Once again, the Oscar documentary shortlist for the 2014 ceremony, announced yesterday, is an idiosyncratic mix of crowd favorites and obscure titles.
Women directors were behind the camera on five of the fifteen award-hopefuls, which include Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s killer-whale tale Blackfish, Sarah Polley’s Rashomon-like family memoir Stories We Tell, and Lucy Walker’s upcoming profile of snowboarder Kevin Pearce, The Crash Reel.
As Variety noted, though, there were two glaring omissions from the list, which coincidentally or not-so-coincidentally were two of the most politically incisive, and therefore controversial, films of the year: Dawn Porter’s court expose Gideon’s Army and Martha Shane and Lana Wilson’s abortion doc After Tiller.
Below is the list of the women-directed films:
Blackfish — Gabriela Cowperthwaite
The Crash Reel — Lucy Walker
Life According to Sam — Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
The Square — Jehane Noujaim
Stories We Tell — Sarah Polley
