'Gunda,' 'Crip Camp,' 'Time' Land on DOC NYC List of Awards-Worthy Documentaries

AWARDS BEAT

“Crip Camp,” “Gunda” and “Time” are among the films that have made DOC NYC’s 2020 “Short List,” an annual attempt by the New York-based festival to identify the nonfiction films most likely to play a significant part in awards season.

Those three films were also included in the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations for Best Documentary Feature, and on the International Documentary Association’s shortlist from which the IDA chooses nominees for the IDA Documentary Awards. They are the only three movies to land on all three lists.

Nine additional films on the DOC NYC list were also singled out either by the IDA or Critics Choice: “Boys State,” “Collective,” “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “MLK/FBI,” “76 Days,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Truffle Hunters” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”

Also Read: Oscars Documentary Race Gets Bigger, More Competitive With New Batch of 33 Films

Other films on the DOC NYC list, which is made up of 15 documentaries, are “I Am Greta,” “On the Record” and “A Thousand Cuts.”

High-profile docs missing from the list include “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” “Notturno,” “City Hall,” “Disclosure” and “The Painter and the Thief.”

That last film, though, has been added to the festival’s Winner’s Circle lineup, which was expanded from eight to 10 films with the addition of “The Painter and the Thief” and “The Mole Agent.”

Last year, DOC NYC’s list contained 11 of the 15 films that made the Oscars shortlist in the Best Documentary Feature category, and all five of the eventual nominees. Over the past five years, it has predicted 46 of the 75 Oscar-shortlisted docs and 23 of the 25 nominees.

Also Read: Neon to Remake 'The Painter and the Thief' Documentary as Narrative Feature

The festival also announced a short list of documentary shorts, and a daily DOC NYC Live section that will stream free of charge and is expected to include “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds” directors Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer, as well as filmmakers and subjects Alex Winter, Angela Davis, Representative Barbara Lee, David Mitchell, Nicole Miller, Joshua Bell, Cornel West and chefs Guy Fieri, Marcus Samuelsson, Antonia Lofaso, Maneet Chauhan and Christian Petroni.

The all-virtual DOC NYC festival, the largest American festival devoted entirely to nonfiction films, will run from Nov. 11-19.

Short List: Features
“Boys State,” Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine
“Collective,” Alexander Nanau
“Crip Camp,” Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht
“Dick Johnson Is Dead,” Kirsten Johnson
“The Fight,” Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, Eli Despres
“Gunda,” Victor Kossakovsky
“I Am Greta,” Nathan Grossman
“MLK/FBI,” Sam Pollard
“On the Record,” Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering
“76 Days,” Hao Wu, Weizi Chen, Anonymous
“The Social Dilemma,” Jeff Orlowski
“A Thousand Cuts,” Ramona S. Diaz
“Time,” Garrett Bradley
“The Truffle Hunters,” Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
“Welcome to Chechnya,” David France

Short List: Shorts
“Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa,” Barbara Attie, Janet Goldwater, Mike Attie
“Ashes to Ashes,” Taylor Rees
“Call Center Blues,” Geeta Gandbhir
“Do Not Split,” Anders Hammer
“Flower Punk,” Alison Klayman
“Hunger Ward,” Skye Fitzgerald
“A Life Too Short,” Safyah Usmani
“A Love Song for Latasha,” Sophia Nahli Allison
“No Crying at the Dinner Table,” Carol Nguyen
“Now Is the Time,” Christopher Auchter
“Sing Me a Lullaby,” Tiffany Hsiung
“Then Comes the Evening,” Maja Novaković

Winner’s Circle
“Acasa, My Home,” Radu Ciorniciuc
“Beautiful Something Left Behind,” Katrine Philp
“Influence,” Richard Poplak, Diana Neille
“Mayor,” David Osit
“The Mole Agent,” Maite Alberdi
“The Painter and the Thief,” Benjamin Ree
“The Reason I Jump,” Jerry Rothwell
“Songs of Repression,” Estephan Wagner, Marianne Hougen-Moraga
“Stray,” Elizabeth Lo
“The Walrus and the Whistleblower,” Nathalie Bibeau

15 Top Grossing Documentaries at the Box Office, From 'An Inconvenient Truth' to 'Fahrenheit 9/11' (Photos)

Documentaries are rarely big money makers, but they can have the power to influence change and motivate people to action in a way narrative films cannot. So when a documentary does make a splash at the box office, it's an even bigger surprise. This list of the top-15 grossing documentaries ever is an interesting mix of political, nature and concert docs, and several of them likewise went on to win Oscars and critical acclaim. All numbers are domestic totals via Box Office Mojo.
Warner Bros./National Geographic Films/Paramount Classics
15. "They Shall Not Grow Old" (2018) - $17.9 million

Director Peter Jackson went to painstaking lengths to digitally restore and transform 100-year-old archival footage for his powerful documentary on World War I. Jackson restored color and sound to the Great War, something that was previously only known through black and white silent film. The documentary performed well in part because of a release that even transformed the footage into 3D.
Warner Bros.
14. "Oceans" (2010) - $19.4 million

You'll see a lot of Disneynature documentaries on this list. Pierce Brosnan narrates this 2010 documentary filmed across the world's oceans.
Disneynature
13. "Bowling for Columbine" (2002) - $21.5 million

Michael Moore's provocative documentary about American gun violence (and one of his best) won the Oscar for Best Documentary and broke international box office records for a documentary in 2002.
United Artists
12. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (2018) - $22.8 million

Morgan Neville's portrait of Fred Rogers and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" proved to be a crowd-pleasing hit in the summer of 2018 because of the absolute niceness at its heart. Neville in his film explains that Fred Rogers was the rare person who really did not have a dark side, and in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" it shows.
Jim Judkis / Focus Features
11. "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006) - $24.1 million

Davis Guggenheim's documentary spotlighting former Vice President Al Gore's plea to alert the world to the effects of global warming and climate change went on to win two Oscars and earn a sequel.
Paramount Classics
10. "Sicko" (2007) - $24.5 million

Another Michael Moore movie to crack the list, "Sicko" was Moore's look at the healthcare industry in America compared to other nations, with Moore sailing sick veterans down to Cuba to receive the care they couldn't have had at home.
Lionsgate
9. "Katy Perry: Part of Me" (2012) - $25.3 million

This 2012 concert movie followed Katy Perry on her California Dreams World Tour.
Paramount Pictures
8. "One Direction: This Is Us" (2013) - $28.8 million

"Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock directed this concert doc about the then wildly popular British boy group.
TriStar
7. "Chimpanzee" (2012) - $28.9 million

Tim Allen narrated this Disneynature doc about a three-month old chimp separated from his flock and adopted by another grown male.
Disneynature
6. "Earth" (2007) - $32 million

The first of Disneynature's documentaries, "Earth" was a theatrical version of the popular "Planet Earth" miniseries from 2006. "Earth" was finally given a stateside theatrical release in 2009.
Disneynature
5. "2016: Obama's America" (2012) - $33.4 million

Dinesh D'Souza's anti-Obama documentary speculated about where the country would be if Obama won a second term in office in 2012.
Getty Images
4. "Michael Jackson's This Is It" (2009) - $72 million

The footage in "This Is It" comes from a behind-the-scenes look at preparation for Michael Jackson's 50 shows at London's O2 Arena. It wasn't originally meant to be made into a film, but it provided an intimate look at Jackson in his final days.
Getty Images
3. "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" (2011) - $73 million

The Biebs holds the spot for the highest-grossing concert film ever and the documentary with the biggest opening weekend of all time.
Paramount Pictures
2. "March of the Penguins" (2005) - $77.4 million

People sure love penguins. Morgan Freeman narrates the nature documentary that opened on just four screens but soon spread into a nationwide hit.
National Geographic Films
1. "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004) - $119.1 million

Michael Moore's scathing documentary about President George W. Bush and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks is the highest-grossing documentary of all time and it isn't even close. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Opening at over $23 million, the movie at the time opened higher than any other documentary had ever grossed in its lifetime. Moore followed up the film with a documentary about the 2016 election and Donald Trump, titled "Fahrenheit 11/9," which refers to the day after he was elected.
Miramax

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Michael Moore, Disneynature and several concert films top the list

Documentaries are rarely big money makers, but they can have the power to influence change and motivate people to action in a way narrative films cannot. So when a documentary does make a splash at the box office, it's an even bigger surprise. This list of the top-15 grossing documentaries ever is an interesting mix of political, nature and concert docs, and several of them likewise went on to win Oscars and critical acclaim. All numbers are domestic totals via Box Office Mojo.

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