Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast takes a look at the Oscar shortlist, from the frontrunners, surprises and omissions to that one “direct, hard nose”

The list of documentaries still eligible for the Oscars has been whittled down to 15 finalists, a brutal selection from a contingent of 167 qualifiers. The annual shortlist announcement leaves a handful of filmmakers jubilant, many more disappointed, and documentary watchers plenty to talk about.

by Oscar winners Davis Guggenheim and Roger Ross Williams as well as Oscar nominees Matthew Heineman, Maite Alberdi and Kaouther Ben Hania. The shortlist recognized filmmakers from Tunisia, Denmark, Poland, Ukraine, Chile, Uganda, Canada and the United States, further proving that the international members of the Oscar Documentary Division were instrumental in determining the non-fiction films selected in the race stay. for nominations.

There were many treats and surprises on the shortlist. The new episode of Doc Talk explores why legends like Errol Morris and Frederick Wiseman missed the cut and why the trans issue Kokomo City – winner from Sundance to Berlin – may have been too candid for Doc Branch’s taste. And Ridley, the Oscar-winning filmmaker and director, expresses his dismay (is outrage too strong a word?) at criticism of a documentary that takes a highly original approach to examining a neglected region of America. “I’m very disappointed,” Ridley said of the omission. “This is a harsh, direct condemnation.”

Ridley and Carey highlight a documentary’s posthumous recognition of a beloved character who died unexpectedly last summer, just weeks after the release of their film, which explored the cultural relevance of one of the most important films of the 1960s.

That’s according to the latest episode of Doc Talk, the podcast produced by Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios. Doc Talk is presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.