The Nominated Films

Ten films, two categories of awards for documentary films. The "documentary feature" category is for films over 40 minutes long (including credits); the "documentary short subject" category is for films 40 minutes or less.

The award for Best Documentary Feature went to "Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport", and "Big Mama" received the award for Best Documentary Short Subject.

If you are thinking of getting your film nominated for an academy award, it needs to be in composite film print format (16mm, 35mm, 70mm, IMAX, Showscan or certain other accepted formats requiring special presentation), and it has to be "first publicly exhibited for paid admission in a commercial motion picture theater," according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Documentary films are supposed to be the real thing: the Academy defines a documentary as "a non-fiction motion picture dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects." They say "it may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial re-enactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on factual content and not on fiction."