Oscar Gives Michael Moore's Love Story the Shaft

Capitalism: A Love Story, Tyson and The September Issue do not make the Best Documentary short list. So what did?

By Natalie Finn Nov 19, 2009 2:15 AMTags
Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael MooreParamount Vantage

Oscar won't be tacking a happy ending onto Capitalism: A Love Story.

Michael Moore's latest diatribe against the powers that be, this one directed at Wall Street and the government that let it run amok, did not make the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' short list of films that still have a shot at winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

Instead, the eye-opening Food, Inc. is the top muckracker of the bunch, joining Facing Ali (but not Tyson) and Valentino: The Last Emperor (but not The September Issue) in the in-between stage of Oscar consideration.

Of 89 feature-length docs submitted, 15 made the list, most of them focusing on international politics and global issues, such as illegal immigration (Which Way Home) and cultural oppression in Zimbabwe (Mugabe and the White African).

Moore's Bowling for Columbine, his stab at U.S. gun-control policy, was named Best Documentary in 2003, and Sicko, about the state of health care in the U.S., scored a nomination last year. But the Academy stayed far, far away from his 2004 blockbuster, Fahrenheit 9/11, perhaps not wanting to encourage another "Shame on you, Mr. Bush" speech so soon after the first one.

Check out which 15 documentaries are in the running for Hollywood's highest honor after the jump:

The Beaches of Agnes
Burma VJ
The Cove
Every Little Step
Facing Ali
Food, Inc.
Garbage Dreams
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Mugabe and the White African
Sergio
Soundtrack for a Revolution
Under Our Skin
Valentino: The Last Emperor
Which Way Home

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The Academy Awards will be upon us before we know it. Check out which animated films from 2009 still have a shot at Oscar right here.