One hundred twenty-four features have been submitted for consideration in the Documentary Feature category for the 88th Academy Awards®.
The submitted features, listed in alphabetical order, are:
“Above and Beyond”
“All Things Must Pass”
“Amy”
“The Armor of Light”
“Ballet 422”
“Batkid Begins”
“Becoming Bulletproof”
“Being Evel”
“Beltracchi – The Art of Forgery”
“Best of Enemies”
“The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution”
“Bolshoi Babylon”
“Brand: A Second Coming”
“A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story”
“Call Me Lucky”
“Cartel Land”
“Censored Voices”
“Champs”
“CodeGirl”
“Coming Home”
“Dark Horse”
“Deli Man”
“Dior and I”
“The Diplomat”
“(Dis)Honesty – The Truth about Lies”
“Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll”
“Dreamcatcher”
“dream/killer”
“Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon”
“Eating Happiness”
“Every Last Child”
“Evidence of Harm”
“Farewell to Hollywood”
“Finders Keepers”
“The Forecaster”
“Frame by Frame”
“Gardeners of Eden”
“A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile”
“Godspeed: The Story of Page Jones”
“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief”
“He Named Me Malala”
“Heart of a Dog”
“Hitchcock/Truffaut”
“How to Change the World”
“Human”
“The Hunting Ground”
“I Am Chris Farley”
“In Jackson Heights”
“In My Father’s House”
“India’s Daughter”
“Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words”
“Iraqi Odyssey”
“Iris”
“Janis: Little Girl Blue”
“Karski & the Lords of Humanity”
“Killing Them Safely”
“Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck”
“Lambert & Stamp”
“A Lego Brickumentary”
“Listen to Me Marlon”
“Live from New York!”
“The Look of Silence”
“Meet the Patels”
“Meru”
“The Mind of Mark DeFriest”
“Misery Loves Comedy”
“Monkey Kingdom”
“A Murder in the Park”
“My Italian Secret”
“My Voice, My Life”
“1971”
“Of Men and War”
“One Cut, One Life”
“Only the Dead See the End of War”
“The Outrageous Sophie Tucker”
“Peace Officer”
“The Pearl Button”
“Pink & Blue: Colors of Hereditary Cancer”
“Poached”
“Polyfaces”
“The Prime Ministers: Soldiers and Peacemakers”
“Prophet’s Prey”
“Racing Extinction”
“The Resurrection of Jake the Snake”
“Ride the Thunder – A Vietnam War Story of Victory & Betrayal”
“Rosenwald”
“The Russian Woodpecker”
“Searching for Home: Coming Back from War”
“Seeds of Time”
“Sembene!”
“The Seven Five”
“Seymour: An Introduction”
“Sherpa”
“A Sinner in Mecca”
“Something Better to Come”
“Song from the Forest”
“Song of Lahore”
“Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine”
“Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans”
“Stray Dog”
“Sunshine Superman”
“Sweet Micky for President”
“Tab Hunter Confidential”
“The Tainted Veil”
“Tap World”
“(T)error”
“Thao’s Library”
“Those Who Feel the Fire Burning”
“3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets”
“The Touch of an Angel”
“TransFatty Lives”
“The True Cost”
“Twinsters”
“Very Semi-Serious: A Partially Thorough Portrait of New Yorker Cartoonists”
“The Wanted 18”
“We Are Many”
“We Come as Friends”
“We Were Not Just…Bicycle Thieves. Neorealism”
“Welcome to Leith”
“What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy”
“Where to Invade Next”
“Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom” (pictured above)
“The Wolfpack”
Several of the films have not yet had their required Los Angeles and New York qualifying releases. Submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and comply with all of the category’s other qualifying rules in order to advance in the voting process. A shortlist of 15 films will be announced in December.
Films submitted in the Documentary Feature category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 88th Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL
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Feature Documentary TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL to Open on October 16 | TRAILER
TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL, a new feature documentary exploring the life and career of one of Hollywood’s most iconic classic movie stars, will open in New York City on October 16, before expanding to Los Angeles and additional markets across the country.
Directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (Vito, I Am Divine), TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL features unfiltered interviews with Tab Hunter himself, as well as friends and co-stars including George Takei, Clint Eastwood, John Waters, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Wagner.
Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood’s ultimate male heartthrob. In dozens of films – and in the pages of countless movie magazines – Tab’s astonishing looks and golden-boy sex appeal drove his fans to screaming, delirious frenzy, making him the prototype for all young matinee idols to come. Bristling against being just another pretty face and wanting to be taken seriously, Tab was one of the few to be able to transcend pin-up boy status. He earned his stripes as an actor to become a major movie star and recording artist. But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Now, Tab’s dramatic, turbulent and ultimately inspiring life story has become an explosive documentary feature directed by Emmy award winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz. The film has the unique advantage of exclusive, unprecedented access to Tab Hunter himself who shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image. We will trace Tab’s dizzying rise to Hollywood super-stardom, his secret life in an era when being openly gay was unthinkable, and his ultimate triumph when the limelight finally passed him by. Punctuating Tab’s on screen presence will be rare film clips and provocative interviews with friends and co-stars including John Waters, Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Portia de Rossi, Noah Wyle, Connie Stevens, Robert Osborne, and dozens more. TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL is an important piece of Hollywood’s hidden history that is more relevant than ever in today’s obsessive, star-driven, sexuality speculating media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfTiAAHYhyw
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Maryland Film Festival Unveils First 10 Films on 2015 Lineup
Maryland Film Festival revealed the first 10 films on the lineup for the upcoming 17th annual festival, which will take place May 6 to 10, 2015, in downtown Baltimore.
The first ten feature films announced for MFF 2015 include Stanley Nelson’s Black Panthers documentary, The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution; Kris Swanberg’s Unexpected; Olivia Wyatt’s look at Moken culture, Sailing a Sinking Sea; and Eugene Kotlyarenko’s rom-com, A Wonderful Cloud. Also announced for MFF 2015 is the world premiere of Stephen Cone’s coming-of-age drama Henry Gamble’s Birthday Party.
THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION (Stanley Nelson) Master documentarian Stanley Nelson has demonstrated an unparalleled ability to bring history to life with films such as Freedom Summer; The Murder of Emmett Till; andJonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Here he turns his lens on the revolutionary Black Panther Party and the various cultural forces that worked to support or destroy the group, creating an essential portrait of a singular radical moment in the American experience.
BREAKING A MONSTER (Luke Meyer) Viral-video sensation Unlocking the Truth, a teenage metal buzz-band from Brooklyn, navigate the bizarre current state of the record industry in this fascinating, fist-pumping, and often hilarious documentary. Fresh from its premiere at SXSW, this exceptional rock doc follows the band as they sign a major-label record deal and are suddenly caught up in an adult-driven world of contracts, tours, interviews, and branding. From Luke Meyer, co-director of MFF 2006 hit Darkon.
FUNNY BUNNY (Alison Bagnall) The writer/director of The Dish & the Spoon returns with this offbeat, infectious mix of comedy and drama. Kentucker Audley stars as an obesity-awareness canvasser who strikes up a friendship with a wealthy, emancipated 19-year-old named Titty (Olly Alexander) and the animal-rights-activist object of Titty’s desire, Ginger (Joslyn Jensen). Co-starring Josephine Decker, Louis Cancelmi, and Anna Margaret Hollyman.
HENRY GAMBLE’S BIRTHDAY PARTY (Stephen Cone) A pool party celebrating the seventeenth birthday of Henry Gamble (Cole Doman), the son of a megachurch preacher (Pat Healy), sets the stage for this expertly observed ensemble drama. As sunny skies fade into moonlight, director Stephen Cone (The Wise Kids, Black Box) offers a subtle and insightful portrait of a community full of pressures and secrets —exploring identity, sexuality, and organized religion in the process. World premiere.
SAILING A SINKING SEA (Olivia Wyatt) This experimental documentary, which premiered at SXSW, looks at the traditional lifestyle of the Moken people, a seafaring community of Burma and Thailand. Olivia Wyatt’s gorgeous and immersive film transports viewers deep into the turquoise sea and onto thirteen different islands, giving us intimate access to a culture where shamans, mermaids, and sea gods collide with present-day practices. Executive-produced by Will Oldham.
STINKING HEAVEN (Nathan Silver) This ultra-dark comedy looks at a communal home for sober living in 1990s suburban New Jersey, which spirals into dysfunctional decline when an outsider arrives on the scene. Director Nathan Silver’s film boasts an uncompromising visual aesthetic that goes against the grain of contemporary indie filmmaking—not to mention a fantastic cast that includes Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Keith Poulson, and Eleonore Hendricks.
TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL (Jeffrey Schwarz) Top-notch documentary biographer Jeffrey Schwarz has captivated MFF audiences with definitive looks at iconic personalities William Castle, Vito Russo, and Divine. Now he delivers the warm and intimate story of 1950s Hollywood heartthrob Tab Hunter, who simultaneously balanced a stratospheric career on the silver screen with a secret life as a gay man. From his rise to stardom to his reinvention as a cult-film star with John Waters—and a number of fascinating surprises—it’s all here.
UNEXPECTED (Kris Swanberg) High-school science teacher Samantha (Cobie Smulders), already dealing with stress and uncertainty as her low-income school prepares to close, finds out she’s pregnant. When she discovers her favorite student Jasmine (Gail Bean) is also with child, the two form a tight and unconventional bond. From Kris Swanberg (whose earlier features Empire Builder and It was great, but I was ready to come home. both screened within MFF) comes this refreshing character study that mines honest emotions and the quiet battlefields of love and friendship for real beauty and insight.
WELCOME TO LEITH (pictured above) (Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker) This edge-of-your-seat documentary follows the arrival of notorious white supremacist Craig Cobb to a small town in North Dakota, where he promptly buys up land for like-minded collaborators and disrupts town council meetings, leading to fears that he plans a neo-Nazi takeover. As his behavior escalates further into the outrageous and threatens to get violent, a once-placid community must decide how to react.
A WONDERFUL CLOUD (Eugene Kotlyarenko) When his ex-girlfriend visits him in Los Angeles to resolve some lingering business entanglements, Eugene seeks to revisit old feelings, and introduces her to an LA populated by a wild cast of artists, scenesters, and eccentrics. Variety called this gleefully anarchic romantic comedy “a raucous, wholly improvised 21st-century Annie Hall.” Starring director Kotlyarenko (whose 0s & 1s had its world premiere at MFF 2010) and Kate Lyn Sheil (Sun Don’t Shine, House of Cards).
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Complete Film Lineup Announced for 2015 Sarasota Film Festival

The Sarasota Film Festival announced its full line-up, including its Narrative Feature Competition, Independent Visions Competition, Documentary Feature Competition, its Sundance/Gate Foundation Shorts, its Centerpiece and Spotlight films, and its Best of the Web Program for the 2015 Festival taking place April 10th Through April 19th, 2015.
