Oscar al millor documental

Oscar al millor documental

Tipus	Oscar
Estat	Estats Units d'Amèrica
Concedit per	Acadèmia de les Arts i les Ciències Cinematogràfiques
Lloc web	oscars.org

L'Oscar al millor documental (en anglès Academy Award for Documentary Feature) és un premi cinematogràfic estatunidenc atorgat cada any, des de 1942 per l'Acadèmia de les Arts i les Ciències Cinematogràfiques, la qual atorga igualment tots els altres Oscars.

Guanyadors i nominats

Seguint les normes de l'Acadèmia, les pel·lícules són a la llista sota l'any que han estat seleccionades. A la pràctica, degut a la naturalesa de la distribució dels documentals, una pel·lícula pot sortir en diferents anys, algunes vegades anys després de completar la producció. Els llorejats són indicats al capdavant de cada categoria i en negreta.

Dècada de 1940

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1942	The Battle of Midway	John Ford
	Kokoda Front Line	Ken G. Hall
	La derrota de les tropes feixistes alemanyes als afores de Moscou	Leonid Varlàmov, Ilià Kopalin
	Prelude to War	Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak
	Africa, Prelude to Victory
	Combat Report
	Conquer by the Clock
	The Grain That Built a Hemisphere
	Henry Browne, Farmer
	High Over the Borders
	High Stakes in the East
	Inside Fighting China
	It's Everybody's War
	Listen to Britain
	Little Belgium
	Little Isles of Freedom
	Mr. Blabbermouth!
	Mister Gardenia Jones
	The New Spirit
	The Price of Victory
	A Ship Is Born
	Twenty-One Miles
	We Refuse to Die
	The White Eagle
	Winning Your Wings
La categoria es va separar en dues per llargmetratges i curtmetratges. A continuació es relacionen només els llarmetratges.
1943	Desert Victory	Roy Boulting
	Baptism of Fire
	The Battle of Russia	Frank Capra, Anatole Litvak
	Report from the Aleutians	John Huston
	War Department Report	Oliver Lundquist
1944	The Fighting Lady	Edward Steichen
	Resisting Enemy Interrogation	Bernard Vorhaus
1945	The True Glory	Garson Kanin, Carol Reed
	The Last Bomb	Frank Lloyd
1946	Premi no atorgat
1947	Design for Death	Richard Fleischer
	Journey Into Medicine	Willard Van Dyke
	The World Is Rich	Paul Rotha
1948	The Secret Land
	The Quiet One	Sidney Meyers
1949	Daybreak in Udi	Terry Bishop
	Kenji Comes Home	Charles F. Schwep

Dècada de 1950

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1950	The Titan: Story of Michelangelo	Robert J. Flaherty, Richard Lyford, Curt Oertel
	With These Hands	Jack Arnold
1951	Kon-Tiki	Thor Heyerdahl
	I Was a Communist for the FBI	Gordon Douglas
1952	The Sea Around Us	Irwin Allen
	The Hoaxters	Herman Hoffman, Dore Schary
	Navajo	Norman Foster
1953	The Living Desert	James Algar
	The Conquest of Everest	George Lowe
	A Queen Is Crowned	Michael Waldman
1954	The Vanishing Prairie	James Algar
	The Stratford Adventure	Morten Parker
1955	Helen Keller in Her Story	Nancy Hamilton
	Crèvecoeur	Jacques Dupont
1956	The Silent World	Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Louis Malle
	Hvor bjergene sejler	Bjarne Henning-Jensen
	The Naked Eye	Louis Clyde Stoumen
1957	Albert Schweitzer	Jerome Hill
	On the Bowery	Lionel Rogosin
	Torero	arlos Velo
1958	White Wilderness	James Algar
	Antarctic Crossing	George Lowe
	The Hidden World	Robert Snyder
	Psychiatric Nursing	Lee R. Bobker
1959	Serengeti Shall Not Die	Bernhard Grzimek
	The Race for Space	David L. Wolper

Dècada de 1960

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1960	The Horse with the Flying Tail	Larry Lansburgh
	Rebel in Paradise	Robert D. Fraser
1961	Le Ciel et la Boue	Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau
	La grande olimpiade	Romolo Marcellini
1962	Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler	Louis Clyde Stoumen
	Alvorada	Hugo Niebeling
1963	Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel With the World	Shirley Clarke
	Le Maillon et la Chaîne	Jacques Ertaud, Bernard Gorki
	The Yanks Are Coming	Marshall Flaum
1964	Le Monde sans soleil	Jacques-Yves Cousteau
	14-18	Jean Aurel
	Alleman	Bert Haanstra
	The Finest Hours	Peter Baylis
	Four Days in November	Mel Stuart
1965	The Eleanor Roosevelt Story	Richard Kaplan
	The Battle of the Bulge... The Brave Rifles	Laurence E. Mascott
	The Forth Road Bridge	Gordon Lang
	Let My People Go: The Story of Israel	Marshall Flaum
	Mourir à Madrid	Frédéric Rossif
1966	The War Game	Peter Watkins
	The Face of a Genius	Alfred R. Kelman
	Helicopter Canada	Peter Jones, Tom Daly
	The Really Big Family	Alex Grasshoff
	Le Volcan interdit	Haroun Tazieff
1967	The Anderson Platoon	Pierre Schoendoerffer
	Festival	Murray Lerner
	Harvest	Carroll Ballard
	A King's Story	Jack Le Vien
	A Time for Burning	William C. Jersey
1968	Journey into Self A	Bill McGaw
	A Few Notes on Our Food Problem	James Blue
	Legendary Champions	William Cayton
	Other Voices	David H. Sawyer
1969	Arthur Rubinstein – The Love of Life	Bernard Chevry
	Before the Mountain Was Moved	Robert K. Sharpe
	In the Year of the Pig	Emile de Antonio
	The Olympics in Mexico	Comité Organizador de los Juegos de la XIX Olimpiada
	The Wolf Men	Irwin Rosten

Dècada de 1970

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1970	Woodstock	Michael Wadleigh
	Erinnerungen an die Zukunft	Harald Reinl
	Jack Johnson	Jimmy Jacobs
	King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis	Sidney Lumet
	Say Goodbye	David H. Vowell
1971	The Hellstrom Chronicle	Ed Spiegel, Walon Green
	Alaska Wilderness Lake	Alan Landsburg
	Le Chagrin et la Pitié	Marcel Ophüls
	On Any Sunday	Bruce Brown
	Ra	Lennart Ehrenborg, Thor Heyerdahl
1972	Marjoe	Howard Smith, Sarah Kernochan
	Bij de beesten af	Bert Haanstra
	Malcolm X	Arnold Perl
	Manson	Robert Hendrickson, Laurence Merrick
	The Silent Revolution	Eckehard Munck
1973	The Great American Cowboy	Kieth Merrill
	Always a New Beginning	John D. Goodell
	Journey to the Outer Limits	Alexander Grasshoff
	Schlacht um Berlin	Franz Baake, Jost von Morr
	Walls of Fire	Herbert Kline, Edmund Penney
1974	Hearts and Minds	Peter Davis
	Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman	Judy Collins, Jill Godmilow
	The Challenge... A Tribute to Modern Art	Herbert Kline
	The 81st Blow	David Bergman, Jacques Ehrlich, Haim Gouri
	The Wild and the Brave	Eugene S. Jones
1975	The Man Who Skied Down Everest	Bruce Nyznik, Lawrence Schiller
	The California Reich	Keith F. Critchlow, Walter F. Parkes
	Fighting for Our Lives	Glen Pearcy
	Man: The Incredible Machine	Irwin Rosten, Ed Spiegel
	The Other Half of the Sky: A China Memoir	Shirley MacLaine, Claudia Weill
1976	Harlan County, USA	Barbara Kopple
	Hollywood on Trial	David Helpern
	Off the Edge	Michael Firth
	People of the Wind	Anthony Howarth, David Koff
	Volcano: An Inquiry Into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry	Donald Brittain, John Kramer
1977	Who Are the DeBolts? And Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids?	John Korty
	The Children of Theatre Street	Robert Dornhelm, Earle Mack
	High Grass Circus	Torben Schioler, Tony Ianzelo
	Homage to Chagall: The Colours of Love	Harry Rasky
	Union Maids	Jim Klein, Miles Mogulescu, Julia Reichert
1978	Scared Straight!	Arnold Shapiro
	Mysterious Castles of Clay	Joan Root, Alan Root
	Raoni	Jean-Pierre Dutilleux, Luiz Carlos Saldanha
	Le vent des amoureux	Albert Lamorisse
	With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade	Lorraine Gray
1979	Best Boy	Ira Wohl
	Generation on the Wind	David Vassar
	Going the Distance	Paul Cowan
	The Killing Ground	Steve Singer, Tom Priestley
	The War at Home	Glenn Silber

Dècada de 1980

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1980	From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China	Murray Lerner
	Agee	Ross Spears
	The Day After Trinity	Jon H. Else
	Front Line	David Bradbury
	Der gelbe Stern – Die Judenverfolgung 1933–1945	Dieter Hildebrandt
1981	Genocide	Arnold Schwartzman
	Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey	John Brousek
	Brooklyn Bridge	Ken Burns
	Eight Minutes to Midnight: A Portrait of Dr. Helen Caldicott	Mary Benjamin
	El Salvador: Another Vietnam	Glenn Silber, Teté Vasconcellos
1982	Just Another Missing Kid	John Zaritsky
	A Portrait of Giselle	Muriel Balash
	After the Axe	Sturla Gunnarsson
	Ben's Mill	Michel Chalufour, John Karol
	In Our Water	Meg Switzgable
1983	He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'	Emile Ardolino
	Children of Darkness	Ara Chekmayan, Richard Kotuk
	First Contact	Robin Anderson, Bob Connolly
	The Profession of Arms	Michael Bryans, Tina Viljoen
	Seeing Red	Jim Klein, Julia Reichert
1984	The Times of Harvey Milk	Robert Epstein, Richard Schmiechen
	High Schools	Charles Guggenheim
	In the Name of the People	Frank Christopher
	Marlene	Maximilian Schell
	Streetwise	Martin Bell
1985	Broken Rainbow	Maria Florio, Victoria Mudd
	Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo	Susana Blaustein Muñoz, Lourdes Portillo
	Soldiers in Hiding	Malcolm Clarke
	The Statue of Liberty	Ken Burns
	Unfinished Business	Steven Okazaki
1986	Artie Shaw: Time Is All You've Got	Brigitte Berman
	Down and Out in America	Lee Grant
	Chile: Hasta Cuando?	David Bradbury
	Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer	Amram Nowak
	Witness to Apartheid	Sharon I. Sopher
1987	The Ten-Year Lunch: The Wit and Legend of the Algonquin Round Table	Aviva Slesin
	Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years/Bridge to Freedom 1965	Henry Hampton
	Hellfire: A Journey from Hiroshima	Michael Camerini, John Junkerman, James MacDonald
	Radio Bikini	Robert Stone
	A Stitch for Time	Nigel Noble
1988	Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie	Marcel Ophüls
	The Cry of Reason: Beyers Naude – An Afrikaner Speaks Out	Robert Bilheimer
	Let's Get Lost	Bruce Weber
	Promises to Keep	Ginny Durrin
	Who Killed Vincent Chin?	Christine Choy, Renee Tajima-Peña
1989	Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt	Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
	Adam Clayton Powell	Richard Kilberg
	Crack USA: County Under Siege	Vince DiPersio, Bill Guttentag
	For All Mankind	Al Reinert
	Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren	Bill Jersey, Judith Leonard

Dècada de 1990

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
1990	American Dream	Barbara Kopple
	Berkeley in the Sixties	Mark Kitchell
	Building Bombs	Mark Mori, Susan J. Robinson
	Forever Activists: Stories from the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade	Connie Field, Judith Montell
	Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey	Eugene Corr, Robert Hillmann
1991	In the Shadow of the Stars	Allie Light, Irving Saraf
	Death on the Job	Vince DiPersio, Bill Guttentag
	Doing Time: Life Inside the Big House	Alan Raymond
	The Restless Conscience: Resistance to Hitler Within Germany 1933–1945	Hava Kohav Beller
	Wild by Law	Lawrence Hott, Diane Garey
1992	The Panama Deception	Barbara Trent
	Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker	Richard Schmiechen
	Fires of Kuwait	David Douglas
	Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II	William Miles, Nina Rosenblum
	Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann	Joshua Waletzky
1993	I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School	Susan Raymond
	The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter	Arthur Ginsberg, David Paperny
	Children of Fate	Andrew Young, Susan Todd
	For Better or For Worse	David Collier, Betsy Thompson
	The War Room	Chris Hegedus, D. A. Pennebaker
1994	Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision	Freida Lee Mock
	Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter	Deborah Hoffmann
	D-Day Remembered	Charles Guggenheim
	Freedom on My Mind	Connie Field, Marilyn Mulford
	A Great Day in Harlem	Jean Bach
1995	Anne Frank Remembered	Jon Blair
	The Battle Over Citizen Kane	Michael Epstein, Thomas Lennon
	Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream	Michael Tollin
	Small Wonders	Allan Miller
	Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern	Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan
1996	When We Were Kings	Leon Gast
	The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story	Susan Warms Dryfoos
	Mandela	Angus Gibson, Jo Menell
	Suzanne Farrell: Elusive Muse	Anne Belle, Deborah Dickson
	Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press	Rick Goldsmith
1997	The Long Way Home	Mark Jonathan Harris
	Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life	Michael Paxton
	Colors Straight Up	Michèle Ohayon
	4 Little Girls	Spike Lee
	Waco: The Rules of Engagement	William Gazecki
1998	The Last Days	James Moll
	The Dancemaker	Matthew Diamond
	The Farm: Angola, U.S.A.	Liz Garbus, Wilbert Rideau, Jonathan Stack
	Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth	Robert B. Weide
	Regret to Inform	Barbara Sonneborn
1999	One Day in September	Kevin Macdonald
	Buena Vista Social Club	Wim Wenders
	Genghis Blues	Roko Belic
	On the Ropes	Nanette Burstein, Brett Morgen
	Speaking in Strings	Paola di Florio

Dècada de 2000

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
2000	Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport	Mark Jonathan Harris, Deborah Oppenheimer
	Legacy	Tod Lending
	Long Night's Journey into Day	Deborah Hoffmann, Frances Reid
	Scottsboro: An American Tragedy	Daniel Anker, Barak Goodman
	Sound and Fury	Josh Aronson, Roger Weisberg
2001	Un coupable idéal	Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, Denis Poncet
	Children Underground	Edet Belzberg
	LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton	Deborah Dickson, Susan Frömke
	Promises	B.Z. Goldberg, Justine Shapiro
	War Photographer	Christian Frei
2002	Bowling for Columbine	Michael Donovan, Michael Moore
	Daughter from Danang	Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco
	Prisoner of Paradise	Malcolm Clarke, Stuart Sender
	Spellbound	Jeffrey Blitz, Sean Welch
	Le Peuple migrateur	Jacques Perrin
2003	The Fog of War	Errol Morris, Michael Williams
	Balseros	Carlos Bosch, Josep Maria Domenech
	Capturant els Friedman	Andrew Jarecki, Marc Smerling
	My Architect	Nathaniel Kahn, Susan R. Behr
	The Weather Underground	Sam Green, Bill Siegel
2004	Born into Brothels	Ross Kauffman, Zana Briski
	La història del camell que plora	Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni
	Super Size Me	Morgan Spurlock
	Tupac: Resurrection	Karolyn Ali, Lauren Lazin
	Twist of Faith	Kirby Dick, Eddie Schmidt
2005	El viatge de l'emperador	Luc Jacquet
	El malson de Darwin	Hubert Sauper
	Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room	Alex Gibney, Jason Kliot
	Murderball	Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro
	Street Fight	Marshall Curry
2006	An Inconvenient Truth	Davis Guggenheim
	Deliver Us from Evil	Amy Berg, Frank Donner
	Iraq in Fragments	James Longley, Yahya Sinno
	Jesus Camp	Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
	My Country, My Country	Jocelyn Glatzer, Laura Poitras
2007	Taxi to the Dark Side	Alex Gibney, Eva Orner
	No End in Sight	Charles Ferguson, Audrey Marrs
	Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience	Richard Robbins
	SiCKO	Michael Moore, Meghan O'Hara
	War/Dance	Sean Fine, Andrea Nix
2008	Man on Wire	Simon Chinn, James Marsh
	Nerakhoon (The Betrayal)	Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath
	Encounters at the End of the World	Werner Herzog, Henry Kaiser
	The Garden	Scott Hamilton Kennedy
	Trouble the Water	Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
2009	The Cove	Louie Psihoyos, Fisher Stevens
	Burma VJ	Anders Østergaard, Lise Lense-Møller
	Food, Inc.	Robert Kenner, Elise Pearlstein
	The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers	Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
	Which Way Home	Rebecca Cammisa

Dècada de 2010

Any	Pel·lícula	Director/s
2010	Inside Job	Charles H. Ferguson, Audrey Marrs
	Exit Through the Gift Shop	Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz
	Gasland	Josh Fox, Trish Adlesic
	Restrepo	Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger
	Waste Land	Lucy Walker, Angus Aynsley
2011	Undefeated	T. J. Martin, Daniel Lindsay, Rich Middlemas
	Hell and Back Again	Danfung Dennis, Mike Lerner
	If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front	Marshall Curry, Sam Cullman
	Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory	Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky
	Pina	Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
2012	Searching for Sugar Man	Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
	5 Broken Cameras	Emad Burnat, Guy Davidi
	The Gatekeepers	Dror Moreh, Philippa Kowarsky, Estelle Fialon
	How to Survive a Plague	David France, Howard Gertler
	The Invisible War	Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering
2013	20 Feet from Stardom	Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen, Caitrin Rogers
	The Act of Killing	Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen
	Cutie and the Boxer	Zachary Heinzerling, Lydia Dean Pilcher
	Dirty Wars	Richard Rowley, Jeremy Scahill
	The Square	Jehane Noujaim, Karim Amer
2014	Citizenfour	Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy, Dirk Wilutzky
	Finding Vivian Maier	John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
	Last Days in Vietnam	Rory Kennedy, Kevin McAlester
	La sal de la terra	Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, David Rosier
	Virunga	Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara
2015	Amy	Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees
	Cartel Land	Matthew Heineman, Tom Yellin
	The Look of Silence	Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen
	What Happened, Miss Simone?	Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby, Justin Wilkes
	Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom	Evgeny Afineevsky, Den Tolmor
2016	O.J.: Made in America	Ezra Edelman, Caroline Waterlow
	Fire at Sea	Gianfranco Rosi, Donatella Palermo
	I Am Not Your Negro	Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety, Hébert Peck
	Life, Animated	Roger Ross Williams, Julie Goldman
	13th	Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick, Howard Barish
2017	Icarus	Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
	Abacus: Small Enough to Jail	Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
	Visages, Villages	Agnès Varda, JR, Rosalie Varda
	Last Men in Aleppo	Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Søren Steen Jespersen
	Strong Island	Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes
2018	Free Solo	Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Evan Hayes i Shannon Dill
	Hale County This Morning, This Evening	RaMell Ross, Joslyn Barnes i Su Kim
	Minding the Gap	Bing Liu i Diane Quon
	Of Fathers and Sons	Talal Derki, Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme i Tobias N. Siebert
	RBG	Betsy West i Julie Cohen
2019	American Factory	Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert i Jeff Reichert
	The Cave	Feras Fayyad, Kirstine Barfod i Sigrid Dyekjær
	The Edge of Democracy	Petra Costa, Joanna Natasegara, Shane Boris i Tiago Pavan
	For Sama	Waad al-Kateab i Edward Watts
	Honeyland	Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska i Atanas Georgiev

Notes

• Nota A: El documental Young Americans, produït per Robert Cohn i Alex Grasshoff, fou anunciat com el guanyador d'aquesta categoria el 14 d'abril de 1969, però el 7 de maig següent va ser declarada no elegible perquè es va revelar que havia estat rodada durant l'any 1967, de manera que se li va retirar el guardó i la nominació. Com a resultat, el primer finalista, Journey into Self, fou declarat guanyar d'aquesta edició en aquesta categoria.

Controvèrsies

Es podria dir que l'Oscar al millor documental és el més controvertit dels Premis de l'Acadèmia. No es nominen gaires documentals aclamats per la crítica. Els exemples inclouen The Thin Blue Line, Roger & Me, Hoop Dreams, i Fahrenheit 9/11 (vegeu més avall). La controvèrsia sobre Hoop Dreams va ser suficient per forçar els Premis d'Acadèmia a canviar el seu sistema de votació als documentals.

Les noves normes es debaten des del 2005, amb Grizzly Man, un documental que sortia en el top ten de molts crítics, i que no es nominava, ni tan sols sortia a la llista interna de quinze títols distribuïda internament per l'Acadèmia. L'exclusió de Grizzly Man es revelava més tard com a resultat d'una norma de l'Acadèmia que desqualificava pel·lícules documentals per seqüències d'arxiu. Tanmateix, Grizzly Man incloïa noves entrevistes i altres seqüències filmades exclusivament per a la pel·lícula.

Hi ha debat pel paper que la distribució per televisió hauria de jugar en el procés de selecció. Fahrenheit 9/11, de Michael Moore, en el seu moment era inelegible perquè Moore havia optat per distribuir-la per televisió abans dels votacions del 2004. Al contrari el guanyador de 1982, Just Another Missing Kid, dirigida per John Zaritsky, es va crear editant juntes seqüències que originalment va filmar per a l'espectacle periodístic d'investigació de la TV canadenca The Fifth Estate.