Annal:2007 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Academy Award® in the year 2007. For a ranked list of films, try an honor roll:
An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning
- 2007 Oscar-Documentary winner
- Score: 10.57
Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Al Gore’s personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic if we don’t act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the viewer shaken, involved and inspired.
Deliver Us from Evil: Innocence and Faith Betrayed
- 2007 Oscar-Documentary nominee
- Score: 6.57
Deliver Us From Evil is the story of Father Oliver O’Grady, the most notorious pedophile in the history of the modern Catholic Church. Completely lacking in moral fiber and devoid of any sense of shame or guilt, O’Grady used his charm and authority to violate dozens of faithful Catholic families across Northern California for more than two decades. His victims ranged from a nine month-old infant to the middle-aged mother of another adolescent victim.
Despite early warning signs and complaints from several parishes, the Church, in an elaborate shell game designed to avoid liability and deflect criticism, lied to parishioners and local law enforcement, while continuing to move O’Grady from parish to parish.
Over the years, O’Grady successfully exploited mothers and fathers in order to get to their children. His penchant for sexual mayhem was as essential to him as breathing, and internal Church documents prove that since 1973, he raped and sodomized with the full knowledge of his Catholic superiors.
Remarkably, Deliver Us From Evil filmmaker Amy Berg tracked down Father…
- 2007 Oscar-Documentary nominee
- Score: 6.57
Iraq In Fragments illuminates post‐war Iraq in three acts, building a vivid picture of a country pulled in different directions by religion and ethnicity. Filmed in verité style, with no scripted narration, the film powerfully explores the lives of ordinary Iraqis: people whose thoughts, beliefs, aspirations, and concerns are at once personal and illustrative of larger issues in Iraq today．
Part One follows Mohammed Haithem, an 11 ‐year ‐old auto mechanic in the mixed Sheik Omar neighborhood in the heart of old Baghdad. With his father missing, Mohammed idolizes his domineering boss, working feverishly for approval and affection. Several years behind in school and waylaid by war’s intervention, he’s torn between education and apprenticeship. Through Mohammed’s eyes we see a growing disenchantment with the U.S.‐led occupation, well as tensions between Shia and Sunni Iraqis. Shown in ed’s Baghdad is a city caught between an idealized past, a dangerous present, and an uncertain future.
Part Two is filmed inside the Shiite political/religious movement of Moqtada…
Jesus Camp: America is Being Born Again
- 2007 Oscar-Documentary nominee
- Score: 6.57
Jesus Camp, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady (The Boys of Baraka), follows Levi, Rachael, and Tory, to Pastor Becky Fischer's “Kids on Fire” summer camp in Devil's Lake, North Dakota, where kids as young as 6 years-old are taught to become dedicated Christian soldiers in “God’s army.”
The film follows these children at camp as they hone their “prophetic gifts” and are schooled in how to “take back America for Christ.” It is a first-ever look into an intense training ground that recruits born-again Christian children to become an active part of America’s political future. The film also features a counterpoint, in the form of excerpts from Michael Papantonio’s “Ring of Fire” show on NPR’s Air America. Though he frequently takes aim at the fundamentalist Christian movement, Papantonio is an active Methodist who admits that his moral compass comes from his faith.
- 2007 Oscar-Documentary nominee
- Score: 6.57
Working alone in Iraq over eight months, American filmmaker Laura Poitras follows Iraqi physician Dr. Riyadhfather of six and Sunni political candidate—for an unforgettable journey into the heart of war-ravaged Iraq in the months leading up to the January 2005 elections. An outspoken critic of the occupation, Dr. Riyadh is equally passionate about building democracy in Iraq. Yet all around him, he sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence. Dramatically interwoven into his personal journey is the landscape of U.S. military occupation, Australian private security contractors, and the U.N. officials who orchestrated the elections. Luminously photographed and emotionally complex, My Country, My Country captures the downward spiral of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.
