Congrats to Oscar-nominated DOC NYC alum!

The best part of DOC NYC is getting to work with so many amazingly talented filmmakers. This year is particularly special as we’ve had the opportunity to show all five of this year’s Best Documentary Oscar nominees.

A giant congratulations to Morgan Neville on his Oscar win for 20 FEET FROM STARDOM. We’re sure you’ve seen Darlene Love’s beautifully belted acceptance speech but make sure you also watch Neville’s Q&A at DOC NYC where he discusses the making of the film with Thom Powers, DOC NYC Artistic Director.

We want to congratulate all the nominees – Joshua Oppenheimer of THE ACT OF KILLING, Zachary Heinzerling of CUTIE AND THE BOXER, Richard Rowley of DIRTY WARS and Jehane Noujaim of THE SQUARE. To get a behind-the-scenes perspective on making these films, you can watch DOC NYC Q&As with THE ACT OF KILLING’s Oppenheimer, DIRTY WARS’ Jeremy Scahill and THE SQUARE’s Jehane Noujaim. Our YouTube channel has links to many more fantastic Q&As.

Also DOC NYC alum Jason Cohen received a nomination for Best Documentary Short for FACING FEAR.

To cap it off – here’s a DOC NYC Oscar story we’d like to share with you. For the Opening Night of the festival in 2012, Jared Leto joined us to present his film ARTIFACT. His flight into NYC was cancelled and rebooked multiple times because of the weather, and finally just three hours before the film, he landed at Newark Airport. The next day, he flew down south the next day to begin filming DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (for which he won Best Supporting Actor last night). Congrats Jared!

A hearty congrats to all! We are excited to see what the next year brings in great films to DOC NYC. We’ve opened submissions for DOC NYC 2014 and this year, we are a qualifying festival for short films. As a reminder, our early bird deadline is this Friday, March 7!

Oscars weekend also coincided with the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Congrats to DOC NYC alum Patrick Creadon of IF YOU BUILD IT, which won the inaugural Bright Future Award. The award honors a filmmaker whose work best exemplifies a commitment to telling stories of positive change in the world.