Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject

This is a list of films by year that have received an Oscar together with the other nominations for best documentary short subject. 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.

List of winners

1940s

*1941 - "Churchill's Island" - National Film Board of Canada
*1942 - none given
*1943 - "December 7th" - United States Navy
*1944 - "With the Marines at Tarawa" - United States Marine Corps
*1945 - "Hitler Lives" - Gordon Hollingshead, Producer
*1946 - "Seeds of Destiny" - United States Department of War
*1947 - "First Steps" - United Nations Division of Films and Visual Information
*1948 - "Toward Independence" - United States Army
*1949 - (tie):
**"A Chance To Live" - Richard de Rochemont, Producer
**"So Much for So Little" - Edward Selzer, Producer

1950s

*1950 - "Why Korea?" - Edmund Reek, Producer
*1951 - "Benjy" - Made by Fred Zinnemann with the cooperation of Paramount Pictures Corporation for the Los Angeles Orthopaedic Hospital
*1952 - "Neighbours" - Norman McLaren, Producer - National Film Board of Canada
*1953 - "The Alaskan Eskimo" - Walt Disney, Producer
*1954 - "Thursday's Children" - World Wide Pictures and Morse Films
*1955 - "Men against the Arctic" - Walt Disney, Producer
*1956 - "The True Story of the Civil War" - Louis Clyde Stoumen, Producer
*1957 - none given
*1958 - "Ama Girls" - Ben Sharpsteen, Producer
*1959 - "Glass" - Bert Haanstra, Producer

Note: A press release issued by AMPAS in 2005 states that "Documentary Short Subject winners "Benjy" (1951) and "Neighbours" (1952) are among a group of films that not only competed, but won Academy Awards in what were clearly inappropriate categories. "Benjy", directed by Fred Zinnemann and narrated by Henry Fonda, is the fictional tale of a crippled boy. The film was used as a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Orthopedic Hospital. ... Norman McLaren's "Neighbours", which today would compete in the Animated Short category, used "pixilation" – animation using living people - to create an allegory of war." [http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2005/05.10.31.html]

1960s

*1960 - "Giuseppina" - James Hill, Producer
*1961 - "Project Hope" - Frank P. Bibas, Producer
*1962 - "Dylan Thomas" - Jack Howells, Producer
*1963 - "Chagall" - Simon Schiffrin, Producer
*1964 - "Nine from Little Rock" - Charles Guggenheim, Producer
*1965 - "To Be Alive!" - Francis Thompson, Producer
*1966 - "A Year Toward Tomorrow" - Edmond A. Levy, Producer
*1967 - "The Redwoods" - Mark Harris and Trevor Greenwood, Producers
*1968 - "Why Man Creates" - Saul Bass, Producer
*1969 - "Czechoslovakia 1968" - Denis Sanders and Robert M. Fresco, Producers

1970s

*1970 - "Interviews with My Lai Veterans" - Joseph Strick, Producer
*1971 - "Sentinels of Silence" - Manuel Arango and Robert Amram, Producers
*1972 - "This Tiny World" - Charles Huguenot van der Linden and Martina Huguenot van der Linden, Producers
*1973 - "" - Julian Krainin and DeWitt L. Sage, Jr., Producers
*1974 - "Don't" - Robin Lehman, Producer
*1975 - "The End of the Game" - Claire Wilbur and Robin Lehman, Producers
*1976 - "Number Our Days" - Lynne Littman and Barbara Myerhoff, Producers
*1977 - "Gravity Is My Enemy" - John Joseph and Jan Stussy, Producers
*1978 - "The Flight of the Gossamer Condor" - Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd, Producers
*1979 - "" - Saul J. Turell, Producer

1980s

*1980 - "" - Roland Hallé and Peter W. Ladue, Producer
*1981 - "Close Harmony" - Nigel Noble, Producer
*1982 - "If You Love This Planet" - Edward Le Lorrain and Terri Nash, Producers - National Film Board of Canada
*1983 - "" - Cynthia Scott and Adam Symansky, Producers - National Film Board of Canada
** "Sewing Woman" - Arthur Dong, Producer
*1984 - "The Stone Carvers" - Marjorie Hunt and Paul Wagner, Producers
*1985 - "" - David Goodman, Producer
*1986 - "Women--for America, for the World" - Vivienne Verdon-Roe, Producer
**"Sam"
**""
**"The Master of Disaster"
**"Debonair Dancers"

*1987 - "Young at Heart" - Sue Marx and Pamela Conn, Producers
**"In The Wee Wee Hours"
**"Silver Into Gold"
**""
**"Language Says it All"

*1988 - "You Don't Have to Die" - William Guttentag and Malcolm Clarke, Producers
**"Gang Cops"
**"Family Gathering"
**"The Children's Storefront"
**"Portrait of Imogen"

*1989 - "The Johnstown Flood" - Charles Guggenheim, Producer
**""
**"Fine Food, Fine Pastries, Open 6 to 9"

1990s

*1990 - "Days of Waiting" - Steven Okazaki, Producer
**""
**""
**"Burning Down Tomorrow"
**""

*1991 - "" - Debra Chasnoff, Producer
**"A Little Vicious"
**"The Mark of the Maker"
**"Birdnesters of Thailand"
**"Memorial Letters From American"

*1992 - "Educating Peter" - Thomas C. Goodwin (posthumous win) and Gerardine Wurzburg
**""
**""
**""
**"The Colours of My Father A Portrait of Sam Borenstein"

*1993 - "Defending Our Lives" - Margaret Lazarus, Renner Wunderlich
**"Chicks in White Satin"
**""

*1994 - "A Time for Justice" - Charles Guggenheim
**"89MM OD Europy"
**"School of Assassins"
**"Blues Highway"
**"Straight From the Heart"

*1995 - "One Survivor Remembers" - Kary Antholis
**""
**"The Shadow of Hate"
**"The Living Sea"
**""

*1996 - "" - Jessica Yu director, producer, writer and editor
**"Cosmic Voyage"
**""
**""
**"An Essay on Matisse"

*1997 - "A Story of Healing" - Donna Dewey, Carol Pasternak
**"Amazon"
**""
**""
**"Daughter of the Brise"

*1998 - "" - Keiko Ibi
**"A Place in the Land"
**"Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square" - National Film Board of Canada

*1999 - "King Gimp" - Susan Hannah Hadary, William A. Whiteford
**"Eyewitness"
**""

2000s

*2000 - "Big Mama" - Tracy Seretean
**"Curtain Call"
**""
**"The Man on Lincoln's Nose"

*2001 - "Thoth" - Sarah Kernochan and Lynn Appelle
**"Sing!"
**"Artists and Orphans"

*2002 - "Twin Towers" - Bill Guttentag, Robert David Port, Robert Port directors
** "The Collector of Bedford Street" - Welcome Change Productions - Alice Elliott producer and director
** "" - Tell the Truth Pictures - Robert Hudson producer - Robert Houston director
** "Why Can't We Be a Family Again?" - Roger Weisberg, Murray Nossel directors

*2003 - "Chernobyl Heart" - Maryann DeLeo
**"Asylum" - Sandy McLeod and Gini Reticker
**"Ferry Tales" - Katja Esson

*2004 - "" – Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston
** "Autism Is a World" – Gerardine Wurzburg
** "The Children of Leningradsky" – Hanna Polak and Andrzej Celinski
** "Hardwood" – Hubert Davis and Erin Faith Young
** "Sister Rose’s Passion" – Oren Jacoby and Steve Kalafer

*2005 - ""
**""
**"God Sleeps in Rwanda"
**"The Mushroom Club"

*2006 - "The Blood of Yingzhou District"
**""
**"Recycled Life"
**"Rehearsing a Dream"

*2007 - "Freeheld"
**"La Corona"
**"Salim Baba"
**"Sari's Mother"