When it comes to winning your office pool on Best Documentary Short Subject, think tearjerker and you’ll be close to mark. This year, the documentary branch of the Academy has selected 10 shorts out of 96 submissions to vie for the five final slots for the Oscars.
Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by ISIS; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson’s “Life Overtakes Me,” about how children facing the anxiety of deportation retreat into resignation syndrome, falling into a coma-like sleep that can last for months, even years.
“Walk Run Cha-Cha”
New York Times Op-Docs
The New York Times’ Op-Docs supplied two shorts: Laura Nix’s moving “Walk Run Cha-Cha” follows dancers Paul and Millie Cao 40 years after they emigrated to the United States after the Vietnam War, and “Stay Close” tracks a Brooklyn fencer who runs a gauntlet of hardships to become an Olympic contender.
IDA Documentary Awards‘ short winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)” (Lifetime Films, A&E IndieFilms) was shot in Afghanistan by Carol Dysinger over five years. Also landing on the shortlist were Korean filmmaker Yi Seung-Jun’s “In the Absence” (Field of Vision), Philippine director Alexander Mora’s “The Nightcrawlers” (NatGeo), and Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan’s “St. Louis Superman” (MTV Documentary Films, Al Jazeera Witness and Meralta Films).
Frontrunners
“Fire in Paradise” (Netflix)
“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)” (Lifetime Films, A&E IndieFilms)
“Life Overtakes Me” (Netflix)
“Stay Close” (New York Times Op-Docs)
“Walk Run Cha-Cha” (New York Times Op-Docs)
Contenders
“After Maria” (Netflix)
“Ghosts of Sugar Land” (Netflix)
“In the Absence” (Field of Vision)
“The Nightcrawlers” (NatGeo)
“St. Louis Superman” (MTV Documentary Films, Al Jazeera Witness and Meralta Films)
Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by ISIS; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson’s “Life Overtakes Me,” about how children facing the anxiety of deportation retreat into resignation syndrome, falling into a coma-like sleep that can last for months, even years.
“Walk Run Cha-Cha”
New York Times Op-Docs
The New York Times’ Op-Docs supplied two shorts: Laura Nix’s moving “Walk Run Cha-Cha” follows dancers Paul and Millie Cao 40 years after they emigrated to the United States after the Vietnam War, and “Stay Close” tracks a Brooklyn fencer who runs a gauntlet of hardships to become an Olympic contender.
IDA Documentary Awards‘ short winner “Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)” (Lifetime Films, A&E IndieFilms) was shot in Afghanistan by Carol Dysinger over five years. Also landing on the shortlist were Korean filmmaker Yi Seung-Jun’s “In the Absence” (Field of Vision), Philippine director Alexander Mora’s “The Nightcrawlers” (NatGeo), and Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan’s “St. Louis Superman” (MTV Documentary Films, Al Jazeera Witness and Meralta Films).
Frontrunners
“Fire in Paradise” (Netflix)
“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you’re a girl)” (Lifetime Films, A&E IndieFilms)
“Life Overtakes Me” (Netflix)
“Stay Close” (New York Times Op-Docs)
“Walk Run Cha-Cha” (New York Times Op-Docs)
Contenders
“After Maria” (Netflix)
“Ghosts of Sugar Land” (Netflix)
“In the Absence” (Field of Vision)
“The Nightcrawlers” (NatGeo)
“St. Louis Superman” (MTV Documentary Films, Al Jazeera Witness and Meralta Films)