By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
DGA Docs Noms: Solid … If a Bit Predictable
The DGA announced nominees for Documentary this morning. Nothing terribly surprising about the noms, other than the absence of Exit Through the Gift Shop. Wonder if there’s the feeling that Banksy isn’t a “real” director, or some lingering feeling that the film is a hoax? I can’t really argue against any of the directors who were nominated, though:
LIXIN FAN
Last Train Home
CHARLES FERGUSON
Inside Job
ALEX GIBNEY
Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
DAVIS GUGGENHEIM
Waiting for “Superman”
TIM HETHERINGTON AND SEBASTIAN JUNGER
Restrepo
Looks pretty much like a take on how the final Oscar nominees for doc could turn out. The most interesting thing to me is the presence of both Alex Gibney and Charles Ferguson on the list. Gibney mentored Ferguson through his first doc, the very excellent No End in Sight, and it showed. Now Ferguson hits it out of the park again in a year when Gibney has two docs — Client 9 and Casino Jack and the United States of Money — that could have conceivably been nominated.
I still haven’t seen Last Train Home, which is leading the pack for next week’s Cinema Eye Awards, or Restrepo. The latter, at least, is in my screener box at home and I suppose I should force myself to finally watch it. I know, I know. It’s a great movie. I hear you. I’m just so worn out by war movies, I haven’t had it in me to watch it. But I will.
I would have liked to have seen a little love for Thomas Burstyn, who directed This Way of Life, which is still one of my favorite docs of the year (it has the third slot on my Top Ten Docs list this year). But this isn’t a bad list, overall.
Last Train Home is not eligible to be an Oscar nominee because it didn’t make the Oscar shortlist. See http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2010/20101118.html for the Oscar shortlist.
Brian, you’re right on that … I should have said “minus LAST TRAIN HOME … etc ” Thanks for pointing that out.