The short list.

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By Alison Willmore on 11/18/2008

Filed under: Awards

The collection of 15 docs on the Oscar shortlist unveiled yesterday look, all things considered, pretty good to me. Traditionally the award that's caused the most hue and cry, with outrageous omissions and disqualifications, arcane rules and seemingly random (or at least radically out of touch) selections, the Best Documentary Feature prize could actually come down to a group of films that 1) are good and 2) more than a handful of people have at least heard of and had the opportunity to see.

"Man on Wire," the most acclaimed documentary of the year, is probably also a favorite to win, should it make it down to the final five. Established filmmakers like Werner Herzog, Errol Morris and Steve James are on there next to festival circuit favorites like "In a Dream" and "They Killed Sister Dorothy."

Left off -- the two highest-grossing non-concert docs of the year, "Religulous" and "Expelled." No one was likely expecting the latter to make the cut, and the former never received the kind of wholehearted critical embrace needed to make it seem more than Moore lite. Marina Zenovich's "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" isn't there, despite the press and acclaimed it's received since its Sundance premiere. And, alas, neither is Margaret Brown's "The Order of Myths," which has my vote for best documentary and one of the better films of the year.

The list:

"At the Death House Door"
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"Fuel"
"The Garden"
"Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts"
"I.O.U.S.A."
"In a Dream"
"Made in America"
"Man on Wire"
"Pray the Devil Back to Hell"
"Standard Operating Procedure"
"They Killed Sister Dorothy"
"Trouble the Water"