“Buck,” “Nim,” “Pina,” “Hell and Back Again” make best doc Oscar shortlist

November 18, 2011 by Adam Benzine

The 15 shortlisted films in the Best Documentary Feature category have been named for the 84th Academy Awards, with Buck, Pina and Paradise Lost 3 among the selections from the 124 docs which originally qualified in the category.

The list features surprise snubs for some of the industry’s biggest directors and some of the year’s most acclaimed docs, with Steve James’s The Interrupters, Asif Kapadia’s Senna, Werner Herzog’s Into The Abyss and Errol Morris’s Tabloid all failing to make the cut.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production company:

Battle for Brooklyn (Rumer Inc.)
Bill Cunningham New York (First Thought Films)
Buck (Cedar Creek Productions)
Hell and Back Again (Roast Beef Productions)
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry Productions)
Jane’s Journey (NEOS Film GmbH & Co.)
The Loving Story (Augusta Films)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (@radical.media)
Pina (Neue Road Movies)
Project Nim (Red Box Films)
Semper Fi: Always Faithful (Tied to the Tracks Films)
Sing Your Song (S2BN Belafonte Productions)
Undefeated (Spitfire Pictures)
Under Fire: Journalists in Combat (JUF Pictures)
We Were Here (Weissman Projects)

The 84th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 24, 2012, at 5:30 a.m. PST in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Tags: Battle for Brooklyn, Bill Cunningham New York, Buck, Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Jane's Journey, Oscars, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Pina, Project Nim, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, Senna, Sing Your Song, The Interrupters, The Loving Story, Undefeated, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat, We Were Here