124 docs qualify for Oscar competition; big name directors in the hunt

Michael Moore, Davis Guggenheim, Alex Gibney among previous Oscar winners with new contenders

The Oscar race for Best Documentary is officially underway,

The Motion Picture Academy today revealed its list of films that qualified for consideration this year -- 124 features in all. To qualify [for starters], documentaries must have screened theatrically in New York and Los Angeles for at least a week. [Read the full list of rules and regs here, or see below]

Among the high-profile contenders are Where to Invade Next, Michael Moore's latest; He Named Me Malala, Davis Guggenheim's new film which is now in theaters, andAmy, from director Asif Kapadia, one of the breakout documentaries of the year.

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Oscar-winner Alex Gibney qualified two films: Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, based on the book by Lawrence Wright. Both films attracted controversy; the latter describes Scientology as a cult, earning the wrath of the Church, which has condemned Gibney for what it calls religious intolerance.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Amy Berg also qualified two films: Prophet's Prey, about the imprisoned Fundamentalist Mormon Church leader Warren Jeffs, and Janis: Little Girl Blue, the portrait of the late singer Janis Joplin, which played at the Toronto International Film Festival last month.

Ethan Hawke's documentary Seymour: An Introduction, about pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein, qualified as did Bobcat Goldthwait's Call Me Lucky. Three mountaineering-themed films got in: Sunshine Superman, Meru and Sherpa. 

All of them are hoping to carry off the coveted Oscar statuette, which -- let's face it -- is the most prestigious award for a documentary filmmaker [apologies to the DGA Award and IDA Award]. 

Photo by Matt Carey

The 88th Annual Academy Awards will be broadcast on ABC February 28, 2016. Nominations will be announced six weeks before that, on January 14, 2016.

Here is the full list of 124 qualifying films, as announced by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Science [A.M.P.A.S.]:

“Above and Beyond”
“All Things Must Pass”
“Amy”
“The Armor of Light”
“Ballet 422”
“Batkid Begins”
“Becoming Bulletproof”
“Being Evel”
“Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery”
“Best of Enemies”
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”
“Bolshoi Babylon”
“Brand: A Second Coming”
“A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story”
“Call Me Lucky”
“Cartel Land”
“Censored Voices”
“Champs”
“CodeGirl”
“Coming Home”
“Dark Horse”
“Deli Man”
“Dior and I”
“The Diplomat”
“(Dis)Honesty – The Truth about Lies”
“Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”
“Dreamcatcher”
“dream/killer”
“Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon”
“Eating Happiness”
“Every Last Child”
“Evidence of Harm”
“Farewell to Hollywood”
“Finders Keepers”
“The Forecaster”
“Frame by Frame”
“Gardeners of Eden”
“A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile”
“Godspeed: The Story of Page Jones”
“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”
“He Named Me Malala”
“Heart of a Dog”
“Hitchcock/Truffaut”
“How to Change the World”
“Human”
“The Hunting Ground”
“I Am Chris Farley”
“In Jackson Heights”
“In My Father’s House”
“India’s Daughter”
“Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words”
“Iraqi Odyssey”
“Iris”
“Janis: Little Girl Blue”
“Karski & the Lords of Humanity”
“Killing Them Safely”
“Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck”
“Lambert & Stamp”
“A Lego Brickumentary”
“Listen to Me Marlon”
“Live from New York!”
“The Look of Silence”
“Meet the Patels”
“Meru”
“The Mind of Mark DeFriest”
“Misery Loves Comedy”
“Monkey Kingdom”
“A Murder in the Park”
“My Italian Secret”
“My Voice, My Life”
“1971”
“Of Men and War”
“One Cut, One Life”
“Only the Dead See the End of War”
“The Outrageous Sophie Tucker”
“Peace Officer”
“The Pearl Button”
“Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer”
“Poached”
“Polyfaces”
“The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers”
“Prophet’s Prey”
“Racing Extinction”
“The Resurrection of Jake the Snake”
“Ride the Thunder – A Vietnam War Story of Victory & Betrayal”
“Rosenwald”
“The Russian Woodpecker”
“Searching for Home: Coming Back from War”
“Seeds of Time”
“Sembene!”
“The Seven Five”
“Seymour: An Introduction”
“Sherpa”
“A Sinner in Mecca”
“Something Better to Come”
“Song from the Forest”
“Song of Lahore”
“Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine”
“Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans”
“Stray Dog”
“Sunshine Superman”
“Sweet Micky for President”
“Tab Hunter Confidential”
“The Tainted Veil”
“Tap World”
“(T)error”
“Thao’s Library”
“Those Who Feel the Fire Burning”
“3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets”
“The Touch of an Angel”
“TransFatty Lives”
“The True Cost”
“Twinsters”
“Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists”
“The Wanted 18”
“We Are Many”
“We Come as Friends”
“We Were Not Just…Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism”
“Welcome to Leith”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy”
“Where to Invade Next”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”
“The Wolfpack”