Screen’s guide to the 2024 Oscar and Bafta documentary contenders

Despite very different nominating procedures, the US Academy Awards and the Bafta Film Awards have produced identical documentary winners for the past three years: Pippa Ehrlich and James Reed’s tale of healing in 2021’s My Octopus Teacher; Questlove’s joyful music celebration Summer Of Soul in 2022; and Navalny, Daniel Roher’s account of the prominent opponent to Vladimir Putin, in 2023.

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For Oscar, the specialist documentary chapter creates the category’s shortlist of 15 and five nominations — this year whittling down from 167 eligible films. For Bafta, any film awards voter can opt in to vote in the documentary category for first-round voting, which creates a longlist of 10 titles — and it is believed a hefty chunk of Bafta’s 7,500 voting members choose to do so. This year, 60 documentary features were submitted for Bafta.

The success of Summer Of Soul in 2022 might augur well for Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony this year, since both films depict a man pulling off an impressive musical feat: the staging of a series of concerts in Harlem in the case of the earlier film, and the composition of an ambitious new orchestral work by Jon Batiste (as his wife is treated for cancer) for the latter.

Or perhaps we should look to 2023 for guidance. In which case, Navalny’s win might portend a swell of support for Mstyslav Chernov’s 20 Days In Mariupol, which in its case depicts a whole city — rather than one brave politician — standing in defiance of ruthless demagogue Putin. (Or see Maciek Hamela’s In The Rearview for a more-­uplifting take on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, in this case the rescue by the filmmaker of Ukrainians choosing refuge in Poland.)

Awards journey

In recent years, securing a documentary nomination at the Producers Guild Awards (PGA) augured well for Oscar success — for example, in 2023, six of the seven PGA-­nominated docs appeared on the Oscar shortlist, and three went on to secure a nomination. Navalny won the PGA and Oscar.

This year, PGA voters have diverged from the Academy, and only three of the seven PGA-nominated docs (20 Days In Mariupol, American Symphony and Beyond Utopia) have secured a slot in Oscar’s shortlist of 15 titles. That split brings a higher level of unpredictability to proceedings, and there are plenty of titles on this year’s documentary Oscar shortlist that were not tipped to appear there.

The Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards nominate 10 films for best documentary feature, and this year six of those nominees have landed on the Oscar shortlist: in addition to the PGA-approved 20 Days In Mariupol,American Symphony and Beyond Utopia are Stamped From The Beginning, The Eternal Memory and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (which won the Critics’ Choice main prize).

Last year, there were six documentary features common to Oscar’s shortlist of 15 and Bafta’s longlist of 10, and among these six were the four films that achieved nominations at both awards (All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, All That Breathes, Fire Of Love and eventual winner Navalny).

In other words, we might pay special attention to where the Oscar and Bafta lists overlap, and this year the four films on both lists are 20 Days In Mariupol, American Symphony, Beyond Utopia and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.

Bafta’s longlist is notably dominated by films about celebrities — across music, film, fashion and spy fiction. For the next stage, a special jury will pick three films from the Bafta documentary longlist, which will be nominated for the award alongside the automatically nominated top two films in first-round voting. For Oscar, the specialised documentary chapter will vote to nominate five films from the 15-strong shortlist. For both academies, winners are picked by the whole voting cohort.

Oscar shortlist and Bafta longlist documentary titles

20 Days In Mariupol
Dir. Mstyslav Chernov
A quintuple nominee at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, and winning for first feature and political documentary, 20 Days In Mariupol must be considered a frontrunner for Bafta and Oscar. Associated Press journalist Chernov led the only international news team getting broadcast footage out to the wider world from Mariupol in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Chernov then wove the footage into a film that captures life under siege and bombardment, adding his own narration – and winning the audience award for world cinema documentary at Sundance last year. - Oscar shortlist and Bafta longlist 

32 Sounds
Dir. Sam Green
Oscar-nominated in 2004 for feature documentary The Weather Underground, Green is back in contention with this self-narrated exploration of sound, scored by JD Samson of US electronic trio Le Tigre. A multiple nominee at the 2024 Cinema Eye Honors Awards (celebrating artistic craft in non-­fiction filmmaking), sonic journey 32 Sounds premiered at Sundance in 2022 and was released theatrically in the US last year by Abramorama, also making festival pit stops at SXSW and AFI Fest. - Oscar shortlist

American Symphony
Dir. Matthew Heineman
Heineman, who was Oscar and Bafta-nominated for 2015’s Cartel Land, could go one better this year with a film backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground. Netflix snapped up worldwide rights after Telluride to American Symphony, a winner at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards for score and music documentary. The film charts musician Jon Batiste as he composes and performs his most ambitious work to date — ‘American Symphony’ at New York’s Carnegie Hall — while supporting his wife Suleika Jaouad in her battle against cancer. - Oscar shortlist and Bafta longlist

Apolonia, Apolonia
Dir. Lea Glob
Winner of IDFA’s international competition in 2022, and a European Film Awards nominee in 2023, this snapshot of millennial creatives was filmed over a period of 13 years, beginning when Glob was a National Film School of Denmark student. She had a strong feeling that artist friend Apolonia Sokol — whose bohemian French and Danish parents ran a radical theatre in Paris — would prove an arresting subject, and the focus expands when Ukrainian feminist activist Oksana Shachko becomes Apolonia’s soulmate and muse. Glob earlier co-directed docufiction Olmo And The Seagull (2015) with Petra Costa. - Oscar shortlist

Beyond Utopia
Dir. Madeleine Gavin
Beyond Utopia is one of only three films nominated by the Producers Guild for outstanding documentary this year that also made the Oscar docs shortlist. It is the second feature for Gavin (after 2016’s City Of Joy), who has an extensive background as an editor. Playing out like a thriller, Beyond Utopia combines stories of North Koreans trying to escape their totalitarian homeland. The film premiered at Sundance last January, scooping the audience award for US documentary — with Roadside Attractions and Dogwoof releasing in the US and UK respectively. - Oscar shortlist and Bafta longlist

Bobi Wine: The People’s President
Dirs. Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp
This debut feature from the two Uganda-born directors follows the 2021 campaign by charismatic Ugandan musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine to unseat his country’s dictatorial sitting president — and the response by the rattled Yoweri Museveni. Following a Venice Film Festival premiere in 2022, the film was picked up by National Geographic and given a limited US theatrical release last July. Bobi Wine picked up three nominations at the British Independent Film Awards: for documentary, debut documentary director and editing. - Oscar shortlist

The Deepest Breath
Dir. Laura McGann
Using eye-catching underwater photography and a thriller structure, Irish filmmaker McGann interweaves an international love story with a look at the high-risk extreme sport of ocean free-diving in her second feature as a director, produced by A24, Ireland’s Motive, John Battsek’s Ventureland and the UK’s Raw. Netflix grabbed rights to the film just before its premiere at Sundance last year and gave it a limited US theatrical release and worldwide streaming launch in July. - Bafta longlist

Desperate Souls, Dark City And The Legend Of Midnight Cowboy
Dir. Nancy Buirski
Buirski made her directing debut with documentary The Loving Story, which made the Oscar shortlist of 15 in 2012, and she then produced – on the same topic – the Jeff Nichols-directed dramatic feature Loving, which earned Ruth Negga a best actress Oscar nomination in 2017. Following docs that include By Sidney Lumet and The Rape Of Recy Taylor, Buirski is back with this 2022 Venice and Telluride selection — a look at the making of 1970 best picture Oscar winner Midnight Cowboy, as well as the tumultuous era in which the film was released and then embraced. - Oscar shortlist

The Eternal Memory
Dir. Maite Alberdi
Chile’s Alberdi received an Oscar nomination for her 2020 doc The Mole Agent, and she takes a similarly intimate approach with this account of how Alzheimer’s disease has affected the relationship between former TV journalist Augusto Gongora and his actress-politician partner Paulina Urrutia. The Spanish-language film premiered at Sundance, where it won the festival’s grand jury award for world cinema documentary and sold to MTV Documentary Films. - Oscar shortlist

Four Daughters
Dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
Tunisia’s Four Daughters and Ukraine’s 20 Days In Mariupol are the two films this year appearing on the Oscar shortlists for both documentary and international feature. A doc-drama hybrid, Ben Hania’s film spotlights a family whose two elder daughters have disappeared — interviewing the mother and remaining two sisters, and using actors to play the departed pair. The director’s previous film, drama The Man Who Sold His Skin, was nominated for best international feature at the 2021 Oscars. - Oscar shortlist

Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
Dirs. Joe Brewster, Michele Stephenson
Winner of the grand jury prize for US documentary at Sundance 2023, this is one of two Film Independent Spirit best documentary nominees for 2024 that also made the Oscar shortlist (the other is Four Daughters). Narrated by Taraji P Henson, this third feature jointly directed by Brewster and Stephenson — their first together since 2013’s American Promise — looks at the life of poet Nikki Giovanni and the revolutionary historical periods she influenced, from the civil-rights movement to Black Lives Matter. HBO Documentary Films acquired US and Canada TV and streaming rights. - Oscar shortlist

High And Low: John Galliano
Dir. Kevin Macdonald
Director Macdonald has switched between documentary (winning an Oscar in 2000 with One Day In September) and narrative (The Last King Of Scotland). His latest doc — nominated for best editing at the British Independent Film Awards — probes former Dior designer Galliano, whose career paused after he was convicted of anti-Semitic abuse in France in 2011. Mubi boarded the Condé Nast Entertainment production ahead of its Telluride premiere. - Bafta longlist

In The Rearview
Dir. Maciek Hamela
Polish director Hamela’s film enjoyed an impressive festival run in 2023, including Cannes ACID, Sheffield DocFest (winning the grand jury award for best documentary), Toronto and IDFA. Hamela had already bought a second-hand mini­van to ferry Ukrainians to safety in Poland after Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and was doing just that, when he started filming the evacuation journeys — recording the testimonies of citizens who had left their lives behind. Debut feature director Hamela has previous credits including as producer and assistant director. - Oscar shortlist

Little Richard: I Am Everything
Dir. Lisa Cortés
The complex personal and professional lives of musical innovator Richard Penniman — aka Little Richard — and the Black queer origins of rock ’n’ roll are revealed in this CNN Films/HBO Max project from Cortés, who co-directed the 2020 Oscar-shortlisted documentary All In: The Fight For Democracy and produced 2019 Emmy winner The Apollo. Magnolia grabbed worldwide rights after an opening night Sundance premiere and released the film in US cinemas last April. - Bafta longlist

Mad About The Boy: The Noël Coward Story
Dir. Barnaby Thompson
Prolific UK producer Thompson (Spice World), whose previous films as director have been scripted comedies, makes his feature documentary debut with this account of the titular multi‑talented playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. Released by Altitude last June in the UK and Ireland, grossing a decent £81,000 ($103,000), Mad About The Boy is narrated by Alan Cumming, with the voice of Rupert Everett as Coward. It’s one of seven celebrity-focused documentaries on the Bafta longlist — of which five do not appear on the equivalent Oscar shortlist. - Bafta longlist

The Pigeon Tunnel
Dir. Errol Morris
Veteran documentarian Morris (2004 Oscar winner for The Fog Of War) takes on the life and career of David Cornwell, aka novelist John le Carré. Drawing on his similarly titled memoir and produced by le Carré’s sons Simon and Stephen Cornwell, the Telluride premiere mixes archival and dramatised elements with an interview with the author shot before his death in 2020. Apple began the limited US theatrical and worldwide streaming release last October. - Bafta longlist

Stamped From The Beginning
Dir. Roger Ross Williams
Ibram X Kendi’s 2016 prize-winning book on the history of anti-Black racist ideas is brought to the screen by Williams — a 2017 Oscar nominee for Life, Animated. The Netflix­backed film combines talking head interviews, film clips, animation and still images to tackle myths such as the Black criminal and white saviour. Stamped From The Beginning is one of two films on this Oscar shortlist to earn a nomination for documentary at the Black Reel Awards — the other is American Symphony. Williams also has drama Cassandro, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, this awards season. - Oscar shortlist

Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Dir. Davis Guggenheim
Using archival material as well as a contemporary interview with the actor, this Apple Original from Guggenheim, director of 2007 Oscar winner An Inconvenient Truth, connects Michael J Fox’s early Hollywood stardom with his recent years living with Parkinson’s disease. A 2023 Sundance premiere, Still was the big winner at last November’s Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, winning five prizes including best documentary feature and director. The film was given a limited US theatrical and Apple TV+ streaming launch last May, and is nominated for seven Primetime Emmy Awards. - Oscar shortlist and Bafta longlist

A Still Small Voice
Dir. Luke Lorentzen
In 2020, Midnight Family — about a private ambulance service in Mexico City — earned a place on the Oscars documentary shortlist. Four years later, that film’s director Lorentzen and producer Kellen Quinn reteam with this feature following chaplain Margaret ‘Mati’ Engel in her year-long residency at New York City’s Mount Sinai hospital. Winner of the directing award for the US documentary competition at Sundance 2023, the film was acquired for North America by Abramorama, which released in November. - Oscar shortlist

To Kill A Tiger
Dir. Nisha Pahuja
In Indian villages, sexual assaults usually go unreported — such is the stigma that attaches to the victim. But when 13-year-old Kiran is raped by three male relatives after a wedding in Jharkhand, her farmer parents pursue justice. Directed by New Delhi-born, Toronto-raised Pahuja, and with a roster of executive producers including Dev Patel, Deepa Mehta and Mindy Kaling, this 2022 Toronto premiere follows the family through a stop-start legal process, where they are supported by activist organisation Srijan Foundation. - Oscar shortlist

Wham!
Dir. Chris Smith
The origin, rise and end of 1980s pop phenomenon Wham! is investigated in this Netflix feature including period clips, rare interviews and material from the archives of group founders Andrew Ridgeley and the late George Michael. Smith, known for Sundance 1999 prizewinner American Movie and 2022’s Robert Downey Jr-produced Sr., directed for UK producer John Battsek and the film (which was not submitted for the Oscars) launched on Netflix last July. - Bafta longlist

Additional reporting by John Hazelton

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