Record 170 feature docs eligible for Oscar consideration

List shatters previous high; contenders include Sundance, SXSW and Cannes doc winners

A record 170 feature-length documentaries will contend for the best documentary Oscar this year, the Motion Picture Academy announced on Friday. That far outpaced the previous record of 151 feature docs set in 2013. 

"Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases," the Academy noted in a press release, but most screened in theaters earlier in the year and some are now playing -- including Brett Morgen's Jane and SXSW-winner The Work by Jairus McLeary. 

Among the many notable films to qualify are Faces Places by 89-year-old director Agnès Varda and her 33-year-old co-director, known simply as JR. The documentary, in which the filmmakers undertake a road trip around France in JR's customized van/mobile photo booth, won the top prize for documentary at the Cannes Film Festival in May. Varda -- a pioneer of French New Wave cinema -- has previously been announced as a recipient of an honorary Academy Award, which will be presented to her in November.

From the list of rules for documentary features in contention for the 90th annual Academy Awards

​Dina, directed by Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini, made the cut. It won the grand jury prize for a U.S. documentary at the Sundance Film Festival last January. 

​Strong Island, a winner of a Sundance special jury award for storytelling, joined the list of eligible films. Yance Ford directed the searing tale on the death of her brother, an unarmed African-American man, killed by a white man who went unpunished and uncharged. It has already collected nominations for best documentary from the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Critics Choice Documentary Awards.
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Related: Inside the Oscar contenders (click on image for full story)
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As you recall, Ezra Edelman's seven hour mega-doc O.J.: Made in America won the 2016 Oscar for best documentary feature, overcoming criticism in some quarters that such a lengthy piece really constituted a multi-part documentary, not a single film (O.J. premiered at Sundance in a single sitting and played in limited theatrical release that way). 

Seemingly in response to concerns about perceived multi-part films, the Academy changed documentary eligibility rules for the 90th annual Academy Awards. To that end, "only individual documentary works are eligible," the Oscar rulebook states. "This excludes from consideration:

• ​multi-part or limited series,
• episodes extracted from a larger series,
• segments taken from a single “composite” program, and
• alternate versions of ineligible works."

The rulebook spells out how the vote will be conducted: "Documentaries will be viewed by members of the Documentary Branch, which will use a preferential voting system to produce a shortlist of 15 films. Five nominees will then be chosen by a second round of balloting, again using a preferential voting system.

"Final voting shall be restricted to active and life members of the Academy who have viewed all of the nominated documentaries."

The shortlist will be announced in December. Oscar nominations will be revealed Tuesday, January 23, 2018. The Oscar ceremony will be held Sunday, March 4, 2018.

This is the full list of eligible feature-length documentaries (in alphabetical order), as released by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: 

“Abacus: Small Enough to Jail”
“Aida’s Secrets”
“Al Di Qua”
“All the Rage”
“All These Sleepless Nights”
“AlphaGo”
“The American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. Kennedy”
“And the Winner Isn’t”
“Angels Within”
“Architects of Denial”
“Arthur Miller: Writer”
“Atomic Homefront”
“The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography”
“Bang! The Bert Berns Story”
“Bending the Arc”
“Big Sonia”
“Bill Nye: Science Guy”
“Birthright: A War Story”
“Bobbi Jene”
“Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story”
“Born in China”
“Born to Lead: The Sal Aunese Story”
“Boston”
“Brimstone & Glory”
“Bronx Gothic”
“Burden”
“California Typewriter”
“Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop: A Bad Boy Story”
“Casting JonBenet”
“Chasing Coral”
“Chasing Trane”
“Chavela”
“Citizen Jane: Battle for the City”
“City of Ghosts”
“Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives”
“Cries from Syria”
“Cruel & Unusual”
“Cuba and the Cameraman”
“Dawson City: Frozen Time”
“Dealt”
“The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson”
“Destination Unknown”
“Dina”
“Dolores”
“Dream Big: Engineering Our World”
“A Dying King: The Shah of Iran”
“Eagles of Death Metal: Nos Amis (Our Friends)”
“Earth: One Amazing Day”
“11/8/16”
“Elian”
“Embargo”
“Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars”
“Escapes”
“Everybody Knows... Elizabeth Murray”
“Ex Libris - The New York Public Library”
“Extraordinary Ordinary People”
“Faces Places”
“The Farthest”
“The Final Year”
“Finding Oscar”
“500 Years”
“Food Evolution”
“For Ahkeem”
“The Force”
“The Freedom to Marry”
“From the Ashes”
“Gaga: Five Foot Two”
“A German Life”
“Get Me Roger Stone”
“Gilbert”
“God Knows Where I Am”
“Good Fortune”
“A Gray State”
“Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All”
“Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story”
“Hearing Is Believing”
“Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS”
“Human Flow”
“I Am Another You”
“I Am Evidence”
“I Am Jane Doe”
“I Called Him Morgan”
“Icarus”
“If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast”
“The Incomparable Rose Hartman”
“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power”
“Intent to Destroy”
“Jane”
“Jeremiah Tower The Last Magnificent”
“Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond - Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton”
“Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold”
“Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower”
“Karl Marx City”
“Kedi”
“Keep Quiet”
“Kiki”
“LA 92”
“The Last Dalai Lama?”
“The Last Laugh”
“Last Men in Aleppo”
“Legion of Brothers”
“Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982 - 1992”
“Let’s Play Two”
“Letters from Baghdad”
“Long Strange Trip”
“Look & See”
“Machines”
“Man in Red Bandana”
“Mr. Gaga: A True Story of Love and Dance”
“Motherland”
“Mully”
“My Scientology Movie”
“Naples ’44”
“Neary’s - The Dream at the End of the Rainbow”
“Night School”
“No Greater Love”
“No Stone Unturned”
“Nobody Speak: Trials of the Free Press”
“Nowhere to Hide”
“Obit”
“Oklahoma City”
“One of Us”
“The Paris Opera”
“The Pathological Optimist”
“Prosperity”
“The Pulitzer at 100”
“Quest”
“Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman”
“The Rape of Recy Taylor”
“The Reagan Show”
“Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan”
“Risk”
“A River Below”
“Rocky Ros Muc”
“Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World”
“Santoalla”
“School Life”
“Score: A Film Music Documentary”
“Served Like a Girl”
“The Settlers”
“78/52”
“Shadowman”
“Shot! The Psycho Spiritual Mantra of Rock”
“Sidemen: Long Road to Glory”
“The Skyjacker’s Tale”
“Sled Dogs”
“Soufra”
“Spettacolo”
“Step”
“Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-Trafficking”
“Strong Island”
“Surviving Peace”
“Swim Team”
“Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton”
“Take My Nose... Please!”
“They Call Us Monsters”
“32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide”
“This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous”
“Tickling Giants”
“Trophy”
“Twenty Two”
“Unrest”
“Vince Giordano - There’s a Future in the Past”
“Voyeur”
“Wait for Your Laugh”
“Wasted! The Story of Food Waste”
“Water & Power: A California Heist”
“Whitney. 'Can I Be Me'”
“Whose Streets?”
“The Work”