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OSCARS 2017

Four European documentaries make the cut for the 2017 Oscars

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- The shortlist for Best Documentary at the Academy Awards includes four European productions or co-productions out of a total selection of 15 features

Four European documentaries make the cut for the 2017 Oscars
Fire at Sea by Gianfranco Rosi

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 films shortlisted in the Documentary Feature category of the 89th Academy Awards. Originally, 145 films were submitted, and four European productions and co-productions were eventually selected for the early cut. The Academy’s Documentary branch decided on its list in a preliminary round of voting, which will be narrowed down to five final nominees, set to be announced on 24 January 2017.

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Among the European productions are celebrated titles such as the Berlin Golden Bear winner Fire at Sea [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gianfranco Rosi
film profile
]
, Gianfranco Rosi’s look at the immigration crisis at the Mediterranean sea, co-produced by Italy and France, together with The Eagle Huntress [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, Otto Bell’s UK-US-Mongolia co-production about a 13-year-old Mongolian girl who is striving to become the first female Eagle Huntress in 2,000 years of male-dominated history, US-France co-production I Am Not Your Negro [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, a film essay on the still tragic state of race in America directed by Raoul Peck, and Austrian production The Ivory Game, on wildlife activists in take on poachers in an effort to end illegal ivory trade in Africa, directed by Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani.

The other feature documentaries voted into the preliminary selection are primarily US productions or co-productions: Cameraperson by Kirsten Johnson, Command and Control by Robert Kenner, Gleason by Clay Tweel, Life, Animated by Roger Ross Williams, O.J.: Made in America by Ezra Edelman, 13th by Ava DuVernay, Tower by Keith Maitland, Weiner by Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg, The Witness by James D. Solomon, Zero Days by Alex Gibney and China-US co-production Hooligan Sparrow by Nanfu Wang.

The 89th Academy Awards will take place at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on 26 February 2017.

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