It has been noted what a solid year of documentary filmmaking 2010 was. It was well-reflected in the Academy’s initial narrowing of the feature field to 15 contenders and is certainly evident in the ultimate quintet of nominees, each of them informative and bold in their own ways.
Still, it came as quite a shock to many that the perceived frontrunner of the year, Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” was left off the list. Theories run rampant, but at the end of the day, it seemed the branch just didn’t go for the film’s stretching of truths and hastily boiled-down rhetoric. Nevertheless, an opportunity may have been missed to shine a light on the issue of education reform, which is still a considerable one.
The nominees are:
“Exit through the Gift Shop” (Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz)
“Gasland” (Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic)
“Inside Job” (Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs)
“Restrepo” (Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
“Waste Land” (Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley)
