Doc NYC Reveals Influential Awards Short List, from ‘Ascension’ to ‘Velvet Underground’

Twelve-year-old Doc NYC, America’s largest documentary festival, has revealed its influential 15-film Short List. The festival will run its main lineup of 127 features and 125 short films in-person November 10-18 at the IFC Center, Sva Theatre, and Cinépolis Chelsea, continuing online until November 28 with films available to viewers across the U.S.Historically, most of the Doc NYC short list titles overlap with the Academy’s official 15-film Oscar Short List. Until last year, while Doc NYC did not screen Netflix’s Oscar-winning “My Octopus Teacher,” for nine years the festival had screened the documentary that went on to win the Academy Award, including “American Factory,” “Free Solo,” “Icarus,” “O.J.: Made in America,” “Amy,” “Citizenfour,” “20 Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” and “Undefeated.”The festival has screened 39 of the last 45 Oscar-nominated documentary features. In 2020, Doc NYC screened 12 of 15 titles that were named to the subsequent Academy Award Documentary Shortlist. ...