Docu-what-ery? For shame

This is the list of the 15 documentaries that have made it into the final round:

At the Death House Door
The Betrayal
Blessed Is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh
Encounters at the End of the World (Werner Herzog alert)
Fuel
The Garden
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
I.O.U.S.A.
In a Dream
Made in America
the great Man on Wire
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
Standard Operating Procedure (Errol Morris alert)
They Killed Sister Dorothy
Trouble the Water

I'll preface any or all analysis here by stating that I have not seen any of the films mentioned.
Sue me.

However, I did see one that isn't on the list (Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired), and quite frankly, I thought it was superb. It was a very sharp and intense examination of the Polanski case, and I think it documented the case, while adding a hint of humanity to Polanski as a human being, quite well.

It didn't make the cut.

If those fifteen selected films are better than that one, color me surprised. Very surprised, indeed. Somehow, though, I don't think that will be the case.

I whole-heartedly agree with Jeffrey Wells here. He himself has seen, to my knowledge, one of the films and says in no indirect words that the Polanski doc should have made the cut because it was better.

In any case, the Herzog and Morris ones should be the two big kahunas in the race, but that still remains to be seen. Most renown director ≠ best film. Sometimes even the latter is, apparently, not enough to get into the academy race. But hey, what's new?

--DM