This is a list of films by year that have received an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announced and presented early in the following year. Copies of every winning film (along with copies of most nominees) are held by the

Academy Film Archive The Academy Film Archive is part of the Academy Foundation, established in 1944 with the purpose of organizing and overseeing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ educational and cultural activities, including the preservation of m ...

. Ten films are shortlisted before nominations are announced.

Rules and eligibility

Per the recent rules of the

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS, often pronounced ; also known as simply the Academy or the Motion Picture Academy) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motio ...

(AMPAS), a Short Subject Documentary is defined as a nonfiction motion picture "dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects". It may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact, and not on fiction. It must have a run time of no more than 40 minutes and released during a special eligibility period which may vary from year to year, but generally begins the month of October of the prior year and ends in September of the award year. (This eligibility differs from most other Academy Award categories which only includes films released between January and December of the award year.) The documentary's release must also occur within two years of the film's completion, and there are also rules governing the formatting of audio and video used to produce and exhibit the picture. In addition, to be eligible the film must meet one of the following criteria: * complete a commercial showing of at least 7 days in either Los Angeles County, California or anywhere in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

before being released to other non-theatrical venues such as

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

or TV; or * regardless of any public exhibition or nontheatrical release the film must have won a qualifying award at a competitive film festival, as specified by the Academy; or * win a Gold, Silver or Bronze Medal award in the Documentary category of the Academy's Student Academy Award Competition. The film must run daily for seven days, open to the public for paid admission, and must be advertised in one of the city's major circulars during its run, with screening times included. Additionally, the film must be shown at least once during every day of its qualifying run. Unlike the Best Documentary Feature award, whose rules mandate at least one screening starting between noon and 10 pm local time on each day of the qualifying run, there is no restriction on the start time of any screening. The film must have narration or dialogue primarily in English or with English subtitles, and must be the whole of an original work. Partial edits from larger works and episodes from serialized films are not eligible. Eligibility rules for prior years may have differed from these.

Nomination process

The Documentary Branch of the Academy first votes to select ten pictures for preliminary nomination, after which a second round of balloting is conducted to select the five documentary nominees. The entire Academy membership will then vote for one of these five for the Oscar. A maximum of two people involved with the production of the documentary may be nominated for the award, one of whom must be the film's credited director. One producer may also be nominated, but if more than one non-director producer is credited the Academy Documentary Branch will vet the producers to select the one they believe was most involved in the creation of the film.

Winners and nominees

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Multiple wins

Individuals with multiple wins

;3 wins *

Charles Guggenheim Charles Eli Guggenheim (March 31, 1924 – October 9, 2002) was an American documentary film director, producer, and screenwriter. He was the most honored documentary filmmaker in the academy history, winning four Oscars from twelve nominations ...

;2 wins * Malcolm Clarke *

Walt Disney Walter Elias Disney (; December 5, 1901December 15, 1966) was an American animator, film producer and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film p ...

Bill Guttentag Bill Guttentag is an American dramatic and documentary film writer-producer-director. His films have premiered at the Sundance, Cannes, Telluride and Tribeca film festivals, and he has won two Academy Awards. Career Guttentag won an Oscar for ...

Robin Lehman Robin Lehman (born Robert Owen Lehman Jr.; December 3, 1936) is an American documentary filmmaker best known for his short films '' Don't'' (1974) and '' The End of the Game'' (1975), which received consecutive Academy Awards for Best Documenta ...

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy ( ur, ; born 12 November 1978) is a Pakistani-Canadian journalist, filmmaker and activist known for her work in films that highlight the inequality with women. She is the recipient of two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awa ...

Studios with multiple wins

;4 wins *

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

;3 wins *

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October 1 ...

Individuals with multiple nominations

;9 nominations *

;4 nominations *

Karen Goodman Karen Goodman is an American film and television director and producer, best known for her work on various documentaries. She has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category four times for '' The Childre ...

* Freida Lee Mock ;3 nominations * George Casey *

Thomas Lennon Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!'' Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...

* ''

The March of Time ''The March of Time'' is an American newsreel series sponsored by Time Inc. and shown in movie theaters from 1935 to 1951. It was based on a radio news series broadcast from 1931 to 1945. The "voice" of both series was Westbrook Van Voorhis. ...

'' * Herbert Morgan *

* Steven Okazaki * DeWitt L. Sage Jr. *

Terry Sanders Terry Sanders (born December 20, 1931) is an American filmmaker having produced and/or directed more than 70 dramatic features, televisions specials, documentaries and portrait films. He co-heads the American Film Foundation and has produced a ...

* Kirk Simon * United States Office of War Information Overseas Motion Picture Bureau * Dick Young ;2 nominations *

Ben Proudfoot Ben Proudfoot (born October 29, 1990) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is most noted as director of ''The Queen of Basketball'', winner of the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject; as well as codirector with Kris Bowers of the short ...

* Jon Alpert * Lee R. Bobker * British Ministry of Information * Patrick Carey * Malcolm Clarke * Skye Fitzgerald * Roland Hallé * John Healy * Gordon Hollingshead * Bobby Houston *

Daniel Junge Daniel Junge (born ) is an American documentary filmmaker. On February 26, 2012, he won the Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject) for the film '' Saving Face'', which he co-directed along with Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chin ...

* Steve Kalafer * Julian Krainin *

Dan Krauss Dan Krauss is an American film director and cinematographer. Biography Krauss is best known for his two Academy Awards, Oscar-nominated documentary films ''The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club, The Death of Kevin Carter'' (20 ...

Alec Lorimore Alec Lorimore (born 1948) is a twice Academy Award-nominated film producer and screenwriter who has concentrated his focus in creating giant screen, IMAX documentary films. He is credited as one of the three producers of 1998 IMAX film ''Everest' ...

* James R. Messenger *

Greg MacGillivray Greg MacGillivray (born 1945) is an American film director and cinematographer. Career MacGillivray was first nominated for an Academy Award in 1995 for directing '' The Living Sea'' ( Best Documentary Short Subject), and was nominated in the sa ...

* Mafilm Studio * Matthew O'Neill *

* Robert Richter * RKO Radio *

Eric Simonson Eric Simonson (born June 27, 1960 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an American writer and director in theatre, film and opera. He is a member of Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, and the author of plays '' Lombardi'', ''Fake'', ''Honest'', '' Magic/B ...

* Truman Talley *

Francis Thompson Francis Joseph Thompson (16 December 1859 – 13 November 1907) was an English poet and Catholic mystic. At the behest of his father, a doctor, he entered medical school at the age of 18, but at 26 left home to pursue his talent as a writer a ...

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

* Vivienne Verdon-Roe *

Cynthia Wade Cynthia Wade is an American television, commercial and film director, producer and cinematographer based in New York City. She has directed documentaries on social issues including '' Shelter Dogs'' in 2003 about animal welfare and ''Freeheld'' i ...

* Donald Wrye * Gerardine Wurzburg *

Ruby Yang A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapp ...