'Meru', 'Best of Enemies' in running for best doc at Indie Spirit Awards

Heart of a Dog and The Russian Woodpecker among other docs set to compete

Six films will compete for Best Documentary at the Spirit Awards, Film Independent announced today.

>Best of Enemies directed by Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon
>Heart of a Dog directed by Laurie Anderson
>The Look of Silence directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
>Meru directed by Jimmy Chin and E. Chai Vasarhelyi
>The Russian Woodpecker directed by Chad Gracia
>(T)error directed by Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe

The list of nominees differs considerably from the IDA Awards contenders announced on Nov. 4. Only two documentaries appear on both lists: The Look of Silence and The Russian Woodpecker.

The films that made the cut for the IDA Awards, but not for Independent Spirit, were Asif Kapadia's Amy, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution directed by Stanley Nelson; Stevan Riley's Listen to Me Marlon, and What Happened, Miss Simone? from director Liz Garbus.

Amy is among the most successful documentaries of recent years, with box office receipts in North America above $8 mil. Meru also has been a bit hit, earning more than $2 mil.; Best of Enemies is approaching the $1 mil. mark at the domestic box office.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards will be presented on Saturday, February 27, the day before the Academy Awards. The show will air live on IFC beginning at 5pm ET/2pm PT.