Joining us for the third year in a row, Variety’s Senior Awards Editor Clayton Davis breaks down this year’s Oscar races for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short and offers his predictions for who will be victorious at the 96th Academy Awards on March 10th. With the feature doc category taking on a very international flavor this year, what does Clayton think of how the process unfolded from the shortlist to the nominations? How might Netflix’s late acquisition of “To Kill a Tiger” affect the outcome? In what is considered a very tight race, what might tip the balance?
With his encyclopedic knowledge of the Oscars (you’ll even catch a reference to “How Green Was My Valley” in the pod) and his finger-on-the-pulse of the overall Awards season, Clayton takes us through each of the nominees and gives you his unique insights into the process.
Also, be sure to catch our “Top Docs” interviews with all of the Oscar-nominated directors in the documentary feature and shorts categories.
Clayton Davis is Variety’s Senior Awards Editor. He is also one of the hosts of the "Variety Awards Circuit Podcast" and the video web series, "The Take." He's been an awards, film and television analyst and critic for more than 15 years and has co-hosted the Oscars Pre-Show on ABC. Clayton is also co-founder and president of the Latino Entertainment Journalists Association and is a board member of the Critics Choice Association.
The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.
Follow:
@ByClaytonDavis on Instagram and twitter
@topdocspod on Instagram and twitter
Oscar Nominees:
Features:
20 Days in Mariupol
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger
Shorts:
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
The Last Repair Shop
Island In Between
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó (Grandma & Grandma)
Other recent documentaries discussed:
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
American Symphony
Beyond Utopia
Apolonia, Apolonia
Dick Johnson is Dead
Every Body
Little Richard: I am Everything
Flea
”Stamped from the Beginning” with Roger Ross Williams
Sundance 2024 Documentary Lineup Review with Basil Tsiokos
”32 Sounds” with Sam Green
”Apolonia, Apolonia” with Lea Glob
”Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy” with Susan Margolin & Simon Kilmurry
”Art for Everybody” with Miranda Yousef
Oscar Shortlist 2024 Breakdown with Anne Thompson
Emmy Nominations Breakdown with Scott Feinberg
”Little Richard: I am Everything” with Lisa Cortés
”American Symphony” with Matthew Heineman
”Smoke Sauna Sisterhood” with Anna Hints
”Anselm” with Wim Wenders
”Between Life and Death: Terri Schiavo’s Story” with Amanda Spain & Alex Waterfield
”Beyond Utopia” with Madeleine Gavin
”High on the Hog”, Season 2 with Karis Jagger & Fabienne Toback
”A Town Called Victoria” with Li Lu
”Sly” with Thom Zimny
”The Pigeon Tunnel” with Errol Morris
”Big Vape” with R.J. Cutler
”The Mission” with Amanda McBaine & Jesse Moss
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