"Can We Talk?" The Documentary SnubFest... I Mean Shortlist.

It's inevitable that the Academy's documentary branch has to snub fine films every year. There are usually more than 5 terrific docs a year after all. But even when they narrow it to 15 for the finals, they're always dumping extraordinary movies.  We knew that the buzzy Catfish wouldn't be there but it's a pity that the funny/interesting/popular Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work couldn't place even in a field of 15. I just watched it again in fact and it still holds the interest even after the jokes aren't new. And don't get me started on the phenomenal Last Train Home, the best thing I saw at Sundance this year give or take I am Love and The Kids Are All Right.

Possibly Nominees?

Anyway here's the list of 15 finalists that will have to fight it out for the 5-wide Best Documentary Feature Oscar nominations.

• Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer ~ bio-doc on disgraced New York governor.
• Enemies of the People ~ on Cambodia's killing fields.
• Exit through the Gift Shop ~ Bansky's hipster-beloved graffiti doc.
• Gasland ~on the Halliburton inspired environmental horror show known as "fracking". 
• Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould ~bio-doc on the musician.
• Inside Job ~ behind the economic meltdown.
• The Lottery ~ the other charter-schools documentary of 2010.
• Precious Life ~a Palestinian boy needs Israeli medical care to survive.
• Quest for Honor ~activist women and Kurdish journalists fight against "honor killings".
• Restrepo ~ One platoon of US Soldiers in Afghanistan over a one year period.
• This Way of Life ~bio-doc on Maori family.
• The Tillman Story ~bio-doc on sports hero turned soldier.
• Waiting for Superman ~commercial for charter schools.
• Waste Land ~garbage pickers meet artist in the world's largest landfill in Brazil.
• William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe ~bio-doc on famed civil rights activist lawyer.

Two thirds of those films won't be going any further than this, since only 5 can become actual Oscar nominees. I guess I need to start watching my screeners as I've seen but one of these (Waiting for Superman) and I didn't even like it. AND it's the one that's going to win.

I realize most people are in love with it but I'll be over here in detention with the handful of other naughty students who aren't bowled over by this lazy teacher (Mr. WaitingForSuperman) whose too busy vilifying another lazy teacher (Mrs. Teacher's Union) and going off on emotion-based tangents to realize that there's not much actual education in this movie.

Anyway, feel free to cry over spilt docs in the comments.

• High Profile Snubs: 12th and Delaware (on abortion), Armadillo (similar topic to Restrepo), Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (on the infamous comedienne), Catfish (online relations), Last Train Home (China's migration), A Film Unfinished (that's right... they passed over a Holocaust picture!) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (the 3D film from Werner Herzog). 

Audiences and Critics Loved Her. The Academy Did Not.

Or tell us which film you're rooting for. Not that it's easy to see all of these. But it is easier to see them that it is to see the foreign film contenders.