Shortlist finalists in nine categories were released by the Academy
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the shortlists in nine categories, including Best Feature Documentary, where hit documentaries like “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” and “Free Solo” are among the list of contenders.
While a few of the films on the doc-feature shortlist were not nominated or singled out by other awards groups – “Charm City,” “Communion” and “The Distant Barking of Dogs” being the biggest surprises – for the most part, the list stays true to the nonfiction films that have garnered the most critical and commercial attention in 2018.
Crucially, it includes the four top-grossing nonfiction films of the year: “Free Solo,” “RBG,” “Three Identical Strangers” and the presumed frontrunner, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” But the most-honored films of the year are also accounted for, including “Minding the Gap,” “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” “Crime + Punishment,” “Of Fathers and Sons” and “Shirkers.
