Motion Picture Academy invites Ford, Fayyad, Afineevsky, Waterlow and more to join Oscar Documentary Branch

Some major names get the call, but Oscar winners Bryan Fogel, Frank Stiefel left off admissions list

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has invited 928 people to join its august ranks, including a wide range of documentary filmmakers. A total of 87 directors, editors and other talent from the nonfiction world were offered the opportunity to join the Oscar Documentary Branch Monday, including two of this year's Documentary Feature nominees -- Yance Ford (Strong Island) and Feras Fayyad (Last Men in Aleppo). 

Evgeny Afineevsky, Oscar-nominated in 2016 for Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, earned an invitation as did Caroline Waterlow, producer of the 2017  winner for Documentary Feature, O.J.: Made in America. The filmmaking team of Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, directors of the 2012 Oscar-winning documentary Undefeated as well as 2017's shortlisted doc LA 92, also received invitations.

New members will be welcomed into the Academy at invitation-only receptions in the fall. 

--From a statement issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

But notably absent from the list of invitees were Bryan Fogel, director of this year's Oscar-winning documentary Icarus and Frank Stiefel, who won the Oscar for Documentary Short Subject this year for Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405. Icarus was Fogel's first documentary project and the Academy, which typically offers membership only to those with multiple credits within a specific branch, may have decided to hold off on an invitation for him. Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405 marked the second documentary short Stiefel has directed, after 2009's Ingelore. 

​Among other invitees announced Monday were Jeff Orlowski, director of the environmentally-themed documentaries Chasing Coral (2017) and Chasing Ice (2012); Greg Barker, director of numerous documentaries including 2017's The Final Year; Everardo González, director of La Libertad del Diablo (Devil's Freedom); Bernardo Ruiz, director of Kingdom of Shadows; Nanfu Wang, director of Hooligan Sparrow; Catherine Gund, director of 2017's Chavela; Carla Gutierrez, editor of Chavela and the current hit documentary RBG; Jennifer Kroot, director of The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin; Simon Kilmurry, former executive producer of the documentary program POV and the current executive director of the International Documentary Association, and Caroline Libresco, a documentary producer and a senior programmer at the Sundance Film Festival. Keri Putnam, head of the Sundance Institute, received an invitation to join the Academy as an at-large member. Shannon Treusch, a founding partner of PR firm Falco Ink who has represented numerous documentary projects, received an invitation to join the Academy's Publicity Branch. 

A sample of some of the people invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch.

"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is extending invitations to join the organization to 928 artists and executives who have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2018," the Academy said in a statement Monday, noting, "New members will be welcomed into the Academy at invitation-only receptions in the fall."

​Editor Lillian Benson (Maya Angelou and Still I Rise, Eyes on the Prize) was one of 10 people invited to join the Academy in multiple branches -- in her case the Documentary and Editors branches. Per Academy guidelines, Benson and the other nine to earn multiple invitations will have to select a single branch they prefer to join. 

Photos of some of the directors and other talent invited to join the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

This s the full list of people invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Documentary Branch:

Evgeny Afineevsky – “Cries from Syria,” “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom”
Claire Aguilar – “The Interrupters,” “Last Train Home”
Maite Alberdi – “Los Niños (The Grown-Ups),” “La Once (Tea Time)”
Greg Barker – “The Final Year,” “Sergio”
Francisco Bello – “The Reagan Show,” “Salim Baba”
Julie Parker Benello – “The Barber of Birmingham,” “Blue Vinyl”
Lillian Benson – “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise,” “Wounded Knee”
Mahen Bonetti
Dora Bouchoucha – “Ouled Ammar (A Doomed Generation),” “It Was Better Tomorrow”
Pietra Brettkelly – “Yellow Is Forbidden,” “A Flickering Truth”
Jenny Carchman – “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” “Koch”
Katy Chevigny – “E-Team,” “1971”
Petra Costa – “Olmo & the Seagull,” “Elena”
Natasha Dack-Ojumu – “The Lovers and the Despot,” “After the Apocalypse”
Paco de Onís – “500 Years,” “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator”
Tom Donahue – “Thank You for Your Service,” “Casting By”
Sara Dosa – “Audrie & Daisy,” “The Last Season”
Du Haibin – “A Young Patriot,” “1428”
Sigrid Dyekjaer – “Something Better to Come,” “The Monastery”
Don Edkins – “Mama Africa,” “Please Vote for Me”
Wendy Ettinger – “The War Room,” “Hotel Gramercy Park”
Fan Jian – “Still Tomorrow,” “Wu Tu, My Land”
Feras Fayyad – “Last Men in Aleppo,” “Untold Stories”
Greg Finton – “He Named Me Malala,” “It Might Get Loud”
Yance Ford – “Strong Island,” “The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández”
Tony Gerber – “Jane,” “Full Battle Rattle”
Sari Gilman – “Trapped,” “Kings Point”
Everardo González – “La Libertad del Diablo (Devil’s Freedom),” “Drought (Cuates de Australia)” Barak Goodman – “Oklahoma City,” “Scottsboro: An American Tragedy”
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon – “Quest,” “BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez”
Catherine Gund – “Chavela,” “Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity”
Carla Gutierrez – “RBG,” “When Two Worlds Collide”
David Heilbroner – “Traffic Stop,” “Stonewall Uprising”
Lynn Hershman Leeson – “!Women Art Revolution,” “Strange Culture”
Tatiana Huezo – “Tempestad,” “The Tiniest Place”
Leslie Iwerks – “Citizen Hearst,” “Recycled Life”
Alexandra Johnes – “Holy Hell,” “Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”
Gema Juarez Allen – “Ruben Blades Is Not My Name,” “Soldado”
Senain Kheshgi – “The Diplomat,” “Project Kashmir”
Simon Kilmurry – “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front,” “My Perestroika”
Philippa Kowarsky – “Night Will Fall,” “The Gatekeepers”
Jennifer M. Kroot – “The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin,” “To Be Takei”
David Lawson – “The Stuart Hall Project,” “The Nine Muses”
James LeBrecht – “The Force,” “Extremis”
Caroline Libresco – “American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” “Sunset Story”
Daniel Lindsay – “LA 92,” “Undefeated”
Stephen Maing – “Crime + Punishment,” “High Tech, Low Life”
Steven Markovitz – “Beats of the Antonov,” “Behind the Rainbow”
TJ Martin – “LA 92,” “Undefeated”
Ivy Meeropol – “Indian Point,” “Heir to an Execution”
Robb Moss – “Secrecy,” “The Same River Twice”
Laura Nix – “ Inventing Tomorrow,” “The Yes Men Are Revolting”
Femi Odugbemi – “Literature, Language, and Literalism,” “Bariga Boy”
Jeff Orlowski – “Chasing Coral,” “Chasing Ice”
Nikki Parrott – “McCullin,” “Only When I Dance”
Cecilia A. Peck – “Brave Miss World,” “Shut Up & Sing”
Josh Penn – “Contemporary Color,” “The Last Season”
Pedro Pimenta – “A Ilha dos Espíritos (Island of Spirits),” “Memories of Dreams”
Martina Radwan – “The Final Year,” “Saving Face”
Maria Augusta Ramos – “Morro dos Prazeres (Hill of Pleasures),” “Justice (Justiça)”
Jenny Raskin – “Here Come the Videofreex,” “On Hostile Ground”
B. Ruby Rich
Caitrin Rogers – “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble,” ”20 Feet from Stardom”
Jenna Rosher – “Janis: Little Girl Blue,” “Jesus Camp”
Bill Ross – “Western,” “Tchoupitoulas”
Turner Ross – “Western,” “Tchoupitoulas”
Andrew Rossi – “The First Monday in May,” “Ivory Tower”
Bernardo Ruiz – “Kingdom of Shadows,” “Reportero”
Juan Carlos Rulfo – “Those Who Remain,” “In the Pit”
Toby Shimin – “32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide,” “Buck”
Mohamed Siam – “Amal,” “Whose Country?”
Marcia Smith – “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”
Helena Solberg – “Palavra (En)cantada,” “Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business”
Nicole Stott – “Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist,” “Keep Quiet”
Marty Syjuco – “Almost Sunrise,” “Give Up Tomorrow”
Orinne J.T. Takagi – “Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People,” “4 Little Girls” Tan Pin Pin – “To Singapore, with Love,” “Singapore GaGa”
Clay Tweel – “Gleason,” “Finders Keepers”
Iikka Vehkalahti – “Machines,” “Tarinoiden Suomi (The Stories of Finland)” Lois Vossen – “Tower,” “Newtown”
Nanfu Wang – “I Am Another You,” “Hooligan Sparrow”
Caroline Waterlow – “O.J.: Made in America,” “Cutie and the Boxer” Marco Williams – “Two Towns of Jasper,” “In Search of Our Fathers” Lana Wilson – “The Departure,” “After Tiller”
Chi-hui Yang 

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