An early glimpse of the Best Documentary Feature category has presented itself in the form of the Producer’s Guild of America nominations. While the rest of the PGA nominations aren’t announced until January 5th, the documentary nominations are released in November. They are:
Chasing Coral (Netflix)
City of Ghosts (Amazon Prime)
Cries from Syria (HBO)
Earth: One Amazing Day (in theaters)
Jane (in theaters)
Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower (Netflix)
The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee (HBO)
All these films are eligible, and on the “short” list (170 docs) for the Academy except The Newspaperman. Every other documentary should be happy for this bit of news. Ben Bradlee is being portrayed by Tom Hanks in The Post which is sure to clean up on nominations next year at the Oscars. If I’m picking a lock to be nominated out of this group it’s probably Jane. City of Ghosts and Cries from Syria seem like your usually Academy bait, but Jane just looks too good.
Happy watching! And be sure to check back in for more articles in our ongoing State of the Race series as awards season heats up.