the Unborn | Derek Bromhall | |
Rose Kennedy: A Life to Remember | Freida Lee Mock and Terry Sanders | |
1991 (64th) | ||
Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment | Debra Chasnoff | |
Birdnesters of Thailand (Shadow Hunters) | Éric Valli and Alain Majani | |
A Little Vicious | Immy Humes | |
The Mark of the Maker | David McGowan | |
Memorial: Letters from American Soldiers | Bill Couturié and Bernard Edelman | |
1992 (65th) | ||
Educating Peter | Thomas C. Goodwin (posthumously) and Gerardine Wurzburg | |
At the Edge of Conquest: The Journey of Chief Wai-Wai | Geoffrey O'Connor | |
Beyond Imagining: Margaret Anderson and the 'Little Review' | Wendy L. Weinberg | |
The Colours of My Father: A Portrait of Sam Borenstein | Richard Elson and Sally Bochner | |
When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories | Dorothy Fadiman | |
1993 (66th) | ||
Defending Our Lives | Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich | |
Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann | Steven Cantor and Peter Spirer | |
Chicks in White Satin | Elaine Holliman and Jason Schneider | |
1994 (67th) | ||
A Time for Justice | Charles Guggenheim | |
Blues Highway | Vince DiPersio and Bill Guttentag | |
89 mm od Europy (89mm from Europe) | Marcel Łoziński | |
School of Assassins | Robert Richter | |
Straight from the Heart | Dee Mosbacher and Frances Reid | |
1995 (68th) | ||
One Survivor Remembers | Kary Antholis | |
Jim Dine: A Self-Portrait on the Walls | Nancy Dine and Richard Stilwell | |
The Living Sea | Greg MacGillivray and Alec Lorimore | |
Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper | Terry Sanders and Freida Lee Mock | |
The Shadow of Hate | Charles Guggenheim | |
1996 (69th) | ||
Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien | Jessica Yu | |
Cosmic Voyage | Jeffrey Marvin and Bayley Silleck | |
An Essay on Matisse | Perry Wolff | |
Special Effects: Anything Can Happen | Susanne Simpson and Ben Burtt | |
The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage | Paul Seydor and Nick Redman | |
1997 (70th) | ||
A Story of Healing | Donna Dewey and Carol Pasternak | |
Alaska: Spirit of the Wild | George Casey and Paul Novros | |
Amazon | Kieth Merrill and Jonathan Stern | |
Daughter of the Bride | Terri Randall | |
Still Kicking: The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies | Mel Damski and Andrea Blaugrund | |
1998 (71st) | ||
The Personals: Improvisations on Romance in the Golden Years | Keiko Ibi | |
A Place in the Land | Charles Guggenheim | |
Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square | Shui-Bo Wang and Donald McWilliams | |
1999(72nd) | ||
King Gimp | Susan Hannah Hadary and William A. Whiteford | |
Eyewitness | Bert Van Bork | |
The Wildest Show in the South: The Angola Prison Rodeo | Simeon Soffer and Jonathan Stack |
2000s
Year | Film | Nominees |
---|---|---|
2000 (73rd) | Big Mama | Tracy Seretean |
Curtain Call | Chuck Braverman and Steve Kalafer | |
Dolphins | Greg MacGillivray and Alec Lorimore | |
The Man on Lincoln's Nose | Daniel Raim | |
On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom | Eric Simonson and Leelai Demoz | |
2001 (74th) | ||
Thoth | Sarah Kernochan and Lynn Appelle | |
Artists and Orphans: A True Drama | Lianne Klapper McNally | |
Sing! | Freida Lee Mock and Jessica Sanders | |
2002 (75th) | ||
Twin Towers | Bill Guttentag and Robert David Port | |
The Collector of Bedford Street | Alice Elliott | |
Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks | Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston | |
Why Can't We Be a Family Again? | Roger Weisberg and Murray Nossel | |
2003 (76th) | ||
Chernobyl Heart | Maryann DeLeo | |
Asylum | Sandy McLeod and Gini Reticker | |
Ferry Tales | Katja Esson | |
2004 (77th) | ||
Mighty Times: The Children's March | Robert Hudson and Robert Houston | |
Autism Is a World | Gerardine Wurzburg | |
The Children of Leningradsky | Hanna Polak and Andrzej Celinski | |
Hardwood | Hubert Davis and Erin Faith Young | |
Sister Rose's Passion | Oren Jacoby and Steve Kalafer | |
2005 (78th) | ||
A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin | Corinne Marrinan and Eric Simonson | |
The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club | Dan Krauss | |
God Sleeps in Rwanda | Kimberlee Acquaro and Stacy Sherman | |
The Mushroom Club | Steven Okazaki | |
2006 (79th) | ||
The Blood of Yingzhou District | Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon | |
Recycled Life | Leslie Iwerks and Mike Glad | |
Rehearsing a Dream | Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon | |
Two Hands | Nathaniel Kahn and Susan Rose Behr | |
2007 (80th) | ||
Freeheld | Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth | |
La Corona (The Crown) | Amanda Micheli and Isabel Vega | |
Salim Baba | Tim Sternberg and Francisco Bello | |
Sari's Mother | James Longley | |
2008 (81st) | ||
Smile Pinki | Megan Mylan | |
The Conscience of Nhem En | Steven Okazaki | |
The Final Inch | Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant | |
The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 | Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde | |
2009(82nd) | ||
Music by Prudence | Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett | |
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province | Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill | |
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner | Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher | |
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant | Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert | |
Rabbit à la Berlin | Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra |
2010s
2020s
Multiple wins
Individuals with multiple wins
- 3 wins
- 2 wins
- Malcolm Clarke
- Walt Disney
- Bill Guttentag
- Robin Lehman
- Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
- Ben Proudfoot
Studios with multiple wins
- 4 wins
- 3 wins
Individuals with multiple nominations
|
Notes
- ^ A preliminary list of 21 films were announced as nominees, but the Documentary Award Committee subsequently narrowed the field to 7 titles included on the final ballot. The 14 films that did not advance were: Bismarck Convoy Smashed (Australian Department of Information Film Unit), Day of Battle (United States Office of War Information Domestic Motion Picture Bureau), The Dutch Tradition (National Film Board of Canada), Kill or Be Killed (British Ministry of Information), The Labor Front (National Film Board of Canada), Land of My Mother (Polish Information Centre), Letter from Livingston (United States Army 4th Signal Photographic Unit), Life Line (United States Army Pictorial Service), The Rear Gunner (United States Department of War), Servant of a Nation (Union of South Africa), Task Force (United States Coast Guard), The Voice That Thrilled the World (Warner Bros.), Water, Friend or Enemy (Walt Disney), and Wings Up (United States Army Air Force 1st Motion Picture Unit).
- ^ a b A press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 stated that "Documentary Short Subject winners Benjy (1951) and Neighbours (1952) are among a group of films that not only competed, but won Academy Awards in what were clearly inappropriate categories. Benjy, directed by Fred Zinnemann and narrated by Henry Fonda, is the fictional tale of a crippled boy. The film was used as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital... Norman McLaren's Neighbours, which today would compete in the Animated Short category, used 'pixelation' – animation using living people – to create an allegory of war."
References
- ^ "Academy Award-Winning Documentaries". Academy Film Archive. 4 September 2014.
- ^ a b "Rule Eleven: Special Rules for the Documentary Awards" (PDF). 92nd Academy Awards of Merit: Rules. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ^ "Rule Nineteen: Special Rules for the Short Film Awards" (PDF). 92nd Academy Awards of Merit: Rules. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 24, 2019. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
- ^ "88TH 88th Academy Awards - Special Rules for the Documentary Awards" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ^ "The Official Academy Awards Database". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on February 27, 2009. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
- ^ "Oscar's Docs Resumes with Nature Documentaries". Oscars.org. Archived from the original on April 11, 2008. Retrieved November 26, 2008.
- ^ "Academy Awards 2017: Complete list of Oscar winners and nominees". Los Angeles Times. February 26, 2017. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
- ^ Hipes, Patrick (January 23, 2018). "Oscar Nominations: 'The Shape Of Water' Leads Way With 13". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 23, 2018.
See also
- v
- t
- e
- Picture
- Director
- Actor
- Actress
- Supporting Actor
- Supporting Actress
- Adapted Screenplay
- Original Screenplay
- Animated Feature
- Documentary Feature Film
- International Feature Film
- Animated Short Film
- Documentary Short Film
- Live Action Short Film
- Cinematography
- Costume Design
- Film Editing
- Makeup and Hairstyling
- Original Score
- Original Song
- Production Design
- Sound
- Visual Effects
Proposed awards |
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Governors Awards | |
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Academy Scientific and Technical Awards | |
Student Awards |
Merit Awards | |
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Special Awards |
(years of film release)
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