HBO back in Oscar documentary fray with strong film lineup including Cannes, Sundance and IDA award-winning All That Breathes

For years, HBO Documentary Films, led by Sheila Nevins, dominated the Oscars with nominations and wins left and right. But since her departure in 2018, she has faced an Oscar drought, at least in the documentary category. This could change dramatically this year.

HBO Documentary Films entered awards season with perhaps the strongest slate of nominees of any distributor, starting with Oscar favorite Aeverything that breathes (with theater partners Sideshow and Submarine Deluxe). Shaunak Sen’s lyrical film about two brothers in Delhi, India who rescue and rehabilitate injured raptors won the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary at Sundance and won the L’Œil d’or Prize for Documentary at Cannes. Anything that breathes kept the momentum going, taking top honors at the IDA Documentary Awards and a Cinema Eye Honors nomination on Saturday.

All the attention to prices confused Sen a little. “Just doing Sundance and Cannes, let alone winning them, is already high on my wish list,” he says. “It’s really something that doesn’t feel fully processed.”

This view can be shared by Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller, who acquired HBO Documentary Films from Nevins. You have another top Oscar contender monday dream, along with Neon, is by far the highest-grossing documentary released in theaters worldwide this year at $12 million. Brett Morgen’s film about David Bowie impressed with its poignant exploration of the late rock star’s artistic aspirations.

Morgen traveled the world in support of the film and gave an ongoing masterclass on Twitter, practically explaining his color grading decisions frame by frame. “It’s not just about aesthetics. Color has a huge impact on the pace of a movie,” he tweeted just before Thanksgiving. “Thrilled that so many of you find the color talk fascinating.”

HBO documentaries’ competitors certainly don’t stop there. It has too That janedirected by Tia Lessin and Emma Pildes, and master of light, a film about former artist George Anthony Morton, directed by Rosa Ruth Boesten and produced by a trio that includes Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams. It also features the IDA Award nominee Katrina Babiesby director Edward Buckles Jr., a documentary centered around reflections of people like Buckles, who were children when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

“They believed in my voice,” Buckles says of working with the HBO Documentary Films team. “Even when I was still looking for my voice, they were patient and said: ‘He will find her. …They have such good taste that they always believed in the project at every stage.”

Another polish is the HBO brand The balcony film (from HBO Europe), Paweł Łozinski’s curiously compelling documentary filmed entirely from his balcony overlooking a street in Warsaw, Poland All the beauty and the bloodshedAn Oscar favorite directed by Laura Poitras (citizen four). The Poitras film examines the life and work of artist Nan Goldin and highlights Goldin’s campaign to expose the role of the Sackler family – owners of OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma – in the opioid crisis. The artist became addicted to OxyContin and made it her mission to remove the Sackler name from many of the world’s leading museums that accepted reputation cleanup funds from wealthy philanthropists.

“When she started these protests,” Poitras noted when reviewing the documentary at the New York Film Festival, “I was so moved and inspired that Nan used her position in the art world to hold the Sackler family accountable. “

All the beauty and the bloodshed, winner of the Venice Golden Lion, was produced by Participant and brought to local cinemas by Neon, the independent production and distribution company that has become a permanent contender for Oscar documentaries. With All the beauty and the bloodshed and monday dreamNeon has an impressive list of babydirected by Rebeca Huntt and Three minutes – an overtimeby director Bianca Stigter, a film that conducts a forensic examination of rare images taken on the eve of World War II in a Jewish quarter of a Polish city.

The Academy’s documentary arm – which determines the shortlist of 15 feature films and the eventual five Oscar nominees – has welcomed many international members to its ranks in recent years. It helped open the door for internationally themed films that might not have made it otherwise, including recent nominees Write with fire (In the), The mole agent (Chile), collectively (Romania) and honey country (North Macedonia). The international factor may improve the prospects for several films this year A house of splintersSimon Leerg Wilmont’s documentary about an emergency shelter for children in eastern Ukraine to Evgeny Afineevsky’s Strom Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Struggle for Freedoma film that went into production almost immediately after Russia’s brutal invasion of its neighbor.

“We wanted to try to make sure that the war is not neglected,” says Afineevsky, “that people don’t forget that innocent people die every day.”

tanturafrom Israel and The young Platoset in a primary school in Northern Ireland, are among the other films that could benefit from Doc Branch’s international dimension.

National Geographic won the 2019 Oscar for Only freeand it’s back this year with two more Oscar favorites: fire of lovedirected by Sara Dosa, and the territoryDirected by Alex Pritz. fire of loveWinner of numerous awards around the world – including two at Saturday’s IDA Awards – tells the touching story of French couple Katia and Maurice Krafft, scientists whose obsessive exploration of volcanoes ultimately cost them their lives. the territory focuses on a part of the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, home to the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau indigenous people, whose protected lands are constantly under attack by miners, loggers and settlers. The invaders burned large areas of rainforest, threatening not only tribal peoples, but also one of the planet’s most important ecosystems.

“We’re now approaching 100 film festivals and it’s just been an incredible ride,” notes Pritz. “One of the most important things for us was that NatGeo supported us in releasing the film in Brazilian cinemas… The response from Brazil was overwhelmingly positive.”

decreasealso from National Geographic, is the latest Oscar nominee from filmmaker Matthew Heineman (cartel country, The first wave). Meanwhile, Netflix struggles with a quartet whose hopes are paramount sr.Chris Smith’s documentary about filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and his relationship with his son Robert Downey Jr. and descendant, directed by Margaret Brown, a native of Mobile, Alabama. It documents a mobile neighborhood called Africatown, founded in the 19th century by survivors of the Clotilda, the last known slave ship to enter American waters.

Netflix and Higher Ground, the production company founded by former President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, are being acquired descendant from the Sundance Film Festival, where the film won a Special Jury Award for Creative Vision. The Obamas made a surprise appearance on behalf of the film at the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival last August.

“descendant reminds us of the power of the stories we have,” Ms. Obama spotted at the event. President Obama said: “This documentary captures an important chapter in our history – one that is too often distorted, forgotten or buried… For the people of Africatown, it was a story of pain and extraordinary hardship, but also ‘ a story of strength, resilience.” and victory.”

Among other streaming powerhouses, Amazon Studios is struggling wild catdirected by Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost and Good night Oppie, directed by Ryan White. Amblin Entertainment’s latest film uses extraordinary visual effects from ILM to transport viewers to the surface of Mars, where NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers searched for evidence that organic life once existed on the red planet.

The announcement in late October that CNN was ceasing documentary production with outside partners under new CEO Chris Licht came as a shock to the nonfiction community. But CNN Films, which received an Oscar nomination in 2018 RBGcan go out with a bang with two new contenders: Gabby Giffords will not budgeout RBG Directors Julie Cohen and Betsy West and NavalnyDirected by Daniel Roher. Navalny focuses on Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader whose anti-corruption campaign and criticism of Vladimir Putin made him the target of a near-fatal poisoning attempt. He has won awards at film festivals from Seattle to Sundance.

MTV Documentary Films, now headed by Sheila Nevins – the former head of HBO Documentary Films – has received an Oscar nomination for 2021 Ascension of Christ and is back in the fight with Last flight homeDirector Ondi Timoner’s emotional film about her sick father, entrepreneur Eli Timoner, and his decision to end his life as allowed by California’s End of Life Option Act.

Shortlist wildcards include arm Axethe feature debut of IFC Films’ David Siev, Riotville, USA (magnolia photos), I didn’t see you there (XTR), mija (Disney Original Documentary), what we leave behind (release matrix), The corridors of power (Showtime) and Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power (Greenwich Entertainment/Candidate).

Two Apple Original Films competitors target American icons: Sydneythe Oprah-produced film about actor Sidney Poitier, directed by Reginald Hudlin and Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues, directed by Sacha Jenkins. The Armstrong film delves into the jazz great’s private audio recordings, which illuminate his struggles as an African-American artist and entertainer in a deeply racist society.

“Both Imagine Documentaries and Apple have been very supportive. And never in my career have I been so focused on my work and we work as a team and it feels great. You feel valued,” notes Jenkins. “There’s so much these days things that people can watch. There are so many platforms and networks and great documentaries that come out and are gone a week later.”

More than 140 documentaries were nominated for an Oscar, more than last year. They all compete for recognition that ensures they are not gone in a week, but will stand the test of time.