Every October, DOC NYC released the titles of the 15 nonfiction feature films and 15 nonfiction short films selected for its annual Short Lists, as well as a small number of specially curated films chosen for our annual Winner’s Circle. The annual lists are strong prognosticators for awards season, from critics’ prizes and top ten lists to Oscars.
Click here to the view the 2024 Short List.
For 11 of the last 12 years, DOC NYC has screened the documentary feature that went on to win the Academy Award, and 53 of the last 60 Oscar-nominated documentary features. In 2023, DOC NYC screened 12 of 15 titles that were named to the subsequent Academy Award Documentary Feature Shortlist, and in 2021, 2022, and 2023 screened The Queen of Basketball, The Elephant Whisperers, and The Last Repair Shop, all of which went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject.
The DOC NYC Winner’s Circle for documentary features, introduced in 2019, highlights films that arrive at DOC NYC with significant awards pedigrees already in place. Past films shown in Winner’s Circle that all went on to further acclaim include Writing with Fire, The Mole Agent, A House Made of Splinters, Apolonia, Apolonia, Beyond Utopia, In the Rearview, Bad Axe, Midnight Family, and Advocate. To qualify for inclusion in this category, films must have won a major award at a significant international or US film festival.
All films are screened in-person in New York City each November, with creators from the films in attendance to engage in audience interviews.
Submissions have closed for the Short List and Winner’s Circle for 2024, but you can check here for updates in 2025: https://filmfreeway.com/DOCNYCShortListsandWinnersCircle
