The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that 159 films have qualified for the 2020 Best Documenatary Oscar. As expected, celebrated docs such as “Apollo 11,” “The Kingmaker, “Honeyland” and “Diego Maradona” made the cut.
This year’s submissions are as follows:
“Advocate”
“After Parkland”
“The All-Americans”
“Always in Season”
“The Amazing Johnathan Documentary”
“American Dharma”
“American Factory”
“American Relapse”
“Angels Are Made of Light”
“The Apollo”
“Apollo 11”
“Aquarela”
“Ask Dr. Ruth”
“At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal”
“Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable”
“The Biggest Little Farm”
“The Black Godfather”
“Blink of an Eye”
“Blowin’ Up”
“Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes”
“The Boy Band Con: The Lou Pearlman Story”
“Bridges of Time”
“The Brink”
“Broken Dreams”
“The Bronx USA”
“Bruno Sammartino”
“Buddha in Africa”
“Call Me Intern”
“Carmine Street Guitars”
“The Cave”
“Chasing Einstein”
“Cinema Morocco”
“Citizen K”
“The Cold Blue”
“Cold Case Hammarskjold”
“Combat Obscura”
“The Cordillera of Dreams”
“Cracked Up”
“Cunningham”
“David Crosby: Remember My Name”
“Debut”
“Diego Maradona”
“The Disappearance of My Mother”
“Don’t Be Nice”
“Echo in the Canyon”
“The Edge of Democracy”
“The Elephant Queen”
“Emanuel”
“Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops”
“Fantastic Fungi”
“#Female Pleasure”
“Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles”
“Fiddlin’”
“Finding Farideh”
“Finding the Way Home”
“5B”
“For Sama”
“For the Birds”
“Foster”
“The Fourth Kingdom. The Kingdom of Plastics”
“Framing John DeLorean”
“Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”
“The Game Changers”
“Gay Chorus Deep South”
“Gaza”
“Ghost Fleet”
“The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash”
“The Gospel of Eureka”
“The Great Hack”
“Hail Satan?”
“Halston”
“Hate among Us”
“Heading Home: The Tale of Team Israel”
“Heimat Is a Space in Time”
“Hesburgh”
“Honeyland”
“Hope Frozen”
“The Hottest August”
“Humberto Mauro”
“I Had a Dream”
“Immortal”
“The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley”
“It’s a Hard Truth Ain’t It”
“Janani’s Juliet”
“Jawline”
“Jay Myself”
“Jim Allison: Breakthrough”
“Joseph Pulitzer: Voice of the People”
“The Kingmaker”
“Knock Down the House”
“Letter to the Editor”
“Liberty: Mother of Exiles”
“Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice”
“Love, Antosha”
“M for Malaysia”
“Maiden”
“Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound”
“Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love”
“Meeting Gorbachev”
“Midnight Family”
“Midnight Traveler”
“Mike Wallace Is Here”
“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool”
“Moonlight Sonata: Deafness in Three Movements”
“The Most Dangerous Year”
“Mosul”
“Moti Bagh”
“My Home India”
“My Name Is Daniel”
“On the President’s Orders”
“One Child Nation”
“Pavarotti”
“The Proposal”
“Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz”
“Q Ball”
“The Quiet One”
“Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins”
“Reason/Vivek”
“Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project”
“Reinventing Rosalee”
“The Rememberer”
“The River and the Wall”
“Roll Red Roll”
“Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese”
“Running with Beto”
“The Russian Five”
“Satan & Adam”
“Scandalous”
“Sea of Shadows”
“Serendipity”
“The Serengeti Rules”
“Shooting the Mafia”
“16 Bars”
“16 Shots”
“The Spy behind Home Plate”
“Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken”
“Talking about Trees”
“Tell Me Who I Am”
“Tesla Nation”
“This Changes Everything”
“This One’s for the Ladies”
“Tigerland”
“To Be of Service”
“Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”
“True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality”
“A Tuba to Cuba”
“Walking on Water”
“Watson”
“Western Stars”
“What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael”
“What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?”
“When Lambs Become Lions”
“When Tomatoes Met Wagner”
“Where’s My Roy Cohn?”
“Who Will Write Our History”
“Woodstock: Three Days That Defined a Generation”
“Wrestle”
“XY Chelsea”
“Ximei”
A number of this year’s entries have not yet had their required qualifying releases in Los Angeles and New York. That being said, documentary features that have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival or have been submitted in the International Feature Film category as their country’s official selection are also eligible in theis category. As always, documentary films are also eligible for awards in other categories including Best Picture.
A shortlist of 15 films will be announced on December 16.
Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020.
The 92nd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020 and broadcast live on ABC.