2017 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary

When Andrew Briggman—a young soldier in the US invasion of Afghanistan—witnesses other recruits killing innocent civilians under the direction of a sadistic Sergeant, he considers reporting them to higher-ups. However, the heavily-armed and increasingly-violent platoon becomes suspicious that someone in their ranks has turned on them, and Andrew begins to fear that he'll be the next target.

In 1994, a South African photojournalist received the Pulitzer Prize for his picture of a starving girl stalked by a vulture. Weeks later, he carried out a terrible, desperate act--an act that embodied the anguish of an entire nation.

In 2010, the media branded a platoon of U.S. Army infantry soldiers “The Kill Team” following reports of its killing for sport in Afghanistan. Now, one of the accused must fight the government he defended on the battlefield, while grappling with his own role in the alleged murders. Dan Krauss’s absorbing documentary examines the stories of four men implicated in heinous war crimes in a stark reminder that, in war, innocence may be relative to the insanity around you.

Forensic investigators use modern science to solve the mystery of the missing Romanov family.

At the heart of the HIV/AIDs crisis and widespread hysteria, a single number and letter designated a ward on the fifth floor of San Francisco General Hospital, the first in the country designed specifically to deal with AIDS patients. The unit's nurses' emphasis on humanity and consideration of holistic well-being was a small miracle amidst a devastating crisis and the ensuing panic about risk and infection.

Wells Fargo was long seen as the 'golden child' of banking. But former employees detail the ruthless and fraudulent practices that fueled its growth.

A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.

Days after 9/11, letters containing fatal anthrax spores spark panic and tragedy in the US. This documentary follows the subsequent FBI investigation.

As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.

How would natural habitats develop without human interference? In this documentary we follow an international team of scientists and explorers on an extraordinary mission in Mozambique to reach a forest that no human has set foot in. The team aims to collect data from the forest to help our understanding of how climate change is affecting our planet. But the forest sits atop a mountain, and to reach it, the team must first climb a sheer 100m wall of rock.

Activists and volunteers work through the darkest days of 2020, galvanizing social change amidst chaos as governments start to fail local communities. This epic, globally spanning and deeply passionate documentary serves as a clarion call that great change can be born of crisis.

The Miagi Orchestra is a South African orchestra dedicated to helping the nation overcome decades of violence, conflict and division through the power of music. The film follows two of its musicians: Tsepo Pooe, who grew up in Soweto Township; and Lize Schaap, who grew up in wealthy Pretoria. Through their eyes, and differing experiences of growing up in South Africa, we understand the enormous impact apartheid continues to have, but also see hope for a brighter future for the country. The Miagi Orchestra’s mission is inspired by the work and legacy of Nelson Mandela, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.

In war-torn South Sudan, Makur Diet knows all too well the horror of conflict. Over ten years ago, he lost his leg to a bullet. Makur was close to giving up, until one day he was given a prosthetic leg, and with it a new lease of life.

In an area of Iraq destroyed by ISIS, Hana Khider leads an all-female team of Yazidi deminers in their attempts to clear the land of mines. Their job involves painstakingly searching for booby traps in bombed out buildings and fields, where one wrong move means certain death. Hana works for the Mines Advisory Group, an organization who are part of the ‘International Campaign to Ban Landmines’, a coalition awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997.

Lost and Found provides an in-depth focus into the Myanmar military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and violence perpetrated against the Rohingya, and one man’s life mission to reunite separated Rohingya children with their parents.

Haunted by the suicide of a brother, a director and his kin walk across the UK in an emotionally trying, visually sublime journey toward healing.

Grain Media and Burn Energy Drink tell the story of snowboarding through the eyes of the people who made it happen. From its origins in the culturally shifting 1960s, to its boom in the 90s, to its acceptance as a mainstream sport, snowboarding has had a roller coaster history. A fully immersive archive film narrated by Jason Lee and a cast of dozens of snowboarders, We Ride: The Story of Snowboarding is the first feature film to tell the story of how this outsiders' sport became huge.

Virunga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is Africa’s oldest national park, a UNESCO world heritage site, and a contested ground among insurgencies seeking to topple the government that see untold profits in the land. Among this ongoing power struggle, Virunga also happens to be the last natural habitat for the critically endangered mountain gorilla. The only thing standing in the way of the forces closing in around the gorillas: a handful of passionate park rangers and journalists fighting to secure the park’s borders and expose the corruption of its enemies. Filled with shocking footage, and anchored by the surprisingly deep and gentle characters of the gorillas themselves, Virunga is a galvanizing call to action around an ongoing political and environmental crisis in the Congo.

A 91-year-old Polish Holocaust survivor donates his violin of 70 years to a local instrument drive, changing the life of a 12-year-old schoolgirl from the nation’s poorest congressional district, and unexpectedly, his own.

A coast guard captain on a small Greek island is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea.

Driven by the problem of marine plastic pollution, two designers collect nets from the bottom of the sea and, with 3D-printing, transform them into symbols of marine beauty.

Obsessively referring to the traumas and wounds that the Spanish civil war (1936-39) and Franco's dictatorship (1939-75) caused in their day no longer serves to explain the impassable abyss of incomprehension and hatred that the abject policies and radical positions adopted by both the right and the left in recent decades have opened up before the citizens of a country that is barely known beyond hackneyed cultural clichés.

As Western forces withdraw, Afghanistan's youngest female mayor braves mortal danger to lead a fight for education for the next generation of Afghans.

The story of one family's fight and struggle to survive the Syrian Civil War. Having lost her husband, the mother makes the heart achingly painful decision to leave her homeland, in search of safety and a brighter future for her children. Filmed over three years, the film chronicles the family's journey from the front-line in Aleppo, to a little town in Germany. Escaping the chaos and terror of their war torn homeland becomes a catalyst for a different kind of struggle; the struggle to understand your past and accept your present, to adapt to a new life, to hold on to hope, and the idea of belonging to a homeland.

A startling portrait of everyday life in a war zone, through the eyes of children.

The story of four children from families who survived war-torn Aleppo and try to start a new life in Germany.

The story of five young children whose lives have been changed forever by the civil war in Syria.