Geeta Gandbhir Leads The 2026 Oscar Nominations For Documentaries

12 documentary features and shorts now compete for Academy Awards.

Jan 22, 2026

The nominees for the 98th annual Academy Awards were announced this morning, with 12 different documentaries among those recognized. Five contenders each were named in the Documentary Feature Film and Documentary Short Film categories, with two more honored in the Music (Original Song) category.

Notable Oscar nominees in 2026 (honoring films released in 2025) include Geeta Gandbhir, who directed two of the nominees: Documentary Feature Film contender The Perfect Neighbor and Documentary Short Film contender The Devil is Busy (the latter co-directed with Christalyn Hampton). Otherwise, Gandbhir is a first-time Oscar nominee, as are most of the filmmakers in her category

The handful of return nominees includes one of The Alabama Solution directors, Andrew Jarecki, who was previously recognized by the Academy 22 years ago with his feature debut, Capturing the Friedmans. He is the only one back this year in the Documentary Feature Film category.

All the Empty Rooms directors Joshua Seftel and Conall Jones were previously nominated in the Documentary Short Film category three years ago with Stranger at the Gate. The legendary Sheila Nevins, who is nominated as the producer of the short Children No More: Were and Are Gone, was a nominee in the category two years ago as one of the nominees of The ABCs of Book Burning.

Of course, Dianne Warren earned her 17th Oscar nomination, this time for an original song written for the documentary about her, Dianne Warren: Relentless. She isn’t likely to win this time either, but she did receive an Honorary Oscar a few years ago.

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While there were some surprise omissions in the Documentary Feature category, including our favorite film of the year, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, and the lengthy My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 - Last Air in Moscow, it’s great to see our number three doc of last year, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, which was just finally released yesterday.

In all, only three of the five Documentary Feature Film nominees (and documentary nominees in total) previously appeared on our list of the best documentaries of 2025. Only two of the features were previously nominated at the 2025 Critics Choice Documentary Awards (which I produce). And only two of the shorts matched up with that event’s Best Short Documentary nominees.

The Perfect Neighbor is only the third winner of the Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature since the start of the CCDAs to be nominated for an Oscar. Is the curse broken? We’ll have to see if the overlap continues next year. And we’ll have to see if it wins the Oscar too.

It’s not included below (I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m unsure if I’d consider it suited for this site), but I also want to acknowledge the Cinema Eye-winning hybrid film The Voice of Hind Rajab, which was nominated for Best International Feature Film. Its director, Kaouther Ben Hania, and producer, Nadim Cheikhrouha, were previously nominated in the Documentary Feature Film category in 2023 with Four Daughters.

Here are this year’s documentary Oscar nominees (and where to watch them):