Oscar Winner James Marsh Has Harsh Words for 2012 Oscar Doc Snubs

Oscar-winning Man on Wire director James Marsh is clearly unafraid of dropping real talk; during this month's Sundance Film Festival he unleashed a tongue-lashing on the Academy for its recent Oscar documentary nominations, which notably did not include Marsh's own well-received Project Nim. But that's not the real problem -- Marsh laments the entire class of '12 Academy Awards doc selections, which he claims overlooked the best films of the year and makes the entire branch "look stupid."

Marsh, in Park City with his narrative feature Shadow Dancer, wasn't terribly precious about Nim's snub in conversation with The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern (via SUNfiltered). "Putting Nim to one side, if you created a short list of five films that would reflect the best documentary filmmaking of the year, none of those films were nominated."

"I’m a member of the documentary branch so I’m criticizing my own branch here, and it’s really about trying to recognize the best work out there. The system that we have, which I think we’re improving next year, doesn’t seem to do that on a regular basis. Instead, it creates a 'we look stupid,' clearly overlooking great ones every year."

Which great docs, then, should have been nominated? Marsh rattled off a laundry list of acclaimed works that many expected to be vying for the Oscar. "I was shocked that film of The Interrupters’ ambition, quality, and heart didn’t get in...[Its omission from the Top 15 cut] is a disgrace to our branch, and I don’t mind saying that publicly. And it’s not about taste. I think we can all agree that that is a great piece of documentary filmmaking. Likewise, Senna was a gripping character portrayal of a very interesting man, but also an exciting cinematic experience. Both those films found audiences as well. I was also surprised that Bill Cunningham didn’t make the last, which is a charming and lovely film."

Marsh's criticism extends to the Oscar documentary selection process, which this year earned a set of revisions. But the branch member also had words for the foreign documentary category, which he says demands attention.

"Something is not working here and it’s an annual controversy. I think the system that’s being mooted now is a slight improvement, but [the Best Documentary] category does have a responsibility to getting these films exposure, and we’re also eliminating a lot of foreign documentaries that really should be part of this discussion as well. There was a Danish film called Armadillo two years ago; brilliant film that didn’t get anywhere in that category. We need to try and rectify this."

• Oscar-winning MAN ON WIRE director James Marsh rips Best Doc Oscar noms, talks brilliant new film SHADOW DANCER [SUNfiltered]