Three Canadian productions have made it onto the shortlist of 15 films still in the running for the Oscar for best documentary, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday.
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They are Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song, a documentary by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine about the life of Montreal poet and singer Leonard Cohen, Nuisance Bear, a film by Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden about polar bears and that Fire of Love directed by documentary filmmaker Sara Dosa.
Canada is also well represented in the short film section thanks to the film Le matelot vivant (The Flying Sailor), an NFB production nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Directed by Calgary-based animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis, this 7-minute, 45-second film features two ships colliding in a harbor, causing an explosion that sweeps through a city.
Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis were previously nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for their previous collaborations When the Day Breaks (1999) and A Life in the Wild (2011).
We’ll know if those films will be selected from among the five finalists in their respective categories on January 24th, when the Oscar nominations are announced.
Also note that the animated documentary Eternal Spring, which was selected to represent Canada in the running for the Academy Award for Best International Film, was not selected among the semi-finalists in this category.