The Best Documentary Feature Oscar can be an odd beast. The award has had its fair share of controversy. The lack of a nomination for Hoop Dreams in 1995 helped spur a change in the nomination process and 2000 Oscar winner One Day in September was deliberately screened to the smallest audience possible before its win. Famed documentarians such as D.A Pennebaker and Fredrick Wiseman have never received a nomination. The controversy is a shame for a mode of film that rarely breaks out into other categories, but the award frequently honors truly great work.
Here are the 10 greatest best documentary feature Oscar winners, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
American Factory - 96%
The most recent Best Documentary Feature Oscar winner is another in a string of triumphs for Netflix. The film was directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, who were previously nominated for Best Documentary Short in 2010 for The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant. American Factory focuses on the re-opening of a GM plant in Ohio by a Chinese company. It displays the culture clash between the Chinese owners of the plant and its American workers and the plant’s effect on the town of Moraine, Ohio.
The Fog of War - 96%
The Fog of War is a 2003 documentary about former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. Director Errol Morris interviewed McNamara for 20 hours directly through his camera lens, allowing for a true first-person perspective on the interview. Throughout the film, Morris juxtaposes McNamara’s thoughts on war and his experiences with footage, charts, and graphics contextualizing McNamara’s statements. Morris also confronts McNamara’s role in the Vietnam War and the destruction it caused.
The Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2019.
Citizenfour - 96%
Citizenfour is Laura Poitras’ harrowing account of being one of the first three journalists to meet Edward Snowden in Hong Kong, along with The Guardian contributor Glenn Greenwald and Guardian reporter Ewen MacAskill. The film takes viewers between the time the three first meet Snowden in June 2013 and when Snowden first gains asylum in Russia in August of that year. It also includes footage of former NSA analyst William Binney, who testified in front of the German Parliament after Snowden went public.
Free Solo - 97%
Free Solo is about rock climber Alex Honnold’s quest to climb El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without assistance. The then 32-year-old became the first person to ever accomplish the feat. Free Solo captures almost every moment of the triumphant climb and several test climbs in Utah and Morocco. The film is partly about its creation, as directors Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi frequently discuss how to make the movie while not endangering Honnold’s life in the process.
It’s a testament to Honnold’s unique achievement, itself achieved in some rather unique ways.
When We Were Kings - 98%
When We Were Kings took 22 years to finally see the light of day. Released in 1996, the film was shot at the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” heavyweight boxing championship match between undefeated champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The film pays particular attention to the mind games Ali played with the people of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), bringing them to his side rather than Foreman’s.
Foreman and Ali became friends after the match and stood together to receive the Oscar in 1997.
Inside Job - 98%
Inside Job is a 2010 film that attempts to shed light on the Great Recession and the policies that brought the world to an economic breaking point. The film structures the dense material into five parts and explains it in a clear and understandable manner. Not nearly as funny as The Big Short five years later or your average Michael Moore doc, it instead replaces the comedy those films have with a deep-throated and righteous anger that is nothing if not infectious. The film is still prescient 10 years later as the world continues to deal with the fallout from the Recession.
20 Feet From Stardom - 99%
Documentarian Morgan Neville’s breakout feature focuses on the lives of influential backing singers such as Merry Clayton (who provided the iconic backing vocals for the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter”), Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill. The film also features interviews with the artists the featured singers have worked with in their careers, including Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, and Stevie Wonder.
The film also won the Grammy for Best Music Film at the 2015 ceremony.
O.J.: Made in America - 100%
Did ESPN cheese the rules by showing the entire 467 minutes in two theaters just weeks before airing this landmark miniseries on television? Sure. Does that matter? Not really. Made in America is the best thing ESPN Films ever produced. Director Ezra Edelman uses those 467 minutes and O.J. Simpson’s murder trial as mere avenues to explore deeper meaning about Los Angeles and the United States in luxurious detail. The film is brilliantly constructed and puts the trial in the context of both Simpson himself and the broader system of which he was both victim and enabler.
Taxi to the Dark Side - 100%
Taxi to the Dark Side examines the 2002 death of Dilawar, an Afghan taxi driver at a CIA black site, at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Dilawar had been accused of plotting a terrorist attack by an Afghan warlord and was later tortured to death. It later came to light that the warlord was planning the attack himself but sold “suspected” terrorists out to the U.S. for $1000 a head. The film is a scathing indictment of American policy, and torture and interrogation as well as the depiction and defense of torture in the media.
Man on Wire - 100%
Man on Wire is one of the greatest films ever made. The film focuses on Philippe Petit’s daring high-wire cross between the Twin Towers in New York City on August 7, 1974. Petit performed eight passes between the towers that morning and James Marsh’s 2008 documentary builds up to that moment and makes it exhilarating. Man on Wire is structured like a heist movie, keeping the tension high even if viewers know what will happen in the end.
