All Oscar Best Documentary Features on Netflix

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Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) poster
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Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity.

8.0 | 2021 | Movie | 118min See more at IMDb TMDB
My Octopus Teacher poster
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My Octopus Teacher

After years of swimming every day in the freezing ocean at the tip of Africa, Craig Foster meets an unlikely teacher: a young octopus who displays remarkable curiosity.

8.1 | 2020 | Movie | 85min See more at IMDb TMDB
American Factory poster
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American Factory

In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant, hiring two thousand blue-collar Americans.

7.4 | 2019 | Movie | 110min See more at IMDb TMDB
Free Solo poster
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Free Solo

Follow Alex Honnold as he attempts to become the first person to ever free solo climb Yosemite's 3,000 foot high El Capitan wall.

8.1 | 2018 | Movie | 100min See more at IMDb TMDB
Icarus poster
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Icarus

While investigating the furtive world of illegal doping in sports, director Bryan Fogel connects with renegade Russian scientist Dr. Grigory Rodchenkovโ€”a pillar of his countryโ€™s โ€œanti-dopingโ€ program.

7.9 | 2017 | Movie | 120min See more at IMDb TMDB
O.J.: Made in America poster
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O.J.: Made in America

The rise and fall of American football star, O.J.

8.9 | 2016 | Movie | 467min See more at IMDb TMDB
Amy poster
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Amy

A documentary on the life of Amy Winehouse, the immensely talented yet doomed songstress.

7.8 | 2015 | Movie | 128min See more at IMDb TMDB
20 Feet from Stardom poster
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20 Feet from Stardom

Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight.

7.4 | 2013 | Movie | 91min See more at IMDb TMDB
Searching for Sugar Man poster
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Searching for Sugar Man

Two South Africans set out to discover what happened to their unlikely musical hero, the mysterious 1970s rock 'n' roller, Rodriguez.

8.2 | 2012 | Movie | 86min See more at IMDb TMDB
Undefeated poster
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Undefeated

Set against the backdrop of a high school football season, Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martinโ€™s documentary UNDEFEATED is an intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student-athletes from inner-city Memphis and the volunteer coach trying to help them beat the odds on and off the field.

7.7 | 2011 | Movie | 113min See more at IMDb TMDB
Man on Wire poster
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Man on Wire

On August 7th 1974, French tightrope walker Philippe Petit stepped out on a high wire, illegally rigged between New York's World Trade Center twin towers, then the world's tallest buildings.

7.7 | 2008 | Movie | 94min See more at IMDb TMDB
Taxi to the Dark Side poster
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Taxi to the Dark Side

An in-depth look at the torture practices of the United States in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, focusing on an innocent taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed in 2002.

7.5 | 2007 | Movie | 106min See more at IMDb TMDB
An Inconvenient Truth poster
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An Inconvenient Truth

A documentary on Al Gore's campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide.

7.4 | 2006 | Movie | 96min See more at IMDb TMDB
Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids poster
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Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids

Documentary depicting the lives of child prostitutes in the red light district of Songachi, Calcutta.

7.2 | 2004 | Movie | 85min See more at IMDb TMDB
Bowling for Columbine poster
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Bowling for Columbine

This is not a film about gun control.

8.0 | 2002 | Movie | 120min See more at IMDb TMDB
Murder on a Sunday Morning poster
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Murder on a Sunday Morning

2001 French documentary about the murder trial of a 15 year old black teen accused of murder in Jacksonville, Florida.

8.0 | 2001 | Movie | 111min See more at IMDb TMDB
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport poster
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Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport

In the nine months prior to World War II, 10.000 innocent children left behind their families, their homes, their childhood, and took the journey... to Britain to escape the Nazi Holocaust.

7.7 | 2000 | Movie | 122min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Last Days poster
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The Last Days

Five Jewish Hungarians, now U.S. citizens, tell their stories: before March, 1944, when Nazis began to exterminate Hungarian Jews, months in concentration camps, and visiting childhood homes more than 50 years later.

7.9 | 1998 | Movie | 87min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Long Way Home poster
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The Long Way Home

The story of the post World War II Jewish refugee situation from liberation to the establishment of the modern state of Israel.

7.6 | 1997 | Movie | 120min See more at IMDb TMDB
When We Were Kings poster
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When We Were Kings

It's 1974.

8.0 | 1996 | Movie | 88min See more at IMDb TMDB
American Dream poster
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American Dream

When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair.

7.8 | 1990 | Movie | 98min See more at IMDb TMDB
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt poster
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Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt

On the eve of 1987's Second National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, surviving families and friends of people who have died of AIDS prepare panels to be added to a large-scale memorial quilt project.

8.1 | 1989 | Movie | 79min See more at IMDb TMDB
Hรดtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie poster
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Hรดtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie

Winner of a Best Documentary Academy Award, Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon."

7.6 | 1988 | Movie | 267min See more at IMDb TMDB
Down and Out in America poster
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Down and Out in America

Three sectors of American society hit by recession in the mid-1980s: heartland farms, factory workers out of a job, and the new homeless.

7.2 | 1986 | Movie | 57min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Times of Harvey Milk poster
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The Times of Harvey Milk

Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and one of the first openly gay U.S. politicians elected to public office; even after his assassination in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.

8.2 | 1984 | Movie | 90min See more at IMDb TMDB
Genocide poster
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Genocide

The mass murder of Jewish people by the Nazi regime is chronicled, with a warning that anti-Semitism is on the rise and the events of the Holocaust could happen again.

7.3 | 1982 | Movie | 90min See more at IMDb TMDB
From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China poster
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From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China

A beautiful expression of two differing cultures brought together by the warmth and dedication of a great musician and humanitarian.

7.5 | 1979 | Movie | 84min See more at IMDb TMDB
Best Boy poster
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Best Boy

In this documentary, the director follows the day-to-day activities of his retarded, middle-aged cousin Philly, over a three-year period.

7.8 | 1979 | Movie | 111min See more at IMDb TMDB
Harlan County U.S.A. poster
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Harlan County U.S.A.

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973.

8.2 | 1976 | Movie | 103min See more at IMDb TMDB
Hearts and Minds poster
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Hearts and Minds

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people.

8.2 | 1974 | Movie | 112min See more at IMDb TMDB
Marjoe poster
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Marjoe

Part documentary, part expose, this film follows one-time child evangelist Marjoe Gortner on the "church tent" Revivalist circuit, commenting on the showmanship of Evangelism and "the religion business", prior to the start of "televangelism".

7.5 | 1972 | Movie | 88min See more at IMDb TMDB
Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World poster
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Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World

The acclaimed poet is examined in this film completed just prior to his death at age 88, with his speaking engagements at Amherst and Sarah Lawrence Colleges intercut with studies of his work, as well as with scenes of his life in rural Vermont and personal reminiscences about his career.

6.5 | 1963 | Short | 41min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Unconquered poster
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The Unconquered

Narrated by actress Katharine Cornell and filmed in black and white, it spends the first 24 minutes introducing viewers, through newsreels, interviews, and old photographs, to the story of the deaf and blind disabled-rights pioneer.

7.5 | 1954 | Movie | 55min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Vanishing Prairie poster
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The Vanishing Prairie

Story of the American Prairie as it was when vast herds of bison and elk grazed.

7.2 | 1954 | Movie | 71min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Living Desert poster
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The Living Desert

Although first glance reveals little more than stones and sand, the desert is alive.

7.4 | 1953 | Movie | 69min See more at IMDb TMDB
I Was a Communist for the FBI poster
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I Was a Communist for the FBI

A fact-based story about a man who posed as an American Communist for years as part of a secret plan to infiltrate their organization.

6.1 | 1951 | Movie | 83min See more at IMDb TMDB
Kon-Tiki poster
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Kon-Tiki

"Kon-Tiki" was the name of a wooden raft used by six Scandinavian scientists, led by Thor Heyerdahl, to make a 101-day journey from South America to the Polynesian Islands.

7.9 | 1950 | Movie | 77min See more at IMDb TMDB
The True Glory poster
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The True Glory

A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen.

7.0 | 1945 | Movie | 87min See more at IMDb TMDB
Desert Victory poster
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Desert Victory

A featureless land fit only for war, as the narrator, J. L. Hodson stated in the early scenes: "If war was to be fought then let it begin here".

6.4 | 1943 | Movie | 60min See more at IMDb TMDB
Why We Fight: Prelude to War poster
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Why We Fight: Prelude to War

Prelude to War was the first film of Frank Capra's Why We Fight propaganda film series, commissioned by the Pentagon and George C. Marshall.

7.0 | 1942 | Movie | 52min See more at IMDb TMDB
The Battle of Midway poster
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The Battle of Midway

The Japanese attack on Midway in June 1942, filmed as it happened.

6.1 | 1942 | Short | 18min See more at IMDb TMDB