2024 Oscar Shortlists Reward ‘Will & Harper’, snub Christopher Reeve Doc

Will & Harper, the Netflix documentary about comedic actor Will Ferrell and his friendship with SNL pal Harper Steele who got here out as trans, earned a spot on the coveted Oscar documentary function shortlist immediately.

It wasn’t the one shortlist honor for the movie directed by Josh Greenbaum. The tune from the closing credit – “Will and Harper Go West,” written by SNL alum Kristen Wiig and Sean Douglas and carried out by Wiig – received shortlisted for Best Original Song (Douglas is the son of actor Michael Keaton).

But one other high-profile documentary within the operating for the shortlist didn’t make the minimize: Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, concerning the late actor who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident. That movie, directed by Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui, not too long ago gained Best Documentary Feature on the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, and final week earned a nomination for the Producers Guild of America Award. [Scroll for full list of shortlisted features and short documentaries]

Aside from Will & Harper, function documentaries with a star aspect didn’t fare significantly effectively in shortlist voting (the record is set by the Academy’s Documentary Branch, which can even select the eventual 5 Oscar nominees within the class). Also snubbed have been I Am: Celine Dion concerning the French Canadian chanteuse; Elton John: Never Too Late; Martha, about way of life doyenne Martha Stewart; Luther: Never Too Much, concerning the late singer-songwriter Luther Vandross; Music by John Williams, concerning the Oscar-winning composer; and Piece by Piece, Oscar winner Morgan Neville’s movie on music producer, singer and songwriter Pharrell Williams, completed completely with LEGO animation.

However, the Pharrell doc and the Elton John movie did earn locations on the Original Song shortlist. John, already an EGOT winner, wrote “Never Too Late” along with his longtime collaborator Bernie Taupin, together with singer-songwriter Brandi Carlile, and Andrew Watt; Williams wrote and performs “Piece by Piece,” the title observe to his doc.

A star, albeit of the artwork world, did declare a spot on the doc shortlist: Frida, the Carla Gutiérrez movie concerning the nice Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Another shock omission was Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, the award-winning movie directed by two-time Oscar nominee Lucy Walker that was nominated for a PGA Award final week. Two earlier Oscar winners received snubbed: Errol Morris for his documentary Separated, and Asif Kapadia for 2073. (Coincidentally or not, each of these movies incorporate fictionalized parts into their narratives).

The doc function shortlist of 15 was culled from 169 qualifiers this yr. One of the most important surprises to make the shortlist: The Bibi Files, directed by Alexis Bloom and produced by Oscar winner Alex Gibney. The documentary, a blistering portrait of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that foregrounds a longstanding corruption investigation in opposition to him, made the minimize regardless of having no main distributor or streamer. The movie not too long ago joined Jolt, a brand new streaming platform.

At least two different movies with out U.S. distribution additionally made the shortlist: Union, the Brett Story, Stephen Maing directed movie concerning the first Amazon facility to be efficiently unionized, and Hollywoodate, director Ibrahim Nash’at’s harrowing examination of the Taliban’s transition from rebel group to governing drive after the exit of U.S. navy forces from Afghanistan.

As anticipated, a number of the most acclaimed documentaries of the yr secured their locations on the function shortlist, together with No Other Land, the movie set within the occupied West Bank that’s directed by a collective of two Israeli and two Palestinian filmmakers. Despite having no U.S. distribution, the movie has gained about 4 dozen awards around the globe.

It joins different high Oscar contenders on the shortlist: Black Box Diaries, the MTV Documentary Films title directed by Shiori Ito; Sugarcane, the National Geographic movie directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, Netflix’s , directed by Benjmain Ree; one other Netflix title — Daughters, directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton, and Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, the Kino Lorber movie directed by Johan Grimonprez.

Dahomey, the acclaimed documentary directed by Mati Diop, pulled off a uncommon double: the movie concerning the repatriation of royal treasures to Benin that had been plundered by the French made each the documentary function shortlist and Best International Feature shortlist, representing Senegal.

Oscar-qualifying brief documentaries additionally noticed their quantity culled to fifteen. Actor-filmmaker Rashida Jones made it with brief A Swim Lesson, co-directed with Will McCormack. Smriti Mundhra, an Oscar nominee for St. Louis Superman, noticed her newest brief documentary, I Am Ready, Warden, make the record.

Two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot, the defending champion within the documentary brief class, is not going to be within the operating for a 3rd Oscar this yr. His two contenders – The Turnaround (directed by Kyle Thrash) and The Final Copy of Ilon Specht – didn’t make the shortlist.

These are the shortlists within the documentary classes introduced immediately:

Nominations voting begins on Wednesday, January 8 and finish Sunday, January 12. Nominations for the 97th Academy Awards will likely be introduced on Friday, January 17.

The 97th Oscars will likely be held on Sunday, March 2, on the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood, televised reside on ABC, streamed reside on Hulu.