In Contention

Tag: The Tillman Story

  • A look at Oscar’s 15 documentary feature hopefuls

    While Guy has been surveying the foreign field, I’ve been diving in elsewhere.

    It has been considered a banner year for documentary filmmaking. So naturally, the Best Documentary Feature race has been an interesting one to watch since the season’s early days.  Two months ago the Academy announced 15 finalists (whittling it down from 101 eligible titles) still alive in the race for this year’s doc Oscar. Branch members will now select five nominees from the remaining hopefuls, which will be announced as part of the Academy’s big reveal Tuesday.

    Even if there are a number of examples that didn’t make the list but probably should have, those 15 films largely make for a sound representation of a great year for the form. I spent the last couple of weeks revisiting some and saddling up to others for the first time, so it seemed worth it to offer up my thoughts on each and my perspective on the race.

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  • PGA nominates documentaries

    Via press release, the nominees are:

    “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer”
    “Earth Made of Glass”
    “Inside Job”
    “Smash His Camera”
    “The Tillman Story”
    “Waiting for Superman”

  • Richard Tillman does Bill Maher

    Brother of Pat Tillman, subject of the documentary “The Tillman Story.” From the September 24 episode of “Real Time,” a fantastic interview (and if I heard Maher correctly, his only appearance to promote the film):

    By the way, from the same episode (despite the error in plot description):

    New Rule: If they’re going to make a historical epic full of British actors in period costumes about Queen Elizabeth II helping her father get over his speech impediment, why bother having the Oscars at all? You win. Unless someone in America is making a movie where Meryl Streep teaches Anne Frank how to box, we give up.