#OSCARS SO RIGHT: WHY “BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE” IS THE PRIZE TO KEEP AN EYE ON

Recently, Vanity Fair ran a piece declaring the Best Documentary Feature category of the Academy Awards a “haven for female filmmakers.” Indeed it’s true that, as the article stated, just in the past decade “women have directed or co-directed more than half of the nominees for best documentary feature — and four of the winning docs over those nine years have been woman-helmed.” (This compared to the shameful record of the Best Director category – congrats to The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow for being the one and only chick to ever nab that prize.) And this latest batch of nominees includes not only RBG, by the female duo Betsy West and Julie Cohen, but also Free Solo, co-directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi with her husband Jimmy Chin.

Surprisingly, what wasn’t stated was something much more obvious to this longtime doc-watcher – that “Best Documentary Feature” is perhaps the most thrillingly diverse Oscars category period.

To find out why read my essay at Hammer to Nail.