15 Documentaries Make the Oscar Cut

I’m sure if you analyze and dissect the rules for eligibility, you’ll find some kind of loophole that kept films like  CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY, ANVIL!: THE STORY OF ANVIL, and CRUDE off this list of finalists for Best Documentary Feature.

Maybe it’s not based on eligibility at all.  Maybe those movies just didn’t make the cut, which, in my opinion, and a lot of other people’s, as well, is a shame.  This isn’t even taking into account some of the festival docs that didn’t make the cut, films like PULLING JOHN, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC, and THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD.    Politics wins out once again (as if there was every going to be a question of it), and here are the list of 15 films that have moved on in the voting process:

• THE BEACHES OF AGNES directed by Agnès Varda
• BURMA VJ directed by Anders Østergaard
• THE COVE directed by Louie Psihoyos
• EVERY LITTLE STEP directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo
• FACING ALI directed by Pete McCormack
• FOOD, INC. directed by Robert Kenner
• GARBAGE DREAMS directed by Mai Iskander
• LIVING IN EMERGENCY: STORIES OF DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS directed by Mark N. Hopkins
• THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS directed by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• MUGABE AND THE WHITE AFRICAN directed by Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey
• SERGIO directed by Greg Barker
• SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman
• UNDER OUR SKIN directed by Andy Abrahams Wilson
• VALENTINO THE LAST EMPEROR directed by Matt Tyrnauer
• WHICH WAY HOME directed by Rebecca Cammisa

The final five nominations will be announced on February 2nd.