'Man on Wire' Continues Documentary Domination With Assist to 'Bashir'

I would say the Best Doc category is all wrapped up

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Sunday, December 7th 2008 at 4:09 PM

Man on Wire
Photo: Magnolia Pictures

I would say Man on Wire as well as WALL•E are pretty much the only two films I feel are a lock for Oscars come February 22 in Best Documentary and Best Animated Feature respectively. Of course Kung Fu Panda is knocking on WALL•E's door after the Annie Award nominations and one cannot count out the potential for Waltz with Bashir to do what Persepolis could not last year – knock Pixar off its high horse as an Academy Award sure bet. Tying with Man on Wire, the best reviewed film of all-time at Rotten Tomatoes, as best feature documentary is a pretty good start. Of course, being a best documentary and being best animated film is hardly an equal comparison, but buzz is buzz as the International Documentary Association handed out their awards on Friday, December 5 awarding the best docs of 2008.

Seeing how I am not a HUGE follower of documentaries I have heard of only a few of these films, but I will say that after watching American Teen last night I am VERY happy to see it not included anywhere in the announcement of the Association's winners as it was considered one of the top five docs by the National Board of Review. Sorry, but MTV style reality TV does not make for an award winning documentary.

The complete list of winners can be found below and you can find a much more indepth breakdown over at the official site right here.

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
Man on Wire (tie)
Waltz with Bashir (tie)

SHORT DOCUMENTARY
La Corona

CONTINUING SERIES AWARD
This American Life

LIMITED SERIES AWARD
Sin City Law

ABCNEWS VIDEO SOURCE AWARD
War Child

IDA/ALAN ETT MUSIC DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Young@Heart

PARE LORENTZ AWARD
Burning The Future: Coal In America

IDA/DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD
As We Forgive

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Werner Herzog

PIONEER AWARD
Rob Epstein

PRESERVATION & SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Marina Goldovskaya

AVID EXCELLENCE IN EDITING AWARD
Sam Pollard

JACQUELINE DONNET EMERGING FILMMAKER AWARD
Stefan Forbes