Here are the 15 documentaries that could earn Oscar nominations

By Rick Marshall Published December 7, 2016

After announcing the contenders for the visual effects category earlier in the week, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has now revealed the films in the running for Academy Award nominations in the “Best Documentary Feature” category.

According to the announcement, 145 films were submitted for consideration and the list was narrowed down to 15 films that could earn nominations. Among the films is Weiner, a documentary chronicling disgraced New York Congressman Anthony Weiner’s mayoral campaign in the context of the current political landscape, as well as Zero Days, about the infamous Stuxnet computer virus allegedly created by the U.S. and Israel; and O.J.: Made in America, about the highly publicized murder trial of former professional football player O.J. Simpson.

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The full list of finalists for Academy Award nominations in the “Best Documentary Feature” category consists of the following projects and the companies that produced them:

Cameraperson, Big Mouth Productions
Command and Control, American Experience Films/PBS
The Eagle Huntress, Stacey Reiss Productions, Kissiki Films and 19340 Productions
Fire at Sea, Stemal Entertainment
Gleason, Dear Rivers Productions, Exhibit A and IMG Films
Hooligan Sparrow, Little Horse Crossing the River
I Am Not Your Negro, Velvet Film
The Ivory Game, Terra Mater Film Studios and Vulcan Productions
Life, Animated, Motto Pictures and A&E IndieFilms
O.J.: Made in America, Laylow Films and ESPN Films
13th, Forward Movement
Tower, Go-Valley
Weiner, Edgeline Films
The Witness, The Witnesses Film
Zero Days, Jigsaw Productions

Of the 15 films contending for nominations, five will be chosen by the Documentary Branch of the Academy to becomes Oscar nominees. The full list of official nominations for the 89th Annual Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, January 24, 2017.

The upcoming Academy Awards will be held Sunday, February 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. the ceremony will be broadcast live on ABC, with the program kicking off at 7 p.m. ET that day.

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10 best acting winners of the last 10 years, ranked

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Another Oscars means another movie year wrapped and another chance to quibble with the Academy's choices. The Oscars are far from perfect, but they're useful precisely because they allow us to argue about the year in film.
Sometimes, though, they get things right, and when they do, they help us remember the year's best work in everything from sound editing to acting. Not every acting winner is immortalized, but we've pulled together this list of the 10 best acting winners of the past 10 years in Best Actor and Best Actress and compiled them into two lists, one for actors and one for actresses. In general, the actress category was stronger with a few repeat winners. Check out the full lists below:
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5. Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant (2015)
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DiCaprio has undoubtedly given better performances than the one he delivered in The Revenant, but that doesn't mean he wasn't good in the movie. DiCaprio plays Hugh Glass, a trapper who is betrayed and left for dead. He then braves the Canadian wilderness and seeks his revenge.
The movie is at least as much about how much DiCaprio endured physically as it is about the emotionality of his character. The movie's final moments, when Glass has achieved his mission and is left to reckon with what comes next, are haunting and entirely worth remembering.

4. Will Smith - King Richard (2021)
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Will Smith's slap heard round the world understandably overshadowed his performance in King Richard, which is quite good. Although the movie elides some of the more difficult aspects of Richard Williams's life, Smith is excellent as an acerbic, difficult man who understood how much potential his daughters had to be genuinely great.
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