Based on the feature documentaries nominated for an Academy Award over the last two years, it’s clear that if streaming services like Amazon, Apple and Netflix want to be real competitors in the race for The Little Gold Man, they need to start buying or commissioning bold, political titles.
Like last year, the 2025 crop of nominated feature docs all tackle urgent and timely international stories that resonate in today’s geopolitical climate. This year’s feature nominees are Shiori Ito’s “Black Box Diaries” (MTV Documentary Films); Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham’s “No Other Land” (no U.S. distribution); Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev’s “Porcelain War” (Picturehouse service deal); Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (Kino Lorber); and Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie’s “Sugarcane” (Nat Geo).
Notably, Bellomo is the only American filmmaker nominated this year. Last year, the doc branch did not nominate any American directors.
Ito’s “Black Box Diaries,” which debuted at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, chronicles the investigation of the director’s arduous, five-year struggle to bring to justice renowned TV reporter Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who sexually assaulted her.
Since the film’s debut in Park City, Ito, who is the first Japanese filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar for best doc feature, says that she has met many survivors of sexual violence who shared that watching her doc inspired them to tell their own assault stories.
“What I really want to highlight for survivors is that the most important mission is to survive,” says Ito. “If survival means staying silent, then that’s completely OK. There’s no need to share your story unless it feels right for you. What I hope people understand is that if you carry trauma, finding a way to express yourself on your own terms can be deeply empowering.”
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The Oscar nomination for “Black Box Diaries” could, Ito says, “inspire conversations in Japan about how legal systems can better support survivors of sexual violence.”
“I am very hopeful that this recognition will help push for change, both in the (Japan) penal code and in broader cultural attitudes. Legal reforms are a critical step, and I truly believe they will lead to a cultural shift that prioritizes justice and support.”
This year’s frontrunner, “No Other Land,” depicts the Israeli government’s efforts to force Palestinians from their homes in Masafer Yatta in the southern West Bank. The Palestinian-Israeli film has been steadily gaining accolades ever since it scored the best documentary prize at last year’s Berlin Film Festival.
The timely piece, which shows the gradual demolition of houses and entire villages by the Israeli military’s bulldozers, has won the top prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle, the Gotham Awards and the IDA. In January, the doc won the NBR Freedom of Expression kudo. Most recently, “No Other Land” was nominated for a BAFTA and an Independent Spirit Award.
Yet, while it has been picked up for distribution in 24 countries — including the United Kingdom and France — “No Other Land” has been unable to find a distributor in the U.S., which given major streamer’s fear of purchasing polarizing political content, is not exactly surprising.
“The film has distribution all over the world, and there’s a really big demand for it in the United States, so you would expect a big distributor to jump on board,” director Yuval Abraham told Variety. “We’re obviously talking about the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank, and it’s very ugly. The film is very, very critical of Israeli policies. As an Israeli, I think that’s a really good thing because we need to be critical of these policies so they can change. But I think the conversation in the United States appears to be far less nuanced — there is much less space for this kind of criticism, even when it comes in the form of a film.”
Bellomo and Leontyev’s “Porcelain War” also does not have mainstream U.S. distribution. The doc tells the story of porcelain artists whose lives are turned upside down by the terrors of the war in Ukraine. The film follows Leontyev and fellow artists Anya Stasenko and Andrey Stefanov, who all choose to help their countries fight off the Russian invasion. Despite daily shelling, Stasenko finds resistance and purpose in her art, Stefanov takes the dangerous journey to get his young family to safety abroad, and Leontyev becomes a weapons instructor for regular people who have become unlikely soldiers.
After its 2024 Sundance debut, where it won the Grand Jury prize for a U.S. documentary, the film went on a successful film festival circuit run and won the DGA award for outstanding directorial achievement in documentary. The film also scored a PGA nomination. Yet, like “No Other Land,” “Porcelain War” did not find traditional U.S. distribution. In August, the film team decided to do a service deal with Picturehouse.
“We have felt incredibly fortunate to have partnered with Picturehouse for U.S. theatrical distribution, but there is more work to be done,” says “Porcelain War” producer Paula DuPré Pesmen. “As we have traveled with the film-to-film festivals all over the world this past year, it has become clear that audiences are deeply connected with the humanity, beauty and hope of this story. Making the film available to audiences worldwide is crucial, not just for Ukraine but for democracy. Our dream is that the honor of this nomination will expand the opportunities for ‘Porcelain War’ to be shared with everyone.”
Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat,” which premiered at Sundance in 2024, is an impressionistic essay film that looks back at the hopeful rise of Patrice Lumumba, who became the first prime minister of the newly independent Congo in 1960, only to be deposed a few months later and executed the following year. The director expertly juxtaposes the story of Lumumba’s murder with a musical tour of jazzman Louis Armstrong and with the expansion of the United Nations after the independence of many African countries in the 1960s.
Last January, Grimonprez told Variety, “At first, I wanted to explore the colonial legacy of my own country. I was already mesmerized by the story of Andrée Blouin, who was an independence leader, an advisor to [Ghana president] Kwame Nkrumah and chief of protocol for [first Congolese prime minister] Patrice Lumumba, but who was almost written out of history. And as a filmmaker, I like to explore those intimate stories within a wider, global picture.”
The film garnered the Sundance World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation and has since taken home an IDA award for best editing. Most recently, the doc was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award.
“Sugarcane” first premiered at Sundance 2024, where it picked up the directing kudo. Nat Geo later acquired the film about the abuse and death of Indigenous children at a Canadian-based Indian Residential School. The doc explores how Indigenous communities were forced to suppress years of separation, assimilation and abuse committed against their children by a system designed to “solve the Indian problem.”
In January, the doc won the NBR for best documentary and has been nominated for the Independent Spirit’s Truer Than Fiction award.
“’Sugarcane’ has already helped rewrite history, screening in Canadian Parliament and the White House,” the directors said in a joint statement to Variety. “We are hopeful this incredible recognition from the Academy will not only make sure the story is known, and justice is served. It is long past time for governments and churches to open all their records so that survivors, their families, and all people who call North America home can know the truth.”
