Canadian filmmaker Peter Raymont's latest documentary will vie against films by Michael Moore and Phil Donahue in the race to the Oscars next February.
The U.S. Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Monday a whittled-down list of 15 films now competing for one of the five nominee spots in the best documentary feature category for the upcoming Academy Awards.
Raymont made the cut for A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, a biography of the Chilean poet, novelist, essayist and playwright who was forced into exile following Augusto Pinochet's military coup.
Sicko, Moore's skewering of the U.S. health care system, is the highest-profile film and the biggest box-office hit on the list.
Body of War, co-directed by talk show pioneer Donahue and Ellen Spiro, is among a block of contenders dealing with the Iraq War. Others are Charles Gerguson's No End in Sight, Richard Robbins' Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience and Taxi to the Dark Side, directed by Alex Gibney.
A trio of films dealing with the Second World War are also on the list: Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's film Nanking, Steven Okazaki's White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and The Rape of Europa, from trio Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen and Nicole Newnham.
The tally includes a number of films about topical issues, such as Tony Kaye's abortion film Lake of Fire, Daniel G. Karslake's exploration of religious attitudes and homosexuality in For the Bible Tells Me So and Please Vote for Me, a film exploring democracy in China through the lens of a primary school class monitor election.
Rounding out the list are Tricia Regan's Autism: the Musical, Andrea Nix's War/Dance and Bill Haney's The Price of Sugar.
Two notable titles failed to make the list:Â Jonathan Demme's Jimmy Carter portrait Man From Plains and Amir Bar-Levin's My Kid Could Paint That.
The five Oscar nominees will be announced with finalists for the other categories on Jan. 22.
The 80th annual Academy Awards gala is set for Feb. 24.
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