The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the list of feature-length documentary films in competition for the 78th Academy Awards. Of the 82 originally eligible films, the Documentary Branch Screening Committee picked 15 semi-finalists, from which a second round of voting will lead to the five official nominees. Among them are Jessica Sanders' After Innocence, which explains how wrongfully imprisoned men must, after years in jail, cope on their own with their newly found freedom; Hubert Sauper's Darwin's Nightmare, which shows how the Nile perch may be good for European consumers but bad for Lake Victoria's environment and the area's fishermen; Chicago International Film Festival winner The Boys of Baraka, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's documentary about a group of disadvantaged pre-teen American boys who are placed in a Kenyan boarding school for two years; Alex Gibney's Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, the story of one of the ugliest government-corporate corruption scandals in recent years; and Luc Jacquet's box-office smash La Marche de l'empereur / March of the Penguins.
The 15 documentaries in the running are:
After Innocence
The Boys of Baraka
Darwin's Nightmare
The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Favela Rising
Mad Hot Ballroom
March of the Penguins
Murderball
Occupation: Dreamland
On Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report
Rize
Street Fight
39 Pounds of Love
Unknown White Male
The Oscar 2005 nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 31, at 5:30 a.m. PST. The Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
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Golden Horse 2005 winners and nominees
European Film Academy 2005 nominees
A selection of notable films screening at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, Calif.
Full list of winners at the 2005 Tokyo International Film Festival
List of films submitted to the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award