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Best Documentary Feature

This race seems an even easier call. First, the usual disclaimer: every year it’s hard to get one’s hand on all five nominees, and this year I missed The Salt of the Earth. Please discount my predictions (even more) accordingly. I do not like to predict anything either way on movies I have not seen myself, so I will treat this category as if it had four nominees.

The frontrunner, past nominee Laura Poitras’ real-time filming of Ed Snowden’s leak to reporters of certain files just as he’s spilling the beans to Glenn Greenwald and a reporter at The Guardian is at the very least enthralling and gripping. The guts behind the filming and airing of a film like Citizenfour are astounding, and the story is simply the most relevant, shocking, and controversial of the lot. The real question is whether the Academy have the same guts to reward it. Controversy has been something the at-large membership has shied away from almost every year since they had to put up with political speeches by Michael Moore and Al Gore during their wins (God forbid documentarians discussing actually important topics when they take the stage, even if we disagree with them).

If I had to pick an upset, it would be Finding Vivian Maier, an essential carbon copy of past blasé winner Searching For Sugarman. Vivian Maier is an interesting and moving exploration of a mysterious and likely troubled woman’s life. It would be one of those “Reward the subject, not the movie’s quality” awards, a common staple in this category.

Or if there is to be an upset, it could easily be Virunga, the Netflix-sponsored flick about a group of insanely brave rangers defending mountain gorillas in war-torn Zimbabwe. First, the boldness of the men is bone-chilling, you can’t not root for them. Second, some of the scenery is breathtakingly beautiful. Finally, while the Academy of late hasn’t rewarded political documentaries that hit close to home, they love them when they can get holier-than-thou about other people. But Virunga is actually an excellent movie and it would be a good case of rewarding the subject on top of the movie.

But my personal absolute favorite of the bunch is the astounding Last Days in Vietnam, and I would be gleeful if that one stole it from Citizenfour. Last Days tells the story of the final days before the fall of Saigon to the Communist-led North Vietnamese army and of certain Americans’ efforts to save as many pro-Western Vietnamese as possible. Poignant and disturbing, using a lot of modern day interviews combined with real-time footage, Last Days was the most informative and eye-opening. It indicts politicians who betrayed old allies without crossing the dangerous line of taking a side on whether the war in Vietnam itself was a good idea. Alas, it seems too old school in style to be a serious contender.

Despite this, I cannot see anything ousting Citizenfour, which has won the PGA, the DGA, the BAFTA, etc. If a clear alternative existed so that they could avoid the controversy that will surely result from its win, then I would predict that. But there isn’t, so there won’t be.

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