Awards, Documentary, Features, Films, Women Directors

Oscar Doc Submissions Are 35 Percent Women-Directed

“Motherland”

It’s time to meet the 2018 Oscar doc contenders. One hundred seventy features have been submitted for consideration in the category at the upcoming Academy Awards, and one of them will be taking home an Oscar and the title of Best Doc at the 90th installment of the ceremony. Of those 170 titles, 60 are directed or co-directed by women, amounting to about 35 percent of the total. Last year, 30 percent of the features in the race were helmed or co-helmed by women. Just one doc submitted by a woman earned a nod, Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” an exploration of the connection between slavery and mass-incarceration in the United States.

“Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases,” a press release announcing this year’s doc hopefuls specified. So at this point it’s not a sure bet that these films will be eligible to advance, since “submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to” do so.

Docs in the running include Amanda Lipitz’s “Step,” an inspirational story of an all-girls dance team at a Baltimore high school, Nanfu Wang’s “I Am Another You,” a portrait of a drifter in Florida, and Ramona S. Diaz’s “Motherland,” a look inside the world’s busiest maternity hospital.

A shortlist of 15 films will be unveiled in December, and nominations will be announced January 23, 2018. The Oscars will take place March 4, 2018.

Check out all of the women-directed and co-directed docs up for Oscar glory below. List adapted from a press release.

“All the Rage” (Co-Directed by Suki Hawley)

“Angels Within” (Co-Directed by Connie Lamothe)

“Arthur Miller: Writer” (Directed by Rebecca Miller)

“Atomic Homefront” (Directed by Rebecca Cammisa)

“Big Sonia”(Co-Directed by Leah Warshawski)

“Birthright: A War Story” (Directed by Civia Tamarkin)

“Bobbi Jene” (directed by Elvira Lind)

“Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story” (Directed by Alexandra Dean)

“Born to Lead: The Sal Aunese Story” (Directed by Lara Anne Slife)

“Casting JonBenet” (Directed by Kitty Green)

“ “Chavela” (Directed by Catherine Gund and Daresha Kyi)

“Destination Unknown” (Directed by Claire Ferguson)

“11/8/16” (Co-Directed by Petra Epperlein, Alma Har’el, Sheena M. Joyce, Alison Klayman, Ciara Lacy, Martha Shane, and Elaine McMillion Sheldon)

“Embargo” (Directed by Jeri Rice)

“Eric Clapton: Life in 12 Bars” (Directed by Lili Fini Zanuck)

“Everybody Knows… Elizabeth Murray” (Directed by Kristi Zea)

“Faces Places” (Co-Directed by Agnès Varda)

“The Farthest” (Directed by Emer Reynolds)

“500 Years” (Directed by Pamela Yates)

“Good Fortune” (Co-Directed by Rebecca Harrell Tickell)

“Hare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It All” (Co-Directed by Jean Griesser and Lauren Ross)

“I Am Another You” (Directed by Nanfu Wang)

“I Am Evidence” (Directed by Trish Adlesic and Geeta Gandbhir)

“I Am Jane Doe” (Directed by Mary Mazzio)

“An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” (Co-Directed by Bonni Cohen)

“Jeremiah Tower The Last Magnificent” (Directed by Lydia Tenaglia)

“Karl Marx City” (Co-Directed by Petra Epperlein)

“Kedi” (Directed by Ceyda Torun)

“Kiki” (Directed by Sarah Jordenö)

“The Last Laugh” (Directed by Ferne Pearlstein)

“Letters from Baghdad” (Directed by Sabine Krayenbühl and Zeva Oelbaum)

“Look & See” (Co-Directed by Laura Dunn)

“Motherland” (Directed by Ramona S. Diaz)

“Obit” (Directed by Vanessa Gould)

“One of Us” (Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady)

“The Pathological Optimist” (Directed by Miranda Bailey)

“Rancher, Farmer, Fisherman” (Co-Directed by Susan Froemke and Beth Aala)

“The Rape of Recy Taylor” (Directed by Nancy Buirski)

“The Reagan Show” (Co-Directed by Sierra Pettengill)

“Restless Creature: Wendy Whelan” (Co-Directed by Linda Saffire)

“Risk” (Directed by Laura Poitras)

“Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World” (Co-Directed by Catherine Bainbridge)

“School Life” (Co-Directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin)

“ “Served Like a Girl” (Directed by Lysa Heslov)

“Sled Dogs” (Directed by Fern Levitt)

“Spettacolo” (Co-Directed by Chris Shellen)

“Step” (Directed by Amanda Lipitz)

“Stopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-Trafficking” (Directed by Sadhvi Siddhali Shree)

“Swim Team” (Directed by Lara Stolman)

“Take Every Wave: The Life of Laird Hamilton” (Directed by Rory Kennedy)

“Take My Nose… Please!” (Directed by Joan Kron)

“32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide” (Directed by Hope Litoff)

“This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous” (Directed by Barbara Kopple)

“Tickling Giants” (Directed by Sara Taksler)

“Trophy” (Co-Directed by Christina Clusiau)

“Unrest” (Directed by Jennifer Brea)

“Vince Giordano — There’s a Future in the Past” (Co-Directed by Amber Edwards)

“Wasted! The Story of Food Waste” (Directed by Anna Chai and Nari Kye)

“Water & Power: A California Heist” (Directed by Marina Zenovich)

“Whose Streets?” (Co-Directed by Sabaah Folayan)

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