Documentaries at the Oscars: A History of Breaking Out of Their Category — and What It Means for ‘You Can See Everything’

By Clayton Davis

Clayton Davis

Chief Awards Editor

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• Documentaries at the Oscars: A History of Breaking Out of Their Category — and What It Means for ‘You Can See Everything’ 9 minutes ago
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A documentary is a film, too. But at the Oscars, it still hasn’t been fully embraced as one.

One of the breakout hits of the awards season is A24’s insanely entertaining “You Can See Everything” from directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, which had a surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September and opened in theaters Oct. 16, grossing nearly $80 million at the domestic box office through its fourth weekend. Many professional pundits and awards enthusiasts are predicting the film will make history as the first documentary feature to land a best picture nomination. So we looked at the history of nonfiction films at the Academy Awards to see which movies have been embraced by the various branches and categories (some now defunct) over the years and what that history says about the film’s chances.

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