All 151 Oscar-Qualifying Documentaries for 2013
According to the wrap, 151 documentaries are eligible for the Academy Award. See also this.
Films not found on IMDb:
The Cinema: A Brief History of World Cinema
Gideon’s Army
It’s Better To Jump
Jodorwsky’s Dune
MisLead: America’s Secret Epidemic
Mondays With William
One PM Central Standard Time
Valentino’s Ghost
Walter: Lessons From The World’s Oldest People
Wampler’s Ascent
Films not found on IMDb:
The Cinema: A Brief History of World Cinema
Gideon’s Army
It’s Better To Jump
Jodorwsky’s Dune
MisLead: America’s Secret Epidemic
Mondays With William
One PM Central Standard Time
Valentino’s Ghost
Walter: Lessons From The World’s Oldest People
Wampler’s Ascent
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140 titles
- DirectorJoshua OppenheimerAnonymousChristine CynnStarsAnwar CongoHerman KotoSyamsul ArifinA documentary which challenges former Indonesian death-squad leaders to reenact their mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.
- DirectorMartha ShaneLana WilsonStarsGeorge TillerWarren HernLeroy CarhartThis thought provoking, sometimes troubling documentary examines the personal and ethical imperatives that drive abortion providers to continue in the face of often dangerous legal and personal harassment.
- DirectorWilliam HechterPeter MillerStarsWilli BurkeMarshall ChapmanShawn ColvinDoc Pomus was the unlikeliest of rock and roll icons. Paralyzed by polio as a child, Jerome Felder reinvented himself first as a blues singer, choosing the blues name Doc Pomus, and then as one of American popular music's greatest songwriters, creating "Save the Last Dance for Me," "This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Viva Las Vegas," and a thousand other songs. A.K.A. DOC POMUS brings to life Doc's joyous, heartbreaking, romantic, and extraordinarily eventful journey. Packed with incomparable music and rare archival imagery, its cast includes Dr. John, Ben E. King, Joan Osborne, Shawn Colvin, Dion, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, B.B. King, and Lou Reed, who also reads from Doc's powerful private journals. Doc's was a life of disability and possibility, tragedy and romance, and some of the greatest music ever recorded.
- DirectorNathaniel Thomas McGillVincent VittorioStarsMark AndolMerrie BuchsbaumRobert DeMartiniThis compelling new documentary explores the impact of American manufacturing on both ordinary citizens and the national economy.
- DirectorJoe BrewsterMichèle StephensonStarsIdris BrewsterJoe BrewsterMiles BrewsterThis intimate documentary follows the 12-year journey of two African-American families pursuing the promise of opportunity through the education of their sons.
- DirectorLaurent BoileauJung HeninStarsMaxym AnciauxMahé ColletChristelle CornilComic-book artist Jung returns to Seoul for the first time since he was abandoned at the age of 5.
- DirectorAlex GibneyStarsLance ArmstrongReed AlbergottiBetsy AndreuA documentary chronicling sports legend Lance Armstrong's improbable rise and ultimate fall from grace.
- DirectorFrederick WisemanStarsAnahid ModrekThe University of California at Berkeley, the oldest and most prestigious member of a ten campus public education system, is also one of the finest research and teaching facilities in the world. The film, At Berkeley, shows the major aspects of university life, its intellectual and social mission, its obligation to the state and to larger ideas of higher education, as well as illustrates how decisions are made and implemented by the administration in collaboration with its various constituencies.
- DirectorPhilippe BéziatStarsNatalie DessayJean-François SivadierLouis LangréeNatalie Dessay prepares to take on the role of Violetta in this documentary about the staging of Verdi's masterwork at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in France.
- DirectorSamantha BuckStarsAlyce BarnhardtCarla ByrdRobert CasparIn "Best Kept Secret," a Newark, NJ teacher struggles to prepare her students with autism to survive in the brutal world that awaits them once they graduate.
- DirectorMark MoriStarsBettie PageHugh HefnerOlivia de BerardinisThe world's greatest pinup model and cult icon, Bettie Page, recounts the true story of how her free expression overcame government witch-hunts to help launch America's sexual revolution.
- DirectorBeth GageGeorge GageStarsTim DeChristopherTim DeChristopher is Bidder 70, a young man who derailed an illegal BLM oil and gas auction in a courageous act of civil disobedience.
- DirectorRachel BoyntonThe film's central story follows a small group of American explorers at Dallas-based oil company Kosmos Energy. Between 2007 and 2011, with unprecedented, independent access, Big Men's two-person crew filmed inside the oil company as Kosmos and its partners discovered and developed the first commercial oil field in Ghana's history. Simultaneously the crew filmed in the swamps of Nigeria's Niger Delta, following the exploits of a militant gang to reveal another side of the economy of oil: people trying to profit in any way possible, because they've given up on waiting for the money to trickle down. So what happens when a group of hungry people discover a massive and exquisitely rare pot of gold in one of the poorest places on earth?
- DirectorOmar MullickBassam TariqStarsShehr AliQayyum BhaiAbdul Sattar EdhiA poor runaway boy and a reluctant ambulance driver in Karachi. Their two lives come together through a dying humanitarian upon whom so much of their daily lives depend.
- DirectorGabriela CowperthwaiteStarsTilikumDave DuffusSamantha BergA documentary following the controversial captivity of killer whales, and its dangers for both humans and whales.
- DirectorSteve HooverStarsRocky BraatSteve HooverAnithaDocumentarian visits best friend in India to see the mutual unconditional love that keeps his buddy bonded to a village hostel housing AIDS-afflicted children.
- DirectorCecilia PeckStarsLinor AbargilAliza AbargilJackie AbargilOne woman's quest to turn personal tragedy into global awareness.
- DirectorLinda Bloodworth-ThomasonStarsCindy BitneyDavid CroneJessica MitchellShane Bitney Crone's plans to marry Tom Bridegroom in California after the same-sex marriage law is passed takes a tragic turn when his partner of six years accidentally dies and Tom's family refuses Shane from attending the funeral.
- DirectorCurt M. FaudonThe Vienna Boys' Choir, arguably the most famous boys' choir, and one of the oldest boy music group in the world, is a cultural phenomenon. The boys are immensely popular worldwide and sing to sell-out crowds wherever they perform. Curt Faudon's film explores the Choir's universal appeal. In Bridging the Gap the boys discuss on camera why people sing, why they sing. 'Singing makes you grin, you cannot help it,' says one of them, while another volunteers, 'Singing consoles me.' Lukas has to think a bit before he admits to liking wild applause best of all, because that way he knows the choir has done a good job. Ivan cannot think of anything but becoming an opera singer, and Thomas explains how singing makes him feel connected with himself and others. They agree you need to connect with your audience. If you do, you can pretty much bridge any gap. They put the theory to the test, singing to (and with) other children and adults, in New Zealand, in India, in the United States. They demonstrate that singing overcomes differences between people, but also space, and ultimately time. The camera follows the boys at home and on their international tours, discovering new songs en route. The boys are seen rehearsing and performing with musicians from around the world. Bridging the gap between religions, the boys sing Hindu, Apache, Ringatu, and Christian spiritual music. We witness auditions in Japan, and Singapore, we see the boys rehearse alone and in groups, we see and hear their voices and their personalities develop, we watch them perform. We get a good idea of how difficult it is to get ready for a performance, and how much work the boys and their tutors and coaches have to put in. Bridging the Gap affords the viewer a privileged look backstage; we experience how music is made: by making music visible, the film bridges the gap between the performers and their audience.
- DirectorKatherine Fairfax WrightMalika Zouhali-WorrallStarsDavid BahatiLou EngleLong JohnIn Uganda, a new bill threatens to make homosexuality punishable by death. David Kato - Uganda's first openly gay man - and his fellow activists work against the clock to defeat the legislation while combating vicious persecution in their daily lives. But no one, not even the filmmakers, is prepared for the brutal murder that shakes the movement to its core and sends shock waves around the world.
- DirectorTom DonahueStarsDeborah AquilaRisa Bramon GarciaEllen ChenowethThe surprising, never-before-told tale of the indispensable yet unsung Casting Director - Iconoclasts whose keen eye, exquisite taste and gut instincts redefined Hollywood.
- DirectorJenni GoldStarsBen AffleckKyle MacLachlanBryan CranstonAn investigation into the way media portrayals impact the actual inclusion of people with disabilities in society.
- DirectorJohn MulhollandStarsSam WaterstonLen CariouNancy CrawfordCooper and Hemingway: The True Gen is an unprecedented look at the bond between two of the most iconic artists of the 20th century.Utter opposites... nothing in common. The cowboy and the suburbanite. The conservative and the liberal. And yet these two artists (a word both men scoffed at) were the best of friends, right up to their deaths a mere seven weeks apart in 1961. But is the friendship of these two men really so surprising? A study of these two men is a study of the 20th century. Their internationally renowned careers (Cooper, two Best Actor Academy Awards; Hemingway, Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes) were played out over the same turbulent decades: the hedonistic 20s, the grim Depression 30s, the war-ravaged 40s, and the deceptively slumbering 50s; throughout, their public and private lives connected, parted, re-connected, intertwined, over-lapped, and collided. It is no small irony that the lives of these two men should suffer untimely ends at the dawn of the erupting sixties. Their final, poignant chapter closed at the beginning of a decade which would challenge many of the very ideals and precepts which both men so prominently represented.And yet, decades later, we have Liam Neeson reflecting: "...the character of Bryan Mills (Taken) fits into a cinematic iconic figure that we all recognize from way back ... I'm thinking of Gary Cooper in High Noon, who is kind of a Bryan Mills. That kind of iconic figure that audiences seem to be attracted to."Perhaps Cooper and Hemingway didn't really pass the torch, perhaps they merely leant it.
- DirectorLucy WalkerStarsKevin PearceShaun WhiteMason AguirreFifteen years of verite footage show the epic rivalry between half-pipe legends Shaun White and Kevin Pearce, childhood friends who become number one and two in the world leading up to the Vancouver Winter Olympics, pushing one another to ever more dangerous tricks, until Kevin crashes on a Park City half-pipe, barely surviving. As Kevin recovers from his injury, Shaun wins Gold. Now all Kevin wants to do is get on his snowboard again, even though medics and family fear this could kill him. We also celebrate Sarah Burke who crashed in Park City and died January 19, 2012.
- DirectorZach HeinzerlingStarsUshio ShinoharaNoriko ShinoharaAlex ShinoharaThis candid New York love story explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of famed boxing painter Ushio Shinohara and his wife, Noriko. Anxious to shed her role as her overbearing husband's assistant, Noriko finds an identity of her own.