Another of our combination rounds, this one dealing with the documentary and short films categories. Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film are covered below. There are a few more facts than normal and more predictions. Our thoughts on our favorite and least favorite winners are confined to the Documentary Feature category or the Animated Short category if they so choose.

Trivia: Five Facts – Documentary

• Documentary Feature became a regular competitive category in 1943 for the 16th Annual awards. Documentary Short Subject started two years earlier, but was interrupted in 1942 by a combined Feature and Short Subject category to resume in 1943 when Feature got its own separate prize.
• 96 Oscars have gone out for Documentary Feature; 92 trophies have been given to Short Subjects. In the 1942 combined category year, 4 Oscars were given among the 25 films in contention.
• The most nominated individual in the Documentary categories was Charles Guggenheim who beat out Walt Disney with 10 nominations to 7. Behind them in a tie with five nods each are the British Ministry of Information, William Guttentag, Freida Lee Mock and the National Film Board of Canada. The most honored in the category is Walt Disney with four. With three trophies each, the next most honored are Arthur Cohn, Charles Guggenheim and the United States Navy.
• Documentary nominees are ore likely to use a colon “:” in a title than any other type of film. 87 such documentary nominees have done so (note this includes one single use of a colon as part of an hour:minute designation, not as a preface to a subtitle). Of those 87, 20 also won a documentary award (including that one hour:minute designee).
• This category has seen two ties handed out. In 1949, the Documentary Short Subject category witnessed a tie between A Chance to Live and So Much for So Little. It happened again 37 years later in 1986 between Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got and Down and Out in America. The category has also seen one disqualification: In 1968, Young Americans won the award for Documentary Feature. The film had played in 1967 and not in 1968, making it ineligible. Journey Into Self was awarded the statuette instead.

Trivia: Five Facts – Short Films

• Animated Short Film has been awarded uninterrupted (called Cartoon Short until 1971 when it was changed to Animated) since its creation in 1931/32 for the 5th Academy Awards. While the “Live Action” category was created at the same time as animated, it was not the single category it is today. From the 5th Oscars to the 8th, there were two categories for Comedy and Novelty short films. From 1936 (9th) to 1937, there were three: Color, One-reel and Two-reel short films. The Color category was dropped in 1938 leaving the One-reel and Two-reel categories alone through 1956, after which the categories were merged into one Live Action Short category as we know it now.
• 90 prizes have been awarded for Animated Short Films. 134 statuettes were given out for Live Action Short Films (all categories inclusive).
• No one could beat Walt. In the first eight years of the award for Animated Short Film, Walt Disney won the award every year. MGM as a studio was the first winner to break his streak in the category in 1940, but was quickly supplanted by Disney again the following 2 years. Fred Quimby them dominated the next four years and after that there was a more consistent distribution of winners.
• Walt Disney is the undisputed champion of Short Film nominations with 39 mentions. He won twelve of those, leading the way in wins as well. Other top nominees are Stephen Bosustow and Fred Quimby with 13 each, Walter Lantz and Edward Selzer with 10 each, and John Hubley and George Pal with 6 each (of note is that John’s wife Faith was nominated five times with her husband and is one of the most successful husband-wife teams in Oscar history). After Disney on the win side is Fred Quimby with 7 awards, Edward Selzer with 4, and Stephen Bosustow, John Hubley and Nick Park with 3 each.
• Pixar has been unable to translate its Best Picture-winning success into wins in the Animated Short Film category. Of the 17 short films the company has made, only 9 have been nominated for Oscars and fewer, 3, have won (Tin Toy, For the Birds and Geri’s Game).

Predictions

Best Documentary Feature

• Burma VJ (Wesley)
• The Cove (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
• Food, Inc. (Peter, Tripp)
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Which Way Home

Best Documentary Short Subject

• China’s Unnatural Disaster (Peter) (Wesley)
• The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
• The Last Truck (Wesley, Tripp)
• Music by Prudence (Tripp, Peter)
• Rabbit à la Berlin

Best Animated Short Film

• French Roast
• Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Peter, Tripp)
• The Lady and the Reaper (Wesley)
• Logorama
• A Matter of Loaf and Death (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)

Best Live-Action Short Film

• The Door (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
• Instead of Abracadabra
• Kavi (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
• Miracle Fish
• The New Tenants

KEY: (Winner Prediction) (Alternate Winner)

The Commentary

Wesley Lovell – Documentary Feature: The Cove has been winning awards left and right and I see little reason for the trend not to continue. It’s political without being loony. Food, Inc. was lucky to have gotten nominated. Despite years of failed contenders, the production company finally got its chance. For me, Burma VJ, which is overtly political as well and is cobbled together from smuggled footage, may appeal to voters’ penchant for making a statement. While The Most Dangerous Man in America is a contender, Which Way Home is the least likely to be recognized.; Documentary Short: Not having seen any of these and hearing even less about them, makes it very difficult to pick. The Last Truck is relevant and current to American interests and should prove a compelling choice as long as the group doesn’t go sentimental, at which point China’s Unnatural Disaster would pick up the prize; Animated Short: Never bet against Nick Park. In the three years he’s been nominated for this award, he’s won every one. Even when he was nominated in Animated Feature he won. So, he’s the top pick. As for the rest? This category has always been hard for me to predict because I haven’t seen most or sometimes any of the nominees. So, my traditional method of picking the most unusual title has often produced correct predictions, so my off pick will be The Lady and the Reaper.; Live Action Short: More films I haven’t seen and I’ve heard even less about them. Based on Tripp’s commentary on them after he saw them recently, I’m going to stick with his suggestions.
Peter J. Patrick –
Tripp Burton – Documentary Feature: Food, Inc. and The Cove are the two biggest documentaries of the category, mostly because they got the most attention over the year. Both of them deal with important, modern social issues in entertaining ways. I will give the heads up to The Cove, definitely the more exciting and originally told of the two, and the one that has picked up the most awards so far.; Documentary Short: This category is always a crapshoot, just because it is so hard to get a hold of these films; the only one I have seen is China’s Unnatural Disaster. The Last Truck has the benefit of being the most pertinent to today’s American climate, and that should be enough to push it over the edge. If not, look for the artistic subject of Music by Prudence to hit home with voters.; Animated Short: I have also seen all five of these, and they are a very diverse, but wonderful batch of films. French Roast is the type of film you think of in this category, a short, chaotic short story of one man solving a problem (here, how to pay for a cafe bill). The Lady and the Reaper feels like an old Looney Tunes cartoon, and has some great physical comedy, but may not add up as well as the other films. Then there is Logorama, which is by far the most original, daring, crowd-pleasing film of the bunch. It would be the frontrunner here, but it is so violent and coarse it comes with a parental warning, which will surely put off a lot of voters. Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty is another crowdpleaser, and though it is the shortest film and the most one-note, it is also brilliantly composed. However, Nick Park stands in everyone’s way. Park has never left the Oscars empty-handed, and indeed the only time he has ever lost is when he defeated himself. I am not one to bet against the streak, and will predict him here.; Live Action Short: I have gotten to see all five of these nominees. Instead of Abracadabra is the most fun of all of them, but comes across as a light, Napoleon Dynamite-esque film that I don’t think can carry over here. The New Tenants and Miracle Fish may be the best films on the list, but both are just dark and alienating enough to put off the older Academy voters who tend to make up this voting bloc. That leaves India-set child slavery tale Kavi and Chernobyl-set child cancer tale The Door. I will give the edge to the more immediately important feeling Kavi, which even ends with title cards about what you can do to end slavery around the world.

Our Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Wesley Lovell

1. Creature Comforts
2. For the Birds
3. A Close Shave
4. Geri’s Game
5. The Wrong Trousers

The animated shorts above are the only winners I’ve seen, but I have to say I do love them all. As for Documentary Feature, I’ve only seen three of the winners in this category over the years. Bowling for Columbine is my favorite. March of the Penguins is informative and cute. Anne Frank Remembered is a fairly dry historical document, but is informative and educational if you have an interest in it.

Peter J. Patrick

1. The Eleanor Roosevelt Story (good enough to have been a Best Picture nominee and in fact won the National Board of Review award over The Sound of Music)
2. Woodstock (amazingly captured the feel of the three day event as though you were actually there)
3. The Times of Harvey Milk (extraordinary capture of the feel of a city dramatized to equally memorable effect just last year as Milk)
4. Hearts and Minds (fascinating look at U.S. involvement in Vietnam War form opposing sides of soldiers and protesters)
5. Harlan County, USA (devastating documentary of a coal miners’ strike)

Tripp Burton

While I have seen a lot of the major documentaries to win, I haven’t seen enough to feel comfortable making a best of list or especially a worst of list.

Our Least Favorite Winners

KEY:
Appears on Two Lists
Appears on Three Lists
Appears on Four Lists
Appears on Opposing Lists

Peter J. Patrick

1. Bowling for Columbine (pesky Michael Moore inserts himself into the situation instead of letting it speak for itself)
2. Man on Wire (one man’s ego trip)