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The Eagle Huntress on Oscar doc shortlist

 

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The Eagle Huntress is among the films included on the Academy Award shortlist for Best Documentary Feature at the the 89th Academy Awards.  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Documentary Branch determined the shortlist from 145 submitted feature-length documentary films.  The nominees will be announced on Jan. 24 and the Academy Awards ceremony takes place on Feb. 26 in Los Angeles.

The Eagle Huntress, directed by Otto Bell and produced in association with Shine Global, has also recently been nominated for a Producer’s Guild of America (PGA) Award and was named as one of the top 5 documentaries of the year by the National Board of Review in addition to many festival awards and critical acclaim.  The documentary premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January where it was bought by Sony Pictures Classics and features narration by Star Wars star Daisy Ridley and an original song by Sia.  It is now playing in select cinemas across the US and opening shortly in the UK.

When Shine Global first became attached to the film during principal photography, Shine’s Executive Director Susan MacLaury, who is also  an Executive Producer on the film, said, “We wanted to become involved in this film as soon as we heard the inspirational story of Aisholpan and saw the beautiful and sensitive way Otto was telling her story.”

The 15 shortlisted films are:

Cameraperson, Kirsten Johnson; Big Mouth Productions
Command and Control, Robert Kenner; American Experience Films/PBS
The Eagle Huntress, Otto Bell; Stacey Reiss Productions, Kissiki Films and 19340 Productions
Fire at Sea, Gianfranco Rosi; Stemal Entertainment
Gleason, J. Clay Tweel; Dear Rivers Productions, Exhibit A and IMG Films
Hooligan Sparrow, Nanfu Wang; Little Horse Crossing the River
I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck; Velvet Film
The Ivory Game, Kief Davidson, Richard Ladkani;Terra Mater Film Studios and Vulcan Productions
Life, Animated, Roger Ross Williams; Motto Pictures and A&E IndieFilms
O.J.: Made in America, Ezra Edelman; Laylow Films and ESPN Films
13th, Ava DuVernay; Forward Movement
Tower, Keith Maitland; Go-Valley
Weiner, Josh Kriegman, Elyse Steinberg; Edgeline Films
The Witness, James Solomon; The Witnesses Film
Zero Days, Alex Gibney; Jigsaw Productions