Several music documentaries are among 169 features up for Academy Award nominations.
Music documents in the input list include; Elton John: Never too late; Eno (about Brian Eno) I am: Celine Dion; Indigo Girls: It's Only Life After All; Luther: Never too much (about Luther Vandross) Mad About the Boy – The Noel Coward Story; Music by John Williams; Piece by Piece (regarding Pharrell Williams) and The World According to Allee Willis.
John Williams is a five-time Oscar winner for his scores. Pharrell Williams has been nominated twice – best original song for “Happy from The Despicable Me 2 and as a best film producer nominee Hidden Figures. Elton John is a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Original Song.
The Greatest Night in Popthe Netflix film about the 1985 recording that produced “We Are the World,” is also on the eligible list. The highly decorated film was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction and is currently nominated for a Grammy for Best Musical.
Also eligible: Following Harry, about Harry Belafonte's social justice work. Studio One Forever (about the Los Angeles nightclub described as “America's first gay disco“) and Flipside (about a comical attempt to save a New Jersey record store).
Documents that are not musical, but adjacent to music, are suitable for the include category Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion, Jim Henson Idea Man and We remember Gene Wilder.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences notes that “Some of the films do not yet have the required qualifying release and must meet this requirement and comply with all other qualifying rules of the category in order to advance to the voting process.”
Members of the documentary industry vote to determine the list and nominees. The shortlist of 15 films will be announced on Tuesday 17 December.
The Academy also announced feature films eligible for consideration in the Feature Film and International Feature Film categories.
Thirty-one features are eligible for consideration in the animated feature film category. To determine the five nominees, members of the Animation industry are automatically eligible to vote in the category. Academy members outside of the Animation industry are invited to opt-in and must meet a minimum viewing requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.
Eighty-five countries or regions have submitted films eligible for consideration in the international feature film category. An international feature film is defined as a feature film (more than 40 minutes) produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue track. Academy members from all disciplines are invited to opt-in to participate in the preliminary round of voting and must meet a minimum screening requirement to be eligible to vote in the category.
Preliminary voting for the 97th Academy Awards will begin on Monday, December 9 and close on Friday, December 13. Shortlists in selected categories will be announced on Tuesday, December 17. Nominations will be announced on Friday, January 17.
The 97th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 2 at the Dolby Theater at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories around the world.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/awards/2025-oscar-nominations-for-documentary-feature-film-music-documentaries-eligible-1235835634/
