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When the Oscar nominations came out last week, the Best Documentary Feature category contained some bombshells: no recognition for two of the most decorated nonfiction films of the year.
In the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, co-hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey drill down on the nominations, examining the snubs of American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. And they explore why the Academy’s documentary branch, which determines the nominees, went for five internationally themed films, bypassing American-focused stories entirely.
Plus Carey, Deadline’s Documentary Editor, reports from the just-concluded 2024 Sundance Film Festival, talking with Best Director winners Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie of Sugarcane, Rory Kennedy and Mark Bailey of the explosive series The Synanon Fix, EP Kerry Washington and two of the main participants in Daughters, Will Ferrell and Harper Steele of Will & Harper, and more.
Daughters, winner of both the Audience Award for U.S. Documentary and the Festival Favorite Award – chosen among all the films in the festival including fiction and nonfiction – goes inside a unique father-daughter dance that takes place behind the walls of a Washington, DC prison. Washington, the Emmy-winning actress, tells Doc Talk why the film connected with her emotionally and how it reflects “this unjust system we call the criminal justice system.”
RELATED: ‘Daughters’ Review: The Bittersweet Bonds Between Fathers And Daughters Separated By Prison – Sundance Film Festival
Ferrell tells us his film – a documentary road trip – developed after his longtime friend Steele came out as trans. And he explains why the experience of making the film made it feel like he himself was transitioning.
That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk, hosted by Oscar-winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Carey, and produced by Deadline’s and Ridley’s Nō Studios. Doc Talk is presented with support from National Geographic Documentary Films.
