Twelve stories from 2012 that inspired, thrilled and surprised us. A recap of the year in documentary news.

Watch The Barber of Birmingham, Sin País and other documentary shorts free online while you can!

Nerd out to our infographic of the top documentaries of 2011, based on lists from critics, documentary festivals, industry organizations and online voting!

Doc Soup Man Tom Roston's Documentary Oscar streak is over, but he's planning a come back next year with a new standard for predicting the winner.

Who will win? Doc Soup Man has picked it for four years running. But this year, he says, is one of the closest races in years.

The Oscar®-nominated documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (POV 2011) is streaming for a limited time on POV's website.

The Academy has announced its nominees for 2011's Best Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject, which includes two POV films: If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front and The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement.

Media reports suggest that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences will be announcing new rules connected to the documentary Oscars this week, including the use of The New York Times and Los Angeles Times as eligibility sieves. Guest blogger Edward J. Delaney considers the impact of the move.

POV is counting down the top documentary stories of 2011 on New Year's Eve 2012.

According to who you ask, the best documentary of 2011 could have been one of 67 films. Could it be The Interrupters? Nostalgia for the Light? Project Nim? Cave of Forgotten Dreams? We've constructed a handy graphic to help you make your own decision.

Let’s be totally reductive for a moment, and say that there are two kinds of documentary-lovers: those who enjoy watching the Oscars and those who don’t. I am very much the former, and often when I bring up my interest in the Academy Awards, I am slapped around for my interest in such commercial puffery. […]

It’s been said many times before — heck, I’ve said it more times than I could count — that truth is stranger than fiction. But that doesn’t mean that fiction can’t sometimes trump truth. Take, for example, the retelling of Aron Ralston’s (pictured, far right) true-life story of falling in a canyon in Utah and […]

To paraphrase: If it walks like a doc and it quacks like a doc, then it must be a doc. . . Right? Exit Through the Gift Shop has been running roughshod with this notion, tripping on it, but nevertheless catapulting forward, ever since its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January. And after […]

Leaves have fallen and there’s a nip in the air… which means, it must be movie awards season. Yes, in recent weeks, we’ve seen nomination lists released from three outlets: the International Documentary Association, the Gotham Awards and the Cinema Eye Honors. Here are their nominations for Best Doc Feature: Cinema Eye Honors Armadillo — […]

This week, we take a look back at SXSW and a look forward at New Directors/New Films ’10 and the Full Frame Film Festival. Filmmakers, interactive folks, musicians and more converged on the 2010 South by Southwest Festival this past weekend. POV’s interactive director, Theresa Riley, attended the film and interactive portions of the festival, […]

After watching last night’s exciting win for Kathryn Bigelow and realizing that today is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day, I found myself wondering who had been the first woman director to win Best Documentary? And for that matter, how many documentaries directed by women have won Oscars in the history of the Academy […]

Hollywood’s biggest night was not, sadly, documentary film’s finest hour. The 2010 Oscar ceremony will be most remembered for how The Hurt Locker trumped Avatar, and how Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director award. But, for documentary fans, it may be remembered for a couple of missed opportunities. Things certainly […]

Watch this Sunday’s Oscar ceremonies for mentions of two POV films nominated in the Best Documentary Feature category — Food, Inc. and The Most Dangerous Man in America. Food, Inc. airs on PBS next month.