The 92nd Academy Awards- The Oscars- Best Documentary Feature
The Oscars are fast approaching with only a couple of weeks left until the big day. There are numerous categories with a large number of nominees to go through. So far, we have covered the nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Director. As stated in the title above, we will be going over the nominations for Best Documentary Feature.
The first documentary to find its way onto the list of nominations is The Edge of Democracy. Directed by Petra Costa, this film follows the leaders of Brazil as they deal with their ideologically divided country. It shows us how the country of Brazil has changed and has started to slip back into the ideology of a dictatorship and the disconnect between political figures and the people they are meant to represent.
The next nomination for Best Documentary Feature is a film called For Sama. From directors Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, For Sama shows an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. It tells the story of Waad Al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria, her falling in love, getting married, and giving birth to her daughter Sama, all while surrounded by conflict.
Following that, we have a documentary film called Honeyland. Directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov, Honeyland takes its audience to the mountains of Macedonia. We get to see a woman’s use of ancient beekeeping techniques in order to cultivate honey while living in the mountains. It shows the formation of tension between her and a neighboring family when they try to do the same thing and they disregard her wisdom and advice.
The next documentary to make its way onto the nominations list for Best Documentary Feature is American Factory. Directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar show us a clash between high-tech China and working class America in post-industrial Ohio. A Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant. Early hope and optimism give way to setbacks, which, in turn, gives way to conflict.
The final nomination on the list for Best Documentary happens to be a film called The Cave. Directed by Ferras Fayaad, we see him return to his native, wartorn Syria to follow a dedicated team of female doctors who tirelessly treat casualties in an underground hospital while battling systemic sexism.
