#documentary feature

[awardswatcherik]

FINAL 2024 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE, DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

[thebrownees]

Mstyslav Chernov's masterful documentary chronicles the period he spent in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol when Vladimir Putin's Russian forces attacked it.

[heywoodsays]

Documentary Feature: Will there a brave choice?

The nominees are:

Black Box Diaries

No Other Land

Porcelain War

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat

Sugarcane

For the second year in a row, all the Documentary Feature nominees are international contributions. Again, I’m rather surprised that some of these beat out more populist American favorites like Will & Harper and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, which won at BAFTA, PGA, and the National Board of Review. (Both tied for the Critics Choice.)

Perhaps the most well reviewed of this year’s nominees is No Other Land, the story of a young Palestinian desperately trying to save his West Bank village from systematic displacement by Israeli forces. In addition to numerous critics’ prizes, it won the Independent Spirit Award. However, one wonders if its political theme will resonate with enough Oscar voters. The fact that it hasn’t been able to find a U.S. distributor has been telling.

The Ukraine war has been the center of the last two films to win Best Documentary Feature. This year, we have Porcelain War, which follows a group of Ukrainian artists who join the war effort. It has a DGA award on its belt.

Black Box Diaries outlines emergence of the #MeToo movement in Japan through one woman’s struggle. It’s effective but may not be timely enough to have the same punch as other films in the category.

Sugarcane examines the atrocities of the residential school system in Canada and the oppression of the First Nations children who attended them. While the subject matter is interesting, I found the pacing a bit too slow for my taste.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is perhaps the most creative of this year’s entries with respect to its structure and storytelling. However, its complete dependence on archival footage may hurt its chances, as such films don’t usually fare well in this category.

Who will win: No Other Land

But look out for: Porcelain War

Who I’d vote for: No Other Land

If I could add one more: Daughters

◄ Previous: Animated Feature | Next: Live Action Short ►

INTRODUCTION | FEATURES AND SHORTS: International Feature | Animated Feature | Documentary Feature | Live Action Short | Animated Short | Documentary Short | TRADE CRAFTS: Cinematography | Film Editing | Production Design | Costume Design | Makeup and Hairstyling | Sound | Visual Effects | Original Score | Original Song | TOP CATEGORIES: Original Screenplay | Adapted Screenplay | Supporting Actor | Supporting Actress | Actor | Actress | Director | Picture | TOP 10 FILMS OF 2024

[socialistwh0r3]

*send an ask to submit a snub

Snub winner for each category will go head-to-head with official nominations winner

[slagzz]

I think we all know who should be winning this year's Acadamy Award for Best documentary feature film

[artfilmfan]

In light of the current events in Palestine, a large number of filmmakers have made their films about Palestine available online for free.

"Keeper of Memory" docu https://youtu.be/eywuYeflWzg

"Empty Seat" https://youtu.be/an4hRFWOSQQ

"Resistance Pilot" https://youtu.be/wqSmdZy-Xcg

"Jenin" https://vimeo.com/499672067

"The Olive Tree" https://vimeo.com/432062498

"Gaza Fights For Freedom" https://youtu.be/HnZSaKYmP2s

"Arna's Children" https://youtu.be/cQZiHgbBBcl

"The Mayor" https://youtu.be/aDvOnhssTcc

"The Creation and the Nakba 1948" https://youtu.be/Bwy-Rf15UIs

"Occupation 101" https://youtu.be/C56QcWOGSKk

"The Shadow of Absence" https://vimeo.com/220119035

"They Don't Exist" https://youtu.be/2WZ_7Z6vbsg

"As The Poet Said" https://vimeo.com/220116068

"Wedding of Galilee" https://youtu.be/dYMQw7hQI1U

"Keffiyeh" feature film https://vimeo.com/780695653

"Swings" https://youtu.be/gMk-Zi9vTGs

"Naji al-Ali: An Artist with Vision" https://youtu.be/Y31yUi4WVsU

"The Upper Gate" https://vimeo.com/433362585

"In Seach of Palestine" https://vimeo.com/184213685?1

[disarmluna]

[taylorswiftdebut]

if megan thee stallion is not on rep tv what's the point

[rrrauschen]

Vasiliy Belyayev, {1945} Всесоюзный парад физкультурников (All-Union Parade of Athletes)

[marisatomay]

Been listening to books about the Salem witch trials and it’s so weird to me that there’s this prevailing narrative where people think of Salem as “oh they were deluded primitive folk who believed in witchcraft lol” when there are contemporary documents where prominent people said the accusers and the court (which hadn’t followed standard legal procedures even for that time) were committing crimes so grievous it would forever be a stain on New England

[awardswatcherik]

FINAL 2025 Oscar Winner Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE, DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

[rhythmania]

oh man huge win for doc in 'no other land'!! lucky enough to have caught a screening of it at a fest- now hoping a distributer will pick it up for wide release. and what a speech!! FREE PALESTINE

[multifandomforfun]

No Other Land wins!!!!

[pastlivesandpurplepuppets]

What’s the one thing I’d want people to remember about Joe Toye? He was a loyal, tough, patriotic, Christian man. He was old-school and grew up the hard way. He was flawed as a father and flawed as a husband, yes, but he did the best he could considering the cards he was dealt. He lost much in his life but never gave up. I have a lot of respect for him, and I think that anybody who knew him does, too.

~ Steve Toye

[iguanostalgia]

In The News: First look at Walking With Dinosaurs II (2025)

Earlier this month, BBC released the first images of the upcoming return of the hit series, Walking with Dinosaurs, which was first announced back in June of 2024. While it's easy to compare upcoming dinosaur projects to other successful paleomedia, large productions like Prehistoric Planet (2022) and Walking with Dinosaurs (1999) set the bar high in terms of what people expect from a modern dinosaur documentary. Walking with Dinosaurs II is it's own project, over 20 years after the first series, and we still have much to see.

So far the models, in my opinion, are looking really nice. They're the best Albertosaurus I've seen on screen (no shrinkwrapping or reused Tyrannosaurus models here). The lips look a bit odd from some angles (though they properly cover the teeth) but overall the skull is very accurate. This is perhaps due to artist Henry Sharpe being involved in production. The Pachyrhinosaurus looks great as well (and it's unique enough from the design of the P. canadensis seen in Prehistoric Planet), though it's hard to determine the exact species.

Walking With Dinosaurs is set to be six episodes long, each with a length of 60 minutes.

"Arriving in 2025, each episode of Walking With Dinosaurs will tell the dramatic story of an individual dinosaur whose remains are currently being unearthed by the world’s leading dinosaur hunters. Thanks to cutting-edge science, experts can reveal how the creatures lived, hunted, fought, and died more accurately than ever before." - The Hollywood Reporter

So far we've only seen these two species, though other dinosaurs have been mentioned to be featured in the series:

"Other stories being told include that of the herbivore Lusotitan, which lived in Portugal, and would have been seeking a mate; the Spinosaurus, the largest carnivorous dinosaur so far discovered, found in Morocco; and a Triceratops in North America, which the programme will show trying to battle a Tyrannosaurus." - Hannah Roberts, PA Entertainment Reporter, Yahoo! News

Surviving Earth, another anticipated paleo-documentary (produced by Impossible Pictures), has since been pushed back to 2026 - though hopefully this gives more time for the final project to be perfected before public release. Stay tuned for more reviews as we learn more about new media!

[rose-n-gunses]

Okay so there's all the headcanons and AUs about Chrissy lives and helps the party clear Eddie's name but what if they failed. She's alive but he gets arrested anyway.

There's zero proof that he did anything (because he didn't) but in a small town in the middle of nowhere, confirmation bias has gotten the best of them. Eddie's lawyers are doing their best but there's only so much they can do against Jason's family and Fred's family and Patrick's family and all of their lawyers, not to mention the fact that the entire town has turned against him except for Hellfire, the Party, his uncle, and Chrissy.

The trial's a shit show, the judge is an asshole, the prosecution are assholes, the population of Hawkins are fucking assholes. And he loses. Of course he does, because there was never any other way this could have gone. Not when the real suspect is an interdimensional mind demon thing. Not when the entire town has been itching for an excuse to see him locked up. It's like blinders on a racehorse; they had him in their sights, finally, and he has no way out.

Chrissy had spent enough time in Hawkins' "high society" to know that these people fear and abhor that which they do not understand. They couldn't understand him, she could see that now. She watched them tear through his room, his car, his family, his history, his entire life, only to come up empty but still point at him and say "he did it" anyway.

It makes her furious. She wants to tear the limbs off of everyone in that courtroom, but she can't. So she does the next best thing.

She goes to law school.

She'd never really had the best grades, but now she has something to work for. It takes some time, but she never stops advocating, never stops fighting. Nancy's a big help, too. She's a journalist, she's got contacts in the industry that are helping to get the word out.

She writes him letters the whole time, too. By the time she graduates, damn near at the top of her class, she's realized that while she started this thing because of that deep-rooted sense of injustice that came out of watching the boy who saved her life get torn to shreds on the stand, it's turned into something else. Now she's fighting for him because she loves him (and maybe she had all along).

Eventually they get enough support from enough people, from enough big names (fucking Metallica, for one -- she couldn't tell them exactly how Eddie used their music to save her life, only that he did) that he's granted a new trial. This time, he doesn't get a shitty state-appointed attorney. He gets Chrissy fucking Cunningham, and she's not going down without a fight. (She feels it's the least she can do. She loves him, she owes him, she still feels like it's her fault, in a way.)

It's a long and gruelling process, appeals and analysis and arguments. She calls a probably record-setting number of character witnesses, brings the Party in to provide an alibi. (They all remember that week down to the last detail, even after all these years. Scars might fade but those memories don't.)

She's determined to beat this thing. She can tell that it's almost beaten Eddie, she knows that if they lose again he's going to give up, and she's not going to let that happen.

Finally they make it to trial and it's nowhere near as cinematic or dramatic as she had been imagining it for the last few years. It's the same agonizing slowness as the first time around, only this time there's hope. A glimmer of hope, a flash of hope, a blinding fucking beam of hope.

The place is packed this time, too, but it's mostly people there in support. Eddie nearly falls out of his chair when he sees James Hetfield sitting there. For him.

Chrissy finally gets to tear apart everyone that had been in that courtroom, only she gets to do it the way she's always done it best: with her words. She's got the odds stacked against Hawkins. They had no investigation, no evidence, just a hunch. They couldn't figure it out, couldn't explain it, so they called it a cult killing and found somebody weird!

The jury is appalled, thankfully. How could anyone possibly get convicted on such little evidence? The verdict is a unanimous not guilty, and then...it's all over.

Well, it's not over.

Eddie's released, he's reunited with his Hellfire, the Party, his uncle. Chrissy.

He loves her, too. Always has. How could he not, after all she'd done for him? He tells her he wants to marry her as soon as she'll let him and she says that he could've asked any time in the last however many years and she would have said yes in a heartbeat.

But first, she leads him away from the chaos for a moment of quiet. He thanks her and she shakes her head. She'd done it all for him the same way he'd stood on top of his trailer with his guitar.

And she tells him that. She'd been telling him for years, even if he couldn't hear it. She'd said it when she graduated high school, graduated college, passed her LSATS. She'd said it when she passed the bar and walked at her law school graduation and right before she walked into the courtroom. She says it again now, just so he knows she means it, because he'd meant it and he means everything to her.

Eddie, this is for you.