81st Academy Awards Documentary Short List

Yesterday the Academy announced the short list that includes 15 documentaries from a record of 94 that qualified, and here they are:

At the Death House Door, Peter Gilbert and Steve James, USA
The Betrayal – Nerakhoon, Ellen Kuras and Phasavath, USA
Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hanna Senesh, Roberta Grossman, USA (doc site is here)
Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog, USA
Fuel, Joshua Tickell, USA
The Garden, Scott Hamilton Kennedy, USA
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts, Scott Hicks, Australia and USA
I.O.U.S.A., Patrick Creadon, USA
In a Dream, Jeremiah Zagar, USA
Made in America, Stacy Peralta, USA
Man on Wire, James Marsh, UK and USA (must be seen for me)
Pray the Devil Back to Hell, Gini Reticker, USA
Standard Operating Procedure, Errol Morris, USA
They Killed Sister Dorothy, Daniel Junge, USA
Trouble the Water, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, USA

The 81st Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Thursday, January 22,2009. It was surprising to find that most docs come from USA with only two co productions; no surprise that fantastic doc by Marina Zenovich about Roman Polanski didn’t make the short list!

To check the official press release go here.