The DOC NYC shortlist influences future awards for documentaries.
Later than usual, the eleven-year-old DOC NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has finally revealed its influential 15-film Short List. The festival will open in a new online format with a main lineup of 119 features and 100 short films (November 11-19) available to viewers across the US.
Historically, most of the DOC NYC short list titles overlap with the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. For the last nine years, DOC NYC has screened the documentary that went on to win the Academy Award, including “American Factory,” “Free Solo,” “Icarus,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” and “Undefeated.” The festival has screened 24 of the last 25 Oscar-nominated documentary features. In 2019, DOC NYC screened 13 of 15 titles that were named to the subsequent Academy Award Documentary Shortlist.
“Welcome to Chechnya”
Director/Producer: David France
Producers: Alice Henty, Joy A. Tomchin, Askold Kurov
A courageous team of Russian activists operate an underground railroad to help LGBTQ+ Chechens escape state-sanctioned persecution (Courtesy of HBO Documentary Films/Music Box Films)
