Not entirely sure why much lauded docs films that stuck out this year in Janus Metz’s Armadilllo, Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home, Michelangelo Frammartino’s le quattro volte and Jeff Malmberg’s Marwencol failed to make the grade (I’m not entirely sure how this works with the cut-off dates), but there are plenty on the list of 15 that have earned the right to be deemed among the best docs of the year.
Shockingly, they included Exit through the Gift Shop and not surprisingly, this along with seven other docus if my count is good, first began their public life at the January launch-pad known as the Sundance Film Festival. The preliminary round of voting will determine five noms (announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT) and the only one I can honestly say is a shoe-in for a top 5 nom spot is Charles Ferguson’s Inside Job.
“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)
“Enemies of the People,” Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors (Old Street Films)
“Exit through the Gift Shop,” Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
“Gasland,” Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
“Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould,” Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont, directors (White Pine Pictures)
“Inside Job,” Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
“The Lottery,” Madeleine Sackler, director (Great Curve Films)
“Precious Life,” Shlomi Eldar, director (Origami Productions)
“Quest for Honor,” Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, director (Smothers Bruni Productions)
“Restrepo,” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
“This Way of Life,” Thomas Burstyn, director (Cloud South Films)
“The Tillman Story,” Amir Bar-Lev, director (Passion Pictures/Axis Films)
“Waiting for ‘Superman’”, Davis Guggenheim, director (Electric Kinney Films)
“Waste Land,” Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)
“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe,” Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, directors (Disturbing the Universe LLC)
