Oscar Documentary Nominations Shocker: ‘American Symphony’ & Michael J. Fox Movie Snubbed, While International Films Dominate
23.01.2024 - 15:15
/ deadline.com
In an Oscar stunner, two films considered a lock for nominations failed to be recognized Tuesday morning in the Best Documentary Feature category: American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.
Instead, a group of five internationally focused documentaries earned nominations: National Geographic’s Bobi Wine: The People’s President, The Eternal Memory, Four Daughters, To Kill a Tiger, and 20 Days in Mariupol.
Documentary branch voters, who determine the nominees, shunned American Symphony, the film directed by Matthew Heineman about Grammy-winning musician Jon Batiste and his wife Suleika Jaouad. In a consolation, “It Never Went Away,” the song from the film written by Batiste and Dan Wilson, earned a nomination for Best Original Song.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, directed by Davis Guggenheim, may have been dinged for winning four Emmys earlier this month, including the TV Academy’s equivalent of best picture, Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special. Deadline picked up talk that some doc branch voters were not keen on rewarding Still after it had won so many Emmys just days before nomination voting began.
The international contingent within the doc branch flexed its muscle, giving love to Bobi Wine, the film about the titular Ugandan pop star who ran for president of his country against a dictator who has been in power for going on 40 years. The film is directed by Ugandan natives Moses Bwayo and Christopher Sharp. This is the first Oscar nomination for Bwayo and Sharp. They are also nominated for a DGA Award for Bobi Wine.
Chile’s Maite Alberdi earned the second Oscar nomination of his career, recognized this morning for The Eternal Memory. Her film tells the love story of Augusto Góngora and Paulina