The Non-Fiction Oscar Race Is Getting Clearer

Usually at this stage of the Oscar race, the documentary category possibilities range far and wide. But this year one movie dominates all the awards groups, and Tuesday’s International Documentary Association Awards nominations are no exception: leading the pack was Canadian filmmaker Emily Kassie and rookie director Julian Brave NoiseCat’s harrowing exposé of indigenous schools, “Sugarcane.” Part family story, part historical investigation, the movie moves audiences; NatGeo picked it up out of Sundance 2024.

Many have long known that Indian residential schools across Canada were rife with abuse. But British Columbia investigators uncovered shocking deaths, and one elder took the cause to the Vatican. The filmmakers embedded themselves in the community to try and break the pattern of silence around the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools. What they uncovered was shocking. The film won the Sundance U.S. Directing Award for Documentary, and later collected more awards and recognition at a string of festivals and awards groups including DOC NYC’s predictive Shortlist, the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, and Cinema Eye Honors.

Other frontrunners heading for shortlist and possible nominations include: Josh Greenbaum’s road movie “Will & Harper” (Netflix), me-too story “Black Box Dairies” (MTV Documentaries), Johan Grimonprez’s “Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat” (Kino Lorber) and Palestine’s “No Other Land,” which lacks distribution.