The Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film is an award given annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) at the Academy Awards ceremony honoring the best documentary short film. The award was first presented at the 14th Academy Awards in 1942. Copies of every winning film (along with copies of most nominees) are held by the Academy Film Archive. Fifteen films are shortlisted before nominations are announced.
Rules and eligibility
Per the recent rules of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), a Short Subject Documentary is defined as a nonfiction motion picture "dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects". It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact, and not on fiction. It must have a run time of no more than 40 minutes and released during a special eligibility period which may vary from year to year, but generally begins the month of October of the prior year and ends in September of the award year. (This eligibility differs from most other Academy Award categories which only includes films released between January and December of the award year.) The documentary's release must also occur within two years of the film's completion, and there are also rules governing the formatting of audio and video used to produce and exhibit the picture.
In addition, to be eligible the film must meet one of the following criteria:
complete a commercial showing of at least 7 days in either Los Angeles County, California or anywhere in New York City before being released to other non-theatrical venues such as DVD or TV; or regardless of any public exhibition or nontheatrical release the film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified by the Academy; or win a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award in the Documentary category of the Academy's Student Academy Award Competition.
The film must run daily for seven days, open to the public for paid admission, and must be advertised in one of the city's major circulars during its run, with screening times included. Additionally, the film must be shown at least once during every day of its qualifying run. Unlike the Best Documentary Feature award, whose rules mandate at least one screening starting between noon and 10 pm local time on each day of the qualifying run, there is no restriction on the start time of any screening. The film must have narration or dialogue primarily in English or with English subtitles, and must be the whole of an original work. Partial edits from larger works and episodes from serialized films are not eligible.
Eligibility rules for prior years may have differed from these.
Nomination process
The Documentary Branch of the Academy first votes to select ten pictures for preliminary nomination, after which a second round of balloting is conducted to select the five documentary nominees. The entire Academy membership will then vote for one of these five for the Oscar. A maximum of two people involved with the production of the documentary may be nominated for the award, one of whom must be the film's credited director. One producer may also be nominated, but if more than one non-director producer is credited the Academy Documentary Branch will vet the producers to select the one they believe was most involved in the creation of the film.
Winners and nominees
1940s Year Film Nominees1941(14th) Churchill's Island National Film Board of Canada Adventure in the Bronx Film Associates Bomber United States Office for Emergency Management Film Unit Christmas Under Fire British Ministry of Information Letter from Home British Ministry of Information Life of a Thoroughbred Truman Talley Norway in Revolt The March of Time A Place to Live Philadelphia Housing Association Russian Soil Amkino Soldiers of the Sky Truman Talley Warclouds in the Pacific National Film Board of Canada 1942(15th) Short subject and feature documentaries competed in a combined Best Documentary category. 1943(16th) A preliminary list of 21 films were announced as nominees, but the Documentary Award Committee subsequently narrowed the field to 7 titles included on the final ballot. The 14 films that did not advance were: Bismarck Convoy Smashed (Australian Department of Information Film Unit), Day of Battle (United States Office of War Information Domestic Motion Picture Bureau), The Dutch Tradition (National Film Board of Canada), Kill or Be Killed (British Ministry of Information), The Labor Front (National Film Board of Canada), Land of My Mother (Polish Information Centre), Letter from Livingston (United States Army 4th Signal Photographic Unit), Life Line (United States Army Pictorial Service), The Rear Gunner (United States Department of War), Servant of a Nation (Union of South Africa), Task Force (United States Coast Guard), The Voice That Thrilled the World (Warner Bros.), Water, Friend or Enemy (Walt Disney), and Wings Up (United States Army Air Force 1st Motion Picture Unit). December 7th United States Navy Children of Mars RKO Radio Plan for Destruction Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Swedes in America United States Office of War Information Overseas Motion Picture Bureau To the People of the United States Walter Wanger Tomorrow We Fly United States Navy Bureau of Aeronautics Youth in Crisis The March of Time 1944(17th) With the Marines at Tarawa United States Marine Corps Hymn of the Nations United States Office of War Information Overseas Motion Picture Bureau New Americans RKO Radio 1945(18th) Hitler Lives? Gordon Hollingshead Library of Congress United States Office of War Information Overseas Motion Picture Bureau To the Shores of Iwo Jima United States Marine Corps 1946(19th) Seeds of Destiny United States Department of War Atomic Power The March of Time Life at the Zoo Artkino Paramount News Issue #37 (Twentieth Anniversary Issue! 1927.....1947) Paramount Traffic with the Devil Herbert Morgan 1947(20th) First Steps United Nations Division of Films and Visual Information Passport to Nowhere Frederic Ullman Jr. School in the Mailbox Australian News & Information Bureau 1948(21st) Toward Independence United States Army Heart to Heart Herbert Morgan Operation Vittles United States Army Air Force 1949(22nd) A Chance to Live (TIE) Richard de Rochemont So Much for So Little (TIE) Edward Selzer 1848 French Cinema General Cooperative The Rising Tide St. Francis-Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
1950s Year Film Nominees1950(23rd) Why Korea? Edmund Reek The Fight: Science Against Cancer Guy Glover The Stairs Film Documents, Inc. 1951(24th) Benjy Made by Fred Zinnemann with the cooperation of Paramount Pictures Corporation for the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital A press release issued by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2005 stated that "Documentary Short Subject winners Benjy (1951) and Neighbours (1952) are among a group of films that not only competed, but won Academy Awards in what were clearly inappropriate categories. Benjy, directed by Fred Zinnemann and narrated by Henry Fonda, is the fictional tale of a crippled boy. The film was used as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital... Norman McLaren's Neighbours, which today would compete in the Animated Short category, used 'pixelation' – animation using living people – to create an allegory of war." One Who Came Back Owen Crump (Film sponsored by the Disabled American Veterans, in cooperation with the United States Department of Defense and the Association of Motion Picture Producers) The Seeing Eye Gordon Hollingshead 1952(25th) Neighbours Norman McLaren Devil Take Us Herbert Morgan The Garden Spider (Epeira Diadema) Alberto Ancilotto Man Alive! Stephen Bosustow 1953(26th) The Alaskan Eskimo Walt Disney The Living City John Barnes Operation Blue Jay United States Army Signal Corps They Planted a Stone James Carr The Word John Healy and John Adams 1954(27th) Thursday's Children World Wide Pictures and Morse Films Jet Carrier Otto Lang Rembrandt: A Self-Portrait Morrie Roizman 1955(28th) Men Against the Arctic Walt Disney The Battle of Gettysburg Dore Schary The Face of Lincoln Wilbur T. Blume 1956(29th) The True Story of the Civil War Louis Clyde Stoumen A City Decides Charles Guggenheim & Associates, Inc. The Dark Wave John Healy The House Without a Name Valentine Davies Man in Space Ward Kimball 1957(30th) No award given 1958(31st) Ama Girls Ben Sharpsteen Employees Only Kenneth G. Brown Journey into Spring Ian Ferguson The Living Stone Tom Daly Overture Thorold Dickinson 1959(32nd) Glass Bert Haanstra Donald in Mathmagic Land Walt Disney From Generation to Generation Edward F. Cullen
1960s Year Film Nominees1960(33rd) Giuseppina James Hill Beyond Silence United States Information Agency A City Called Copenhagen Statens Filmcentral and The Danish Government Film Office George Grosz' Interregnum Charles Carey and Altina Carey Universe Colin Low 1961(34th) Project Hope Frank P. Bibas Breaking the Language Barrier United States Air Force Cradle of Genius Jim O'Connor and Tom Hayes Kahl Dido-Film-GmbH L'Uomo in Grigio (The Man in Gray) Benedetto Benedetti 1962(35th) Dylan Thomas Jack Howells The John Glenn Story William L. Hendricks The Road to the Wall Robert Saudek 1963(36th) Chagall Simon Schiffrin The Five Cities of June George Stevens Jr. The Spirit of America Algernon G. Walker Thirty Million Letters Edgar Anstey To Live Again Mel London 1964(37th) Nine from Little Rock Charles Guggenheim 140 Days Under the World Geoffrey Scott and Oxley Hughan Breaking the Habit Henry Jacobs and John Korty Children Without Charles Guggenheim Kenojuak National Film Board of Canada 1965(38th) To Be Alive! Francis Thompson Mural on Our Street Kirk Smallman Overture Mafilm Productions Point of View Vision Associates Productions Yeats Country Patrick Carey and Joe Mendoza 1966(39th) A Year Toward Tomorrow Edmond A. Levy Adolescence Marin Karmitz and Vladimir Forgency Cowboy Michael Ahnemann and Gary Schlosser The Odds Against Lee R. Bobker and Helen Kristt Radin Saint Matthew Passion Mafilm Studio 1967(40th) The Redwoods Mark Jonathan Harris and Trevor Greenwood Monument to the Dream Charles Guggenheim A Place to Stand Christopher Chapman See You at the Pillar Robert Fitchett While I Run This Race Carl V. Ragsdale 1968(41st) Why Man Creates Saul Bass The House That Ananda Built Fali Bilimoria The Revolving Door Lee R. Bobker A Space to Grow Thomas P. Kelly Jr. A Way Out of the Wilderness Dan E. Weisburd 1969(42nd) Czechoslovakia 1968 Denis Sanders and Robert M. Fresco An Impression of John Steinbeck: Writer Donald Wrye Jenny Is a Good Thing Joan Horvath Leo Beuerman Arthur H. Wolf and Russell A. Mosser The Magic Machines Joan Keller Stern
1970s