Penguins, Dancing, Fishing Get Documentary Oscar Nods

Last year, the feature-length documentary was revitalised by hard-hitting exposes like Fahrenheit 911 and Supersize Me - so expectations were naturally high for the announcement of this year’s contenders for Best Documentary Oscar.

And what are the big, powerful, government and corporation crushing documentaries up for Best Documentary Oscar this year? A film about some penguins going for a walk, a couple of films about dancing and a film about fishing.

Wow, we almost passed out just then because of all the flipping excitement.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released a
list of 15 films that are in contention Best Documentary Feature for
the 78th Academy Awards. They’re not a list of nominees - those don’t
come until January - but a list of films that will continue in the
voting process. They have been boiled down from an initial list of 82.

The front-runner for the Best Documentary Oscar has to be March Of
The Penguins. The French documentary about a bunch of penguins
wandering around was given a heartwarming American voice-over by Morgan
Freeman, played about with so that it looked like humans could learn a
lot from penguins (like what? Regurgitating food and sicking it up into
babies’ mouths? No thanks, Morgan), and it became one of the
movie hits of the summer.

March Of The Penguins is now the best-performing French movie in
America, and the second-biggest feature-length documentary ever. So far
it has taken $77 million in the American box office - more than The
Island and Stealth combined. Not an important statistic, but one that
still makes us laugh.

Here’s the full list of the 15 films from which the five Best Documentary Oscar nominees will be selected:

After Innocence - A heartwarming tale of wrongfully-convicted
criminals as they harrowingly attempt to blend back into society after
decades spent in jail.       

The Boys of Baraka - A heartwarming tale of rough kids from Baltimore go and live in Kenya for a bit.         

Darwin’s Nightmare - A heartwarming tale of why angling for delicious fish is the new evil of globalism.       

The Devil and Daniel Johnston - A heartwarming tale about the mentally
tortured singer of hits like Psycho Nightmare, More Dead Than Alive and
Casper The Friendly Ghost.

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room - A heartwarming tale of two hours of laughing at rich, greedy idiots.

Favela Rising - A heartwarming tale of some slums.         

Mad Hot Ballroom - A heartwarming tale of a load of dancing kids.

March of the Penguins - A heartwarming tale of some bloody penguins flapping around and that.

Murderball - A heartwarming tale of wheelchair rugby.

Occupation: Dreamland - A heartwarming tale about the horrors of the Iraqi War.

On
Native Soil: The Documentary of the 9/11 Commission Report - Billy and
Mr Snaffles have heard the stories about the magic imps that live at
the bottom of the garden. Can they avoid cleaning their room long
enough to go on their magical adventure?         

Rize - A heartwarming table about some more people dancing around for a bit.

Street Fight - A heartwarming tale about a man who wants to be a mayor.

39 Pounds of Love - A heartwarming tale about a man with debilitating paralysis of his entire body.

Unknown White Male - A heartwarming tale about this bloke who can’t remember anything

Read more:

March Of The Penguins makes Oscar list - MSNBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]