The Most Complicated Category: Documentary

Documentaries have a complicated history during the film awards season. Last year was somewhat an exception with Flee and Summer of Soul getting nominations and wins at pretty much every single awards announcements. Flee was a triple threat by being an animated international documentary and Summer of Soul was nearly as valuable getting more wins at those announcements. No other documentary even compared to these two last year, so team managers had to go to the animated or international films to fill that ANI/INT/DOC slot in their lineup.

But last year was an anomaly. In other years, having a documentary on your squad was risky. Remember the documentaries Jane, Apollo 11, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? They all scored tons of points in the regular season and were near locks on Oscar Nomination Tuesday, but owners of those docs were incensed when they earned a goose egg in the playoffs, comparable to a torn ACL from your star tight end in the first quarter if we’re comparing to fantasy football.

This year, though, might be an anomaly in the other direction from last year. At least in the years there were Jane, Apollo 11, and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, there was a clear favorite. This year, it’s difficult to nail down a top tier, let alone favorite. Although the Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations don’t count for points because they happened before the regular season started and although the International Documentary Awards shortlists also don’t count for points, we still have three precursor lists (including the recent Gotham Awards nominations) of documentaries that paint (maybe?) a clearer picture of the documentary race.

Do you know how many documentaries were on all three lists of Best Documentary of the CCDA noms, the IDA shortlist, and the Gotham noms? If you guessed one, I have bad news for you. Exactly zero documentaries fit this bill. There are however three documentaries that got nominations in other categories that also were on the IDA shortlist and got a Gotham Nomination:

Only two documentaries were submitted as their country’s representative for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards: Canada’s Eternal Spring (which is also animated) and Armenia’s Aurora’s Sunrise. Neither of these got a single nomination yet, basically eliminating the double threat documentary this year. Although it is entirely possible that an international documentary that wasn’t submitted to the Oscars could pull double nominations at any given ceremony, they will likely be hard to come by throughout the season.

Remember value based drafting? It’s about how many more points your starters score than your opponents’ starters. The bigger the difference, the bigger the value. Given that zero documentaries are pulling ahead right now, you might have to go after an animated or international film to fill that ANI/INT/DOC slot.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed seemed poised to be a favorite given that it was the only film, let alone documentary, to appear at NYFF, TIFF, Venice and Telluride. However it was shut out of Best Documentary at the CCDA’s.

Navalny, Fire of Love, and Moonage Daydream might be good candidates for points, even though they were snubbed at the Gothams. However, if you can call a documentary mainstream, these three are fairly mainstream, which the Gothams somewhat shy away from.

And don’t get me started on Descendant. It only is represented at the CCDA, although the three nominations of Best Doc, Best Director, and Best Historical Doc could spell future success. It’s way too early to drop it, but missing at the IDA’s is cause for alarm.

Documentaries are a crowded field, limiting their value, and I fear that many docs will be nominated and they will all split wins. It really feels like any documentary is a low ceiling at this point, but it’s still REALLY early in the regular season. By December we should be able to pinpoint a handful of docs, but if you spent a high draft pick on a documentary, I’d be looking at the waiver wire for a suitable Animated or International film as a backup plan.

Fantasy Advice

If either All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, or The Territory is on the waiver wire, put a request in now.

If you have another documentary, have a backup plan in place by picking up an international film. Most of the animated movies on the waiver wire are probably not worth pursuing since all the heavy hitters likely got drafted already, but there are plenty of international features that can get some points. Although you should put in a waiver request before Matchup #2 begins, wait until the Satellite nominations come out to decide which international feature is worth putting in a waiver request for.