UPDATED: We now have all the feature documentary trailers, and you can also watch If a Tree Falls on POV’s website for a limited time…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced its nominees for 2011’s Best Documentary Feature.

We’re forgetting the brouhaha over how best to reform the Academy’s documentary nomination process for a moment so we can be excited about which documentaries were selected as official Oscar nominees. It’s especially exciting for us at POV, because Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman’s If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, which we aired in 2011, is one of the five.

Here’s the list, announced this morning (at 5:30 AM for those L.A. journalists the film industry loves!):

Nominees for Best Documentary Feature

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (POV 2011)
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman


Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

(And, mark your calendars… Hell and Back Again is set to air on PBS’s Independent Lens in May 2012!)

Undefeated
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

Pina
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

And here’s the list of nominees for Documentary Short Subject, which includes Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin’s The Barber of Birmingham, a film you’ll see on POV later in 2012.

Nominees for Documentary Short Subject

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (POV 2012)
Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin

God is the Bigger Elvis
Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson

There’s no trailer yet for this short, but you can watch an interview with Dolores Hart, the subject of God is the Bigger Elvis, on ABC’s “20/20” for a hint of what’s coming.

Incident in New Baghdad
James Spione

Saving Face
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Find out who wins Best Feature Documentary and Documentary Short Subject at the 84th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26, 2012.

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POV Staff
POV Staff
POV (a cinema term for "point of view") is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 400 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues.