OSCAR-SHORTLISTED FILM 2023-24
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced shortlists in 10 categories for the 96th Academy Awards®: Documentary Feature Film, Documentary Short Film, International Feature Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music (Original Score), Music (Original Song), Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Sound and Visual Effects.
Here are the projects we feel you should keep your eye on.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM CONTENDERS
32 SOUNDS
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Honoree - Top 5 Documentaries - National Board of Review
*** 5 Nominations - Cinema Eye Honors
*** Nominee - Best Science/Nature Documentary - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** Nominee - Best Narration - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** Audience Choice Award Long List - Cinema Eye Honors
*** On IndieWire's Current Predictions of Possible Nominees for Best Documentary Feature
*** On Variety's Current Predictions of Possible Nominees for Best Documentary Feature
*** On Awards Watch's Current Predictions of Possible Nominees for Best Documentary Feature
Director: Sam Green
Producers: Josh Penn, Thomas O. Kriegsmann
Editor: Nels Bangerter
Sound Design: Mark Mangini
Distributor: Abramorama (National Theatrical)
Synopsis: An immersive documentary and profound sensory experience from filmmaker Sam Green that explores the elemental phenomenon of sound. 32 SOUNDS is a meditation on the power of sound to bend time, cross borders, and profoundly shape our perception of the world around us.
TO KILL A TIGER
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Feature for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Nominee – Best Writing – 39th IDA Documentary Awards
*** Nominee – Best Original Music Score – 39th IDA Documentary Awards
*** Winner of 3 Canadian Screen Awards
*** Part of the International Documentary Association's FallDocs 2023
Director: Nisha Pahuja
Executive Producers: Dev Patel, Mindy Kaling, and Atul Gawande.
Synopsis: In a small Indian village, Ranjit wakes up to find that his 13-year-old daughter has not returned from a family wedding. A few hours later, she’s found stumbling home. After being abducted into the woods, she was sexually assaulted by three men. Ranjit goes to the police, and the men are arrested. But Ranjit’s relief is short-lived, as the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges. A cinematic documentary, To Kill a Tiger follows Ranjit’s uphill battle to find justice for his child. In India, where a rape is reported every 20 minutes and conviction rates are less than 30 percent, Ranjit’s decision to support his daughter is virtually unheard of. With tremendous access, we witness the emotional journey of an ordinary man facing extraordinary circumstances. A father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.
Awards: This film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature and went on to win 21 awards (including 3 Canadian Screen Awards) Deadline's Matt Carey says "It’s unquestionably one of the most awarded docs of the year."
DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM CONTENDERS
THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Nominee - Best Short Documentary - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
Distributor: MTV Documentary Films / Paramount+
Director/Producer: Sheila Nevins
Producer Trish Adlesic
Co-Directors: Trish Adlesic, Naz Habtezghi
Logline: Over 2,000 books have been removed from school districts in the U.S. The ABCs of Book Banning follows the human toll the future will pay for depriving children of their right to read and learn about a complex world. Interviews with children and authors shed light on this ongoing dangerous precedent.
Synopsis: “Banned books need to be proudly displayed and protected from school boards like this,” exclaims the 100-year-old Grace Linn, appearing at her Martin County, Florida school board meeting. Book banning in Florida is not an isolated occurrence, it has been spreading across America in at least 38 states. Books are montaged throughout the half-hour film, reflecting the suppression of worthy books for appropriate age groups: Books on LGBTQ matters, on racial difference, on wars and its horrors, the truth of coming-of-age. Intermittent artistic animation gives the audience a profound glimpse into the stories we lose when we restrict important works of literature. Grace concludes, “My husband was killed in action in World War II…One of the freedoms that the Nazis crushed was the freedom to read the books they banned.”
Festivals: Woodstock Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival
Now Streaming on Paramount+
THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** DOC NYC Short List: Shorts
Distributor: The New Yorker
Directors: John Hoffman and Christine Turner
Production Company: Story Syndicate
Synopsis: The Barber of Little Rock explores America's widening racial wealth gap through the story of Arlo Washington, a local barber whose visionary approach to a just economy can be found in the mission of People Trust, the nonprofit community bank he founded. Experiencing the effects of generational poverty and structural racism firsthand, Arlo understands his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas and the profound mistrust of financial institutions that have historically excluded his community from financial stability and economic mobility. Operating as the sole bank within a ten-mile radius, Arlo's People Trust fosters economic progress for underserved and underbanked residents, providing an economic beacon of hope that could reshape the future of banking.
Festivals: IndysShorts, Woodstock Film Festival, and more
BETWEEN EARTH AND SKY
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Shortlisted | Best Short – 39th IDA Documentary Awards
*** Nominee - Best Short Documentary - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** Nominee - Best Science/Nature Documentary - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** DOC NYC Short List: Shorts
*** Cinema Eye Honors Shorts List
Director/Producer: Nalini Nadkarni
Distributor: POV Shorts
Synopsis: Nalini Nadkarni is a world-renowned ecologist who climbs trees in the rainforest canopy to study “what grows back” after an ecological disturbance. In 2015, she fell fifty feet from a tree during a research climb and nearly died. After making a miraculous recovery, Nalini begins to explore a new research subject - herself - untangling the roots of her past and bringing family secrets to light.
Runtime: 25 minutes
Awards: Winner Best Short; 2023 Hot Docs - International Premiere
Festivals: 2023 Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, 2023 Sheffield International Documentary
DECIDING VOTE
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Cinema Eye Honors Shorts List
*** DOC NYC Short List: Shorts
*** On Variety's Current Predictions of Possible Nominees for Best Documentary Short Film
Distributor: The New Yorker (Debuts December 1st)
Director: Rob Lyons and Jeremy Workman
Synopsis: 50 years ago, assemblyman George Michaels cast a single vote on New York's abortion bill that changed the course of American history but destroyed his political career in the process.
Awards: Best Documentary Short at Woodstock Film Festival
Festivals: Tribeca Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival
THE LAST REPAIR SHOP
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Winner - Best Short Documentary - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** Nominee - Best Score - Critics Choice Documentary Awards
*** Cinema Eye Honors Shorts List
*** DOC NYC Short List: Shorts
*** Director and composer Kris Bowers received the Sheila Johnson Vanguard Award at the 2023 Middleburg Film Festival
*** World Premiere at Telluride Film Festival 2023
*** On Variety's Current Predictions of Possible Nominees for Best Documentary Short Film
Distributors: Searchlight Pictures and L.A. Times Studios
Streaming: Debuted November 8 on latimes.com and YouTube
Streaming: Debuts on Disney+ on Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Directors: Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
Produced by: Ben Proudfoot, Kris Bowers, Jeremy Lambert, & Josh Rosenberg
Synopsis: In a nondescript warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain over 80,000 student instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of the recording capital of the world.
Awards: Grandy Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short at Calgary International Film Festival; Audience Choice Short at Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival; Audience Award for Special Presentation at Middleburg Film Festival
Screener (Now Streaming): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xttrkgKXtZ4
OASIS
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Cinema Eye Honors Shorts List
*** Official Selection – SFFILM's DocStories
Distributor: The New York Times Op-Docs (Released October 3rd)
Director: Justine Martin
Synopsis: At the dawn of their teenage years, Raphaël and Rémi are twins who see their fusional attachment crumble while one of them, suffering from an increasingly marked disability, remains a prisoner of childhood. During one last summer surrounded by nature, time seems to want to stand still.
Awards: Grand Prize for Documentary Short at 2023 Indy Shorts International Film Festival
Screener (Now Streaming): https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/03/opinion/teenage-twins-coming-of-age.html
WINGS OF DUST
*** Shortlisted for Best Documentary Short Film for the 96th Academy Awards
*** Winner - Gold Student Academy Award 2023
Directed and produced by Giorgio Ghiotto
Synopsis: Vidal Merma, an independent Indigenous journalist living in Peru, champions the voice of the Quechua People whose wellbeing and natural resources suffer from the toxic effects of aggressive mineral mining.
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM CONTENDERS
THE ANNE FRANK GIFT SHOP
Director and Writer: Mickey Rapkin
Synopsis: When a high-end design firm presents its plans to reimagine the gift shop at The Anne Frank House, the company’s overt appeal to Generation Z sparks a debate about collective trauma, the Holocaust and tote bags.
Background (via GQ): "Featuring darkly funny and ultimately moving turns by a strong cast including Ari Graynor and Chris Perfetti and comedian Mary Beth Barone as a stone- faced Gen Z influencer, The Anne Frank Gift Shop provides a poignant meta- commentary on our continually robust Anne Frank discourse. Itʼs a film that, per Sarah Paulson on Instagram, 'makes you laugh your face off AND FEEL things'."
Awards: Film Movement Award for Best Narrative Short at the 2023
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
Of Note: Rapkin wrote the book Pitch Perfect, which led to the films.
Read the feature from GQ: https://www.gq.com/story/anne-frank-giftshop-film-interview
Screener (Watch Now): https://vimeo.com/825335110
KNIGHT OF FORTUNE
Distributor: The New Yorker
Director: Lasse Lyskjær Noer
Producer: Christian Norlyk, Kim Magnusson
Synopsis: The loss of a loved one, the grief, the risk of yellow skin, and a coffin, this is too much for Karl to face. It is much easier to fix a broken lamp. Then he meets Torben - a destined brother. An absurd, humourous, and melodic meeting between two old men captured by grief.
Awards: Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival - International Competition • Jury Special Mention
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