Academy Names 15 As Best Documentary Oscar Contenders; 'Central Park Five' Snubbed

Fifteen docs advanced to the final stages for Oscar consideration Monday. While the films making the cut are, of course, notable, some others that did not are also. Today's winner of the New York Film Critics Circle for Best Non-Fiction film of 2012, Central Park Five, which made headlines recently because New York City officials attempted to gain access to the film's outtakes related to a pending civil suit, did not make the cut. Other high profile docs also left out were Toronto's West of Memphis and Sundance's Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present as well as Magnolia's The Queen of Versailles. While distributor IFC Films will likely be disappointed by the CP5 omission by the Academy, it will celebrate the inclusion of How To Survive a Plague, an AIDS doc that opened quietly, but to acclaim for its bravery. The distributor also had its Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry in the list.

[Related: Movieline's Central Park Five coverage]

Tribeca's Bully, which opened to controversy for its R-rating from the MPAA to pushback from distributor The Weinstein Company, also made the cut.

The 15 films are listed below in alphabetical order by title, with their production companies (information provided by AMPAS):

 
  
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, Never Sorry LLC
   
Bully, The Bully Project LLC
   
Chasing Ice, Exposure
   
Detropia, Loki Films
   
Ethel, Moxie Firecracker Films
   
5 Broken Cameras, Guy DVD Films
   
The Gatekeepers, Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil
   
The House I Live In, Charlotte Street Films, LLC
   
How to Survive a Plague, How to Survive a Plague LLC
   
The Imposter, Imposter Pictures Ltd. 
   
The Invisible War, Chain Camera Pictures
   
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Jigsaw Productions in association with 
Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films
   
Searching for Sugar Man, Red Box Films
   
This Is Not a Film, Wide Management
   
The Waiting Room, Open'hood, Inc.

NY Film Critics Circle Spices Up Oscar Race With 'Zero Dark Thirty' Best Picture Pick

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Sarah Burns Calls NYC Official's Accusations Regarding The Central Park Five 'Outrageous' (UPDATED With Attorney's Letter)

UPDATE: The attorney for The Central Park Five filmmakers has responded to the city's second subpoena with a letter. I've posted it in its entirety after the jump.

I love the smell of New York politics in the morning. As a longtime resident of Gotham who worked at the New York Post during the Central Park jogger rape case, I'm fascinated — but not surprised — by the city's attempt to subpoena the outtakes and notes from The Central Park Five, Ken and Sarah Burns and David McMahon's documentary that delves into the racially charged incident.
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