Oscar Snubs Michael Moore, "Anvil!"
By CBSNews.com producer David Morgan
Michael Moore's muckraking "Capitalism: A Love Story" may have been a hit with moviegoers, but it's a miss with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences...and Muhammad Ali, who hasn't boxed since 1981, knocked Mike Tyson out of the running.
The highest-grossing documentary this year, "Capitalism" was missing from the short list of documentary features that will compete for this year's Oscar, which was announced last night.
Moore won the Academy Award for his 2002 documentary "Bowling for Columbine," and was nominated for 2007's "Sicko."
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Other high-profile films missing from this year's shortlist were "Tyson," James Toback's profile of the life of boxer Mike Tyson; "We Live in Public," a revealing look at the Internet pioneer Josh Harris and the loss of privacy in a digital age; and two music-related documentaries: "It Might Get Loud," tracing the lives of guitarists Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White; and "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," about the "demigods of Canadian metal."
Selections are made by the Academy's Documentary Branch Screening Committee, which viewed all 89 eligible films. Members of the Documentary Branch will now screen the 15 short-listed titles to select the five nominees.
The 15 films are:
• "The Beaches of Agnes" - A self-portrait by French director Agnès Varda reflecting on life, art and cinema.
• "Burma VJ" - Anders Østergaard's compilation of video footage smuggled out of Myanmar documenting the 2007 protests against the military regime, and the resulting crackdown;
• "The Cove" - Louie Psihoyos' expose of a Japanese fishing village's slaughter of dolphins;
• "Every Little Step" - James Stern and Adam Del Deo's behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the Broadway classic "A Chorus Line";
• "Facing Ali" - Former opponents of boxing champ Muhammad Ali describe the experience of staring up from the mat (Pete McCormack, director);
• "Food, Inc. " - Robert Kenner's unflinching look at the mechanized, corporatized food industry, not to be watched right before dinner;
• "Garbage Dreams: Raised in the Trash Trade" - Mai Iskander's examination of teenage Egyptians who survive by recycling the refuse of Cairo;
• "Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders" - Director Mark Hopkins follows four volunteer doctors operating in the war zones of Liberia and Congo;
• "The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers" - Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith's story of the Pentagon official whose leaking of classified documents to The New York Times helped turn the tide of public opinion on the Vietnam War;
• "Mugabe and the White African" - A film shot covertly in Zimbabwe about the human rights case brought against the country's president by a white farmer seeking to protect his property;
• "Sergio" - Greg Barker's story of U.N. Special Representative to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the 2003 bombing of the Canal Hotel in Baghdad;
• "Soundtrack for a Revolution" - Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman's film of how "freedom songs," sung at protests, picket lines, black churches and prison cells, told the story of the American civil rights movement;
• "Under Our Skin" - Andy Abrahams Wilson's study of the epidemic of Lyme disease, and of how thousands go un- or misdiagnosed;
• "Valentino: The Last Emperor" - Matt Tyrnauer's profile of the legendary haute couture designer Valentino Garavani; and
• "Which Way Home" - The journey of child migrants from Mexico trying to reach their parents in the United States, directed by Rebecca Cammisa.
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards will be announced Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010, at 8:30 a.m. ET. The Oscars will be presented on Sunday, March 7.