What Makes An Oscar-Winning Documentary?
Awards season is officially underway and with five must-see documentaries on this year’s list of Academy Award nominees, The ShowRoom Cinema’s Michael Sodano and Nancy Sabino are dishing about what makes a good documentary!
With experience from behind the lens as directors of the documentaries “Greetings from the Parking Lot” and “Rock and a Heart Place,” and in front of the big screen as art house cinema owners, Sodano and Sabino know that four key ingredients are integral to any engaging, provocative documentary:
- A compelling story arc that chronicles the evolution of a character or subject matter
- The ability for the audience to identify with the main character or subject
- The filmmaker’s ability to gain access to the subject or main character in a way no one else has previously achieved
- The germaneness of the documentary subject to today’s world
Despite varying subject matters ranging from the mysterious 1970s rock ‘n’ roller Rodriguez, the AIDS epidemic, and the Israeli Shin Bet, to a Palestinian farmer and his non-violent resistance to the Israeli army, and issues surrounding the rape of soldiers in the U.S. military, the underlying themes listed above have engaged audiences from around the world, along with the Academy.
Sodano and Sabino are available to discuss what makes an Academy Award-winning documentary in further detail and what attracts audiences to these films. The ShowRoom Cinema is currently screening the Academy Award-nominated documentary “Searching for Sugarman.” For more information on the theater, visit www.TheShowRoomAP.com.
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