Indie Watch
Documentary and Foreign Film Shortlists
By Dan Krovich
December 26, 2013
We are still three weeks away from the announcement of the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards, but the Academy has already started winnowing the fields in several categories. In particular, the Documentary Feature and Foreign Language Film categories have narrowed to shortlisted finalists of fifteen and nine films respectively. Several of these shortlisted films are currently available (or will be available in the next few weeks) for viewing at home even if you’re not an Academy viewer receiving screeners. Below is a handy list of those films.
Foreign Language Film
Broken Circle Breakdown (soundtrack) : Two singers who share a love of American bluegrass music fall in love at first sight and start a family together. While the Belgian official entry is not available for viewing, its soundtrack is.
Soundtrack Available at Amazon
Soundtrack Available at iTunes
The Hunt: Mads Mikkelsen plays a kindergarten teacher who is just getting his life together after a divorce when he is accused of inappropriate behavior with one of his students. With very little evidence the small town jumps to the worst conclusion forcing the teacher to fight to profess his innocence and maintain his dignity.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Netflix
The Grandmaster: Hong Kong master Wong Kar-wai tells the story of martial arts master Ip Man in Hong Kong’s official entry.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu
Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing: By having leaders of the Indonesian death squads re-enact their atrocities in Hollywood style film scenes, director Joshua Oppenheimer forces them to finally confront their actions that they claim were done in the name of protecting their country from communism.
Available at Amazon January 7th
Available at iTunes December 31st
Available at Vudu January 7th
Available at Netflix January 7th
Blackfish: Blackfish uses the tragic killing of a trainer by Tilikum, a performing killer whale, as a jumping off point to investigate the practices and policies in place at Sea World that may have contributed to her death while also profiling the social intelligence of the whales to question whether they should be in captivity at all.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu
Available at Netflix
The Crash Reel: The Crash Reel chronicles the snowboarding rivalry between Kevin Pearce and Shaun White as they train for the Vancouver Olympics. When Pearce suffers a horrific accident, he is forced to confront bigger challenges than competing for a gold medal.
Available at iTunes January 14th
Cutie and the Boxer: Cutie and the Boxer profiles the 40 year relationship of Japanese artists Ushio and Noriko Shinohara and their place in the New York art scene.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Netflix
Dirty Wars: Journalist Jeremy Scahill is followed as he investigates the secret war behind the war on terror that includes drone strikes that target American citizens and takes out innocent bystanders.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Netflix
The Square: Jehane Noujaim takes an up close and personal look at the harrowing revolution that toppled the Egyptian government.
Available at Netflix January 17th
Stories We Tell: Sarah Polley, best known as an actress, directs this telling of the discovery of her own family secret while also examining how the truth and stories change depending on who is doing the telling.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Vudu
Available at Netflix
20 Feet from Stardom: Backup singers get the star treatment in this documentary profile of backup singers who have leant their incredible talents to some of the greatest music of our time yet never received any of the accolades or fame.
Available at Amazon
Available at iTunes
Available at Netflix January 14th
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