Submissions for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature

These are the lists of documentary films that were shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in recent years.

List of selected films and years

1999

Main article: 72nd Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Amargosa	Todd Robinson	United States	Marta Becket and the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel	Not nominated	[1]
American Movie	Chris Smith		The making of a low budget horror movie in Wisconsin	Not nominated
Beyond the Mat	Barry W. Blaustein		World Wrestling Federation, Extreme Championship Wrestling, Mick Foley, Terry Funk and Jake Roberts	Not nominated
Buena Vista Social Club	Wim Wenders	Cuba France Germany United Kingdom United States	A group of elderly Cuban musicians	Nominated
Genghis Blues	Roko Belic	United States	Paul Pena and the art of Tuvan throat singing	Nominated
Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr.	Errol Morris		Fred A. Leuchter Jr., capital punishment and Holocaust denial	Not nominated
On the Ropes	Brett Morgen, Nanette Burstein		Three young boxers and their coach	Nominated
One Day in September	Kevin Macdonald	United Kingdom	Terrorist attacks at the 1972 Summer Olympics	Won Academy Award
Pop & Me	Chris Roe	United States	The director's travels around with his own father, interviewing fathers and sons about their own father-son relationships	Not nominated
Smoke and Mirrors: A History of Denial	Torrie Rosenzweig		Tobacco in the United States	Not nominated
The Source	Chuck Workman		The Beat Generation	Not nominated
Speaking in Strings	Paola di Florio		Italian-born violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg	Nominated

2000

Main article: 73rd Academy Awards

2001

Main article: 74th Academy Awards

2002

Main article: 75th Academy Awards

2003

Main article: 76th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
The Agronomist	Jonathan Demme	United States	Jean Dominique and Radio Haiti-Inter, the country's first independent radio station	Not nominated	[2]
Balseros	Carles Bosch and Josep M. Domenech	Spain, Catalonia	Balseros emigrating from Cuba during the Período especial and the 1994 Cuban rafter crisis	Nominated
Bus 174	Jose Padilha	Brazil	The June 2000 hijacking of Bus 174 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Not nominated
Capturing the Friedmans	Andrew Jarecki	United States	American family with dark sexual secrets	Nominated
Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin	Richard Schickel		The life and times of Golden Age of Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin	Not nominated
The Fog of War	Errol Morris	United States	Robert McNamara and his involvement in the Vietnam War	Won Academy Award
Heir to an Execution	Marc Levin			Not nominated
Inheritance: A Fisherman's Story	Peter Hegedus			Not nominated
Lost Boys of Sudan	Megan Mylan and Jou Shenk	United States	Two boys from the Dinka tribe of Sudan who emigrated to the United States, who were part of the refugee group commonly known as the Lost Boys of Sudan	Not nominated
My Architect	Nathaniel Kahn		The career and familial relationships of the director's father, architect Louis Kahn	Nominated
My Flesh and Blood	Jonathan Karsh		The adopted children of Susan Tom, most of whom have significant physical disabilities	Not nominated
The Weather Underground	Sam Green and Bill Siegel		The rise and fall of the radical political group of the same name	Nominated

2004

Main article: 77th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Born into Brothels	Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman	India United States	Children of prostitutes in Sonagachi, Kolkata's red light district.	Won Academy Award	[3][2]
Home of the Brave	Paola di Florio	United States	The 1965 murder of civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo	Not nominated
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train	Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller		Historian and activist Howard Zinn	Not nominated
In the Realms of the Unreal	Jessica Yu		Outsider artist Henry Darger's magnum opus. The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion	Not nominated
Riding Giants	Stacy Peralta		Surfing, Big wave riding	Not nominated
The Ritchie Boys				Not nominated
The Story of the Weeping Camel	Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni	Germany Mongolia	A family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi Desert trying to save the life of a rare white bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf after it was rejected by its mother.	Nominated
Super Size Me	Morgan Spurlock	United States	A filmmaker eating nothing but McDonald's fast food for 30 days	Nominated
Tell Them Who You Are				Not nominated
Touching the Void	Kevin Macdonald	United Kingdom	Joe Simpson and Simon Yates' near-fatal descent after making the first successful ascent of the West Face of Siula Grande in the Cordillera Huayhuash in the Peruvian Andes	Not nominated
Tupac: Resurrection	Lauren Lazin	United States	Late rapper Tupac Shakur from his upbringing to his untimely death	Nominated
Twist of Faith	Kirby Dick		Sexual abuse by a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toledo, Ohio	Nominated

2005

Main article: 78th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Darwin's Nightmare	Hubert Sauper	Austria Belgium France	Environmental and social effects of the fishing industry around Lake Victoria in Tanzania	Nominated	[4]
The Devil and Daniel Johnston	Jeff Feuerzeig	United States	Outsider music artist Daniel Johnston and his struggles with paranoid schizophrenia	Not nominated
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	Alex Gibney		The rise and fall of the real estate corporation Enron	Nominated
Mad Hot Ballroom	Marilyn Agrelo		The ballroom dance program for fifth graders in the New York City Department of Education	Not nominated
March of the Penguins	Luc Jacquet	France	The daily lives of emperor penguins	Won Academy Award
Murderball	Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro	United States	American Wheelchair rugby players facing against Canadian wheelchair rugby players at the 2004 Paralympic Games	Nominated
Street Fight	Marshall Curry		The 2002 Newark mayoral election in which Newark City Councilman Cory Booker challenged incumbent mayor Sharpe James	Nominated

2006

Main article: 79th Academy Awards

2007

Main article: 80th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Autism: The Musical	Tricia Regan	United States	Children on the autism spectrum performing their own stage musical	Not nominated	[5]
Body of War	Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue		The experiences of Iraq War veteran Tomas Young, including his paralysis from enemy gunshot wounds and his subsequent anti-war activism	Not nominated
For the Bible Tells Me So	Daniel G. Karslake		Christianity and homosexuality	Not nominated
Lake of Fire	Tony Kaye		Abortion in the United States	Not nominated
Nanking	Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman		The Nanjing Massacre	Not nominated
No End in Sight	Charles Ferguson		The Iraq War	Nominated
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience	Richard E. Robbins		The writings of U.S. veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars	Nominated
The Price of Sugar	Bill Haney	Dominican Republic United States	Exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation	Not nominated
Please Vote for Me	Weijun Chen	China	Elections for class monitor in a 3rd grade class in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China	Not nominated
Sicko	Michael Moore	United States	Health insurance and Healthcare in the United States	Nominated
Taxi to the Dark Side	Alex Gibney	United States	The December 2002 killing of an Afghan taxi driver named Dilawar, who was beaten to death by American soldiers while being held in extrajudicial detention and interrogated at a black site at Bagram air base	Won Academy Award
War/Dance	Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine	United States	Three Acholi children living in a Ugandan refugee camp, who are preparing to compete in the National Music Competition in Kampala	Nominated
White Light/Black Rain	Steven Okazaki		The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki	Not nominated

2008

Main article: 81st Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)	Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath	United States		Nominated	[6]
Encounters at the End of the World	Werner Herzog			Nominated
The Garden	Scott Hamilton Kennedy			Nominated
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts	Scott Hicks		Classical music composer Philip Glass	Not nominated
I.O.U.S.A.	Patrick Creadon			Not nominated
Man on Wire	James Marsh	United States	Highwire artist Philippe Petit's walking between the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center in New York	Won Academy Award
Trouble the Water	Tia Lessin Carl Deal	United States		Nominated

2009

Main article: 82nd Academy Awards

2010

Main article: 83rd Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Exit Through the Gift Shop	Banksy	United Kingdom		Nominated	[7]
Gasland	Josh Fox	United States		Nominated
Inside Job	Charles Ferguson	United States		Won Academy Award
Restrepo	Tim Hetherington Sebastian Junger	United States		Nominated
The Tillman Story	Amir Bar-Lev		The untimely death of former football player turned soldier Pat Tillman	Not nominated
Waiting for "Superman"	Davis Guggenheim			Not nominated
Waste Land	Lucy Walker	Brazil, United Kingdom		Nominated

2011

Main article: 84th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Buck				Not nominated	[8]
Bill Cunningham New York				Not nominated
Battle for Brooklyn				Not nominated
Hell and Back Again				Nominated
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front -	Marshall Curry	United States	The rise and fall of radical environmental group Earth Liberation Front	Nominated
Jane's Journey				Not nominated
The Loving Story				Not nominated
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory				Nominated
Pina	Wim Wenders	Germany		Nominated
Project Nim				Not nominated
Semper Fi: Always Faithful				Not nominated
Sing Your Song				Not nominated
Undefeated				Won Academy Award
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat				Not nominated
We Were Here				Not nominated

2012

Main article: 85th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Bully				Not nominated	[9]
Chasing Ice			Best Original Song nominee	Not nominated
5 Broken Cameras				Nominated
The Gatekeepers				Nominated
How to Survive a Plague	David France	United States	The beginnings of ACT UP and TAG during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s	Nominated
The Invisible War				Nominated
Searching for Sugar Man				Won Academy Award
This Is Not a Film			Filmmaker Jafar Panahi's exile from making cinema in Iran	Not nominated

2013

Main article: 86th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
The Act of Killing				Nominated	[10]
Blackfish		United States	Controversies surrounding the mistreatment of whales at Sea World	Not nominated
Cutie and the Boxer				Nominated
Dirty Wars				Nominated
God Loves Uganda				Not nominated
The Square				Nominated
20 Feet from Stardom	Morgan Neville	United States	Legendary backup singers (eg.Darlene Love)	Won Academy Award

2014

Main article: 87th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Citizen Koch	Tia Lessin and Carl Deal	United States		Not nominated	[11]
Citizenfour	Laura Poitras	United States	Edward Snowden and his whistleblowing involvement on WikiLeaks	Won Academy Award
Finding Vivian Maier	John Maloof and Charlie Siskel	United States	Street photographer Vivian Maier and the rediscovery of her photography	Nominated
The Internet's Own Boy	Brian Knappenberger		Aaron Swartz and the case of United States v. Swartz	Not nominated
Jodorowsky's Dune			Cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky's attempts at adapting the classic sci-fi novel Dune	Not nominated
Last Days in Vietnam				Nominated
Life Itself	Steve James	United States	Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Roger Ebert	Not nominated
The Salt of the Earth				Nominated
Virunga				Nominated

2015

Main article: 88th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Amy	Asif Kapadia	United Kingdom	The life and death of singer Amy Winehouse	Won Academy Award	[12][13]
Best of Enemies	Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville	United States	The televised arguments between conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr and progressive novelist Gore Vidal	Not nominated
Cartel Land	Matthew Heineman		Vigilante groups fighting Mexican drug cartels during Mexican drug war	Nominated
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief	Alex Gibney		An exposé on the practices of the Church of Scientology	Not nominated
He Named Me Malala	Davis Guggenheim	United States, United Arab Emirates	The life of young activist Malala Yousafzai	Not nominated
Heart of a Dog	Laurie Anderson	United States	Composer Laurie Anderson's meditative ode to canines	Not nominated
The Hunting Ground	Kirby Dick		The incidence of sexual assault on college campuses in the United States and the reported failure of college administrations to deal with it adequately	Not nominated
Listen to Me Marlon	Stevan Riley	United Kingdom	Archival footage examining the life of Academy Award-winning actor Marlon Brando	Not nominated
The Look of Silence	Joshua Oppenheimer	Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, Norway, United Kingdom, United States	Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66	Nominated
Meru	Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi	United States	The first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas	Not nominated
3 1/2 Minutes, 10 Bullets	Marc Silver		Murder of Jordan Davis	Not nominated
We Come as Friends	Hubert Sauper	Austria, France	War-ravaged South Sudan fighting for independence from North Sudan and its President Omar al-Bashir	Not nominated
What Happened, Miss Simone?	Liz Garbus	United States	The life and troubled times of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone	Nominated
Where to Invade Next	Michael Moore		Director Michael Moore spending time in various countries where he experiences alternative methods of dealing with social and economic ills experienced in the United States	Not nominated
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom	Evgeny Afineevsky	Ukraine, United States, United Kingdom	Ukraine's fight for freedom during the Revolution of Dignity	Nominated

2016

Main article: 89th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Cameraperson	Kirsten Johnson	United States	A cinematographer's collection of documentary footage	Not nominated	[14]
Command and Control	Robert Kenner		1980 Damascus Titan missile explosion in Damascus, Arkansas between September 18–19, 1980	Not nominated
The Eagle Huntress	Otto Bell	Mongolia, United Kingdom, Kazakhstan, United States	Aisholpan Nurgaiv, a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia, as she attempts to become the first female eagle hunter to compete in the eagle festival at Ulgii, Mongolia	Not nominated
Fire at Sea	Gianfranco Rosi	Italy	Life at Lampedusa, Italy	Nominated
Gleason	Clay Tweel	United States	Former football player Steve Gleason and his journey living with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)	Not nominated
Hooligan Sparrow	Nanfu Wang	China, United States	A child rape case in China involving a government official and the subsequent protests led by activists	Not nominated
I Am Not Your Negro	Raoul Peck	France, United States	Author James Baldwin's unfinished memoir about being black in America	Nominated
The Ivory Game	Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani	United States	The poaching of elephants in Africa, related to the ivory trade in China and Hong Kong, and the repercussions of elephant poaching	Not nominated
Life, Animated	Roger Ross Williams		Owen Suskind, son of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, diagnosed with autism learning about life and communication through classic Disney animated movies	Nominated
OJ: Made in America	Ezra Edelman	United States	The examination of racial divides in America during the O. J. Simpson saga	Won Academy Award
13th	Ava DuVernay	United States	A look at the 13th amendment and its effect on African Americans	Nominated
Tower	Keith Maitland		The 1966 University of Texas shooting perpetrated by Charles Whitman	Not nominated
Weiner	Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg		The rise and fall of politician Anthony Weiner due to his excessive sexting	Not nominated
The Witness	James D. Solomon		The murder of Kitty Genovese and the subsequent investigation led by her brother, Bill	Not nominated
Zero Days	Alex Gibney		The phenomenon surrounding the Stuxnet computer virus and the development of the malware software known as "Olympic Games."	Not nominated

2017

Main article: 90th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail	Steve James	United States	A family-owned community bank, Abacus Federal Savings Bank, the only financial institution to face criminal charges following the subprime mortgage crisis	Nominated	[15][16][17]
Chasing Coral	Jeff Orlowski		A team of divers, scientists and photographers around the world who document the disappearance of coral reefs	Not nominated
City of Ghosts	Matthew Heineman		The Syrian media activist group Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently after their homeland is taken over by ISIS in 2014	Not nominated
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library	Frederick Wiseman		The role of the New York Public Library as an egalitarian network of exploration, exchange and learning	Not nominated
Faces Places	Agnes Varda, JR	France	Varda and JR traveling around rural France, creating portraits of the people they come across	Nominated
Human Flow	Ai Weiwei	Germany	The current global refugee crisis	Not nominated
Icarus	Bryan Fogel	United States	Fogel's exploration of the option of doping to win an amateur cycling race and happening upon a major international doping scandal when he asks for the help of Grigory Rodchenkov, the head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory	Won Academy Award
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power	Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk	United States	Former United States Vice President Al Gore's continuing mission to battle climate change	Not nominated
Jane	Brett Morgen		Iconic anthropologist Jane Goodall	Not nominated
Jim and Andy	Chris Smith		The making of the 1999 biopic Man on the Moon starring Jim Carrey in his Golden Globe-winning portrayal of the controversial stand-up comedian Andy Kaufman	Not nominated
LA 92	Daniel Lindsay, T. J. Martin		Archival coverage of the 1992 Rodney King riots	Not nominated
Last Men in Aleppo	Feras Fayyad	Denmark, Syria	The lives of three White Helmets founders, Khaled Omar Harrah, Subhi Alhussen and Mahmoud as they grapple the dilemma to flee their country or stay and fight for it	Nominated
Let It Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992	John Ridley	United States	Prior events leading up to the Rodney King riots	Not nominated
Long Strange Trip	Amir Bar-Lev		The career of the rock band the Grateful Dead	Not nominated
One of Us	Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady		The lives of three ex-Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn	Not nominated
Strong Island	Yance Ford		The April 1992 murder of William Ford, the director's brother	Nominated
Unrest	Jennifer Brea		Brea faced chronic fatigue syndrome that struck just before she married her husband Omar Wasow	Not nominated

2018

Main article: 91st Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Charm City	Marilyn Ness	United States	A community in Baltimore, Maryland, over the span of three years of high violence	Not nominated	[18]
Communion	Anna Zamecka	Poland	Ola, a 14-year-old girl who takes care of her dysfunctional, alcoholic father, autistic brother, mother who lives separately, and her preparation of family celebration of her brother's Holy Communion sacrament	Not nominated
Crime + Punishment	Stephen T. Maing	United States	A group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and a private investigator who risk everything to expose illegal quota practices and their impact on young minorities	Not nominated
Dark Money	Kimberly Reed		The effects of corporate money and influence in the American political system	Not nominated
The Distant Barking of Dogs	Simon Lereng Wilmont	Ukraine, Denmark, Finland, Sweden	The life of 10-year-old Ukrainian boy Oleg throughout a year during the war in Donbas	Not nominated
Free Solo	Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin	United States	Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite National Park's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall	Won Academy Award
Hale County This Morning, This Evening	RaMell Ross	United States	The lives of black people in Hale County, Alabama	Nominated
Minding the Gap	Bing Liu		The lives and friendships of three young men growing up in Rockford, Illinois, united by their love of skateboarding	Nominated
Of Fathers and Sons	Talal Derki	Germany, Lebanon Netherlands, Qatar, Syria	Radical jihadism and terrorist training in Syria	Nominated
On Her Shoulders	Alexandria Bombach	United States	Human rights activist Nadia Murad, as she met with politicians and journalists to alert the world to the massacres and kidnapping happening in Iraq	Not nominated
RBG	Betsy West, Julie Cohen		The life, legacy and career of Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg	Nominated
Shirkers	Sandi Tan	Singapore, United Kingdom, United States	The making of an independent thriller featuring a teenage assassin set in Singapore	Not nominated
The Silence of Others	Almudena Carracedo, Robert Bahar	United States, Spain	The silenced fight of the victims from the dictatorship of Francisco Franco	Not nominated
Three Identical Strangers	Tim Wardle	United States, United Kingdom	The lives of Edward Galland, David Kellman, and Robert Shafran, a set of identical triplet brothers adopted as infants by separate families	Not nominated
Won't You Be My Neighbor?	Morgan Neville	United States	The life, legacy and guiding philosophy of children's television host Fred Rogers	Not nominated

2019

Main article: 92nd Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Advocate	Rachel Leah Jones, Philippe Bellaïche	Israel	Human rights lawyer Leah Tsemel as she navigates through the Israeli judicial system in defense of Palestinians accused of terrorism	Not nominated	[19][20]
American Factory	Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert	United States	Chinese company Fuyao's factory in Moraine that occupies Moraine Assembly, a shuttered General Motors plant	Won Academy Award
The Apollo	Roger Ross Williams	United States	The history of Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City	Not nominated
Apollo 11	Todd Douglas Miller		The 1969 Apollo 11 mission	Not nominated
Aquarela	Viktor Kossakovsky	Germany, United Kingdom, United States	Climate change depicted by water and ice around the world	Not nominated
The Biggest Little Farm	John Chester	United States	John Chester and his wife Molly as they acquire and establish themselves on Apricot Lane Farms in Moorpark, California	Not nominated
The Cave	Feras Fayyad	Syria, Denmark	Dr. Amani Ballour, a physician in Ghouta who is operating a makeshift hospital nicknamed "the Cave" during the Syrian Civil War	Nominated
The Edge of Democracy	Petra Costa	Brazil	Political past of Costa in a personal way, in context with the first term of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and the events leading to impeachment of Dilma Rousseff	Nominated
For Sama	Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts	Syria, United Kingdom, United States	Al-Kateab's journey as a journalist and rebel in the Syrian civil war uprising as she and her husband raise their daughter Sama	Nominated
The Great Hack	Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer	United States	The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal	Not nominated
Honeyland	Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov	North Macedonia	The life of Hatidže Muratova, a loner beekeeper of wild bees who lives in the remote mountain village of Bekirloja, North Macedonia	Nominated
Knock Down the House	Rachel Lears	United States	Four female democrats who run for Congress in the 2018 United States elections: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Amy Vilela, Cori Bush and Paula Jean Swearengin	Not nominated
Maiden	Alex Holmes	United Kingdom	Tracy Edwards and the crew of the Maiden as they compete as the first all-woman crew in the 1989–1990 Whitbread Round the World Race	Not nominated
Midnight Family	Luke Lorentzen	Mexico, United States	Ochoa family who run a private ambulance business	Not nominated
One Child Nation	Nanfu Wang, Jialing Zhang	United States	The fallout of China's one-child policy that lasted from 1980 to 2015	Not nominated

2020

Main article: 93rd Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
All In: The Fight for Democracy	Liz Garbus, Lisa Cortés	United States	Voter suppression and the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives	Not nominated	[21][22]
Boys State	Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine		A thousand teenage boys attending Boys State in Texas, coming to build a representative government from the ground up	Not nominated
Collective	Alexander Nanau	Romania	The 2016 public health scandal following the Colectiv nightclub fire	Nominated
Crip Camp	Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht	United States	Camp Jened campers who turned themselves into activists for the disability rights movement in the 1970s and follows their fight for accessibility legislation	Nominated
Dick Johnson Is Dead	Kirsten Johnson		Johnson's father Richard "Dick", who suffers from dementia, portraying different ways in which he could ultimately die	Not nominated
Gunda	Viktor Kossakovsky	United States, Norway, Spain	The daily life of a pig, two cows, and a one-legged chicken	Not nominated
MLK/FBI	Sam Pollard	United States	The investigation and harassment of activist Martin Luther King Jr. by J. Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation	Not nominated
The Mole Agent	Maite Alberdi	Chile, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, United States	A private investigator, Rómulo, hires Sergio, an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile	Nominated
My Octopus Teacher	Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed	South Africa, United Kingdom	A year spent by filmmaker Craig Foster forging a relationship with wild common octopus in a South African kelp forest	Won Academy Award
Notturno	Gianfranco Rosi	Italy, Germany, France	Different people from areas near war zones in the Middle East who are trying to start over again with their everyday lives	Not nominated
The Painter and the Thief	Benjamin Ree	Norway, United States	Barbora Kysilkova, an artist, forming a friendship with Karl-Bertil Nordland, a man who stole her artwork	Not nominated
76 Days	Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, anonymous third	China, United States	The struggles of patients and frontline medical professionals battling the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan	Not nominated
Time	Garrett Bradley	United States	Sibil Fox Richardson, fighting for the release of her husband, Rob, who is serving a 60-year prison sentence for engaging in an armed bank robbery	Nominated
The Truffle Hunters	Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw	United States, Italy, Greece	A group of aging men hunt in the woods in Northern Italy, for a prized quarry, the Alba truffle	Not nominated
Welcome to Chechnya	David France	United States	LGBT Chechen refugees as they made their way out of anti-gay purges in Chechnya of the late 2010s	Not nominated

2021

Main article: 94th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
Ascension	Jessica Kingdon	United States	The pursuit of the Chinese Dream	Nominated	[23]
Attica	Stanley Nelson Jr., Traci Curry		The infamous 1971 Attica Prison riot	Nominated
Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry	R. J. Cutler		The career and creative process of singer-songwriter Billie Eilish	Not nominated
Faya Dayi	Jessica Beshir	United States, Ethiopia, Qatar	The rituals of khat, a psychoactive plant that plays an important role in Ethiopia's economy and culture	Not nominated
The First Wave	Matthew Heineman	United States	A hospital in New York City, as it battles the COVID-19 pandemic	Not nominated
Flee	Jonas Poher Rasmussen	Denmark, France, Norway, Sweden, United States	Amin Nawabi, who shares his hidden past of fleeing his home country of Afghanistan to Denmark for the first time	Nominated
In the Same Breath	Nanfu Wang	United States	The response of the Chinese and American governments to the COVID-19 pandemic	Not nominated
Julia	Julie Cohen, Betsy West		The life of cooking teacher and television personality Julia Child	Not nominated
President	Camilla Nielsson	Denmark, Norway, United States, Zimbabwe	The career of Nelson Chamisa who takes on the corrupt ruling party in Zimbabwe	Not nominated
Procession	Robert Greene	United States	The six men, who suffered abuse by priests, looking for peace	Not nominated
The Rescue	Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin	United States, United Kingdom	The 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue	Not nominated
Simple as Water	Megan Mylan	United States	The Syrian families across five countries, revealing the impact of war, separation, and displacement	Not nominated
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)	Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson	United States	The 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival	Won Academy Award
The Velvet Underground	Todd Haynes	United States	The life and times of influential rock band The Velvet Underground	Not nominated
Writing with Fire	Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas	India	The journalists running the Dalit women-led newspaper Khabar Lahariya, as they shift from 14 years of print to digital journalism using smartphones	Nominated

2022

Main article: 95th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
A House Made of Splinters	Simon Lereng Wilmont	Denmark Ukraine Sweden	The care of the staff of an institution for children who have been removed from their homes.	Nominated	[24]
All That Breathes	Shaunak Sen	India United States United Kingdom	Two brothers devote their lives to protect one casualty of the turbulent times: the bird known as the black kite	Nominated
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed	Laura Poitras	United States	The life of artist Nan Goldin and the downfall of the Sackler family	Nominated
Bad Axe	David Siev		David Siev's Asian-American family struggles to keep their local restaurant afloat amidst racial tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic	Not nominated
Children of the Mist	Ha Le Diem	Vietnam	The Di Hmong teenager faces challenges growing up. In traditional Di culture, girls are married at the age of 14. But at school he learns that there are alternatives.	Not nominated
Descendant	Margaret Brown	United States	The community of Africatown and the descendants of some of the last known enslaved Africans that were brought to the United States	Not nominated
Fire of Love	Sara Dosa	United States Canada	The life and career of the daring French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, who were ultimately killed in the 1991 eruption of Mount Unzen	Nominated
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song	Daniel Geller & Dayna Goldfine	United States Canada	The story of Leonard Cohen, and his song "Hallelujah"	Not nominated
Hidden Letters	Violet Du Feng & Qing Zhao	China	The story of two Chinese women trying to balance their lives as independent women in modern China while confronting the traditional identity that defines but also oppresses them.	Not nominated
The Janes	Tia Lessin & Emma Pildes	United States	The story of a clandestine service for women seeking safe, affordable, and illegal abortions, calling themselves JANE	Not nominated
Last Flight Home	Ondi Timoner		In his final days, we discover Eli Timoner and an extraordinary life of wild achievements, tragic loss and most of all, enduring love	Not nominated
Moonage Daydream	Brett Morgen	Germany United States	David Bowie's creative, spiritual and musical journey	Not nominated
Navalny	Daniel Roher	United States	The poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny	Won Academy Award
Retrograde	Matthew Heineman	United States	The events that took place during the last nine months of the United States' 20-year war in Afghanistan	Not nominated
The Territory	Alex Pritz	United States United Kingdom Brazil Denmark	The attempts of a young indigenous leader of the Uru-eu-wau-wau, an Amazonian tribe contacted by the Brazilian government only in 1980	Not nominated

2023

Main article: 96th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
American Symphony	Matthew Heineman	United States	A year in the life of musician Jon Batiste chronicling his career in music and his marriage with Suleika Jaouad as they deal with her leukemia.	Not nominated	[25]
Apolonia, Apolonia	Lea Glob	Denmark, Poland, France	The coming-of-age story of Apolonia Sokol as she finds her place in the art world, told through 13 years.	Not nominated
Beyond Utopia	Madeleine Gavin	United States	The work of Pastor Sungeun Kim, a South Korean human rights activist who has helped rescuing North Korean defectors.	Not nominated
Bobi Wine: The People's President	Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp	United Kingdom, Uganda, United States	The campaign trail of Ugandan politician, singer, and actor Bobi Wine leading to the 2021 Ugandan general election.	Nominated
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy	Nancy Buirski	United States	The journey of making and producing John Schlesinger's 1969 film Midnight Cowboy.	Not nominated
The Eternal Memory	Maite Alberdi	Chile	The relationship between actress Paulina Urrutia and journalist Augusto Góngora as they struggle with Gongora's Alzheimer's disease diagnosis.	Nominated
Four Daughters	Kaouther Ben Hania	Tunisia, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia	After two daughters of a Tunisian woman disappeared, the filmmaker invites professional actresses to compensate for the loss.	Nominated
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project	Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson	United States	The life of American poet Nikki Giovanni and the historical periods she lived through from civil rights movement and Black Arts Movement to Black Lives Matter.	Not nominated
In the Rearview	Maciek Hamela	Ukraine, Poland, France	Following the first days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Polish van travels through Ukraine's streets serving as a refuge for citizens.	Not nominated
Stamped from the Beginning	Roger Ross Williams	United States	A hybrid documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's 2016 non-fiction book Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas.	Not nominated
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie	Davis Guggenheim		The life of American actor Michael J. Fox and his struggle with Parkinson's disease.	Not nominated
A Still Small Voice	Luke Lorentzen	United Kingdom	A chaplain completing a year-long hospital residency facing the challenges and spiritual questions that come from her experiences with her patients.	Not nominated
32 Sounds	Sam Green	United States	Sound and its effects on human's perception of time and the world.	Not nominated
To Kill a Tiger	Nisha Pahuja	Canada	A family in Jharkhand, India campaigning for justice for the teenage daughter, who has brutally raped.	Nominated
20 Days in Mariupol	Mstyslav Chernov	Ukraine	The twenty days spent by the filmmaker and his colleagues in besieged Mariupol after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.	Won Academy Award

2024

Main article: 97th Academy Awards

Film	Director(s)	Countrie(s)	Subject(s)	Result	Ref.
The Bibi Files	Alexis Bloom	United States	The leaked interrogation footage of the trial of Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel.	Not nominated	[26][27]
Black Box Diaries	Shiori Itō	United States, United Kingdom, Japan	The investigation into Shiori's sexual assault case committed by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, director of the Tokyo Broadcasting System.	Nominated
Dahomey	Mati Diop	France, Senegal, Benin	Dramatised account of 26 royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Republic of Benin), which were held in a museum in France.	Not nominated
Daughters	Natalie Rae and Angela Patton	United States	The account of 4 young girls as part of afatherhood program in a Washington, D.C., jail.	Not nominated
Eno	Gary Hustwit	United States, United Kingdom	An account of English ambient music artist Brian Eno, produced with a computer software capable to select footage and edit the film in 52 quintillion possible iterations.	Not nominated
Frida	Carla Gutierrez	Mexico, United States	The life of Frida Kahlo told through her own writings and interviews.	Not nominated
Hollywoodgate	Ibrahim Nash'at	Germany, United States	The daily life of Taliban air force commander Mawlawi Mansour, and the fundamentalist M.J. Mukhtar, following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.	Not nominated
No Other Land	Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor	Palestine, Norway	The struggle of Palestinian activist Basel Adra over the destruction of the Masafer Yatta villages due to the occupation of the Israeli army.	Won Academy Award
Porcelain War	Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev	United States, Australia, Ukraine	The experience of Ukrainian artists as they face the current Russian occupation in Ukraine.	Nominated
Queendom	Agniia Galdanova	United States, France	The art and activism of Gena Marvin, a queer artist from Russia challenging her country's anti-LGBTQ+ laws.	Not nominated
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin	Benjamin Ree	Norway	The secret life of Mats Steen, a World of Warcraft gamer with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.	Not nominated
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat	Johan Grimonprez	Belgium, France, Netherlands	The crash of Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach at the UN Security Council in protest of the murder of Patrice Lumumba.	Nominated
Sugarcane	Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie	United States, Canada	The investigation into the abuse and disappearances of Canadian indigenous children in the nearby Sugarcane Reserve.	Nominated
Union	Brett Story and Stephen Maing	United States	The journey of Amazon Labor Union to unionize Amazon's JKF8 warehouse on Staten Island.	Not nominated
Will & Harper	Josh Greenbaum		A road trip across the United States between Will Ferrel and his friend Harper Steele, who completed her gender transition.	Not nominated

See also

• Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
• Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Documentary Film