{"id":172653,"date":"2025-12-07T21:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/172653\/"},"modified":"2025-12-07T21:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T21:59:10","slug":"documentary-2025-schedule-panelists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/172653\/","title":{"rendered":"Documentary 2025 Schedule & Panelists"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tJust more than 200 documentary features qualified for Oscar consideration<\/a> this year, a record-breaking number.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith so many films in the race, it becomes a major challenge to navigate through titles that originate from across the globe. That\u2019s where Deadline\u2019s Contenders Film: Documentary virtual event, which kicks off today at 9 a.m. PT, comes in. It can be your guide to many of the most accomplished and award-winning nonfiction films with serious aspirations to Oscar recognition.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring today\u2019s event we welcome Oscar-nominated director Tamara Kotevska and producer and DoP Jean Dakar for a discussion of The Tale of Silyan<\/a>, their National Geographic documentary that tells a story infused with North Macedonian legend about a man who rescues an injured white stork.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen it comes to legends of rock n\u2019 roll, no group surpasses a British band founded in 1968. We\u2019ll hear from the creative team behind Becoming Led Zeppelin<\/a>, a Sony Pictures Classics release with the distinction of being the highest-grossing documentary of the year.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong with Becoming Led Zeppelin, music underscores several more films featured on Contenders Documentary. Diane Warren: Relentless<\/a> explores the songwriter and 16-time Oscar nominee who has written songs for Celine Dion, Beyonc\u00e9, Lady Gaga, Cher and many other greats. Ai Weiwei\u2019s Turandot takes us inside an astounding production of the Puccini opera directed by one of the world\u2019s most famous artists. And Viva Verdi! opens the doors to a fabulous retirement home for opera singers and musicians established by the brilliant composer Giuseppe Verdi. Casa Verdi\u2019s hallways and elegant drawing rooms thrum with violin, percussion, piano and soaring vocals.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe count on documentary filmmakers to bring their acute focus to the most significant social, political and environmental issues of our time. Today we will hear from directors behind some remarkable investigative films: Eugene Jarecki will tell us about his penetrating analysis of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in The Six Billion Dollar Man<\/a>; Dog Warriors follows the scent of ex-military men who engage in a thrilling, white-knuckle attempt to rescue canines from a grim fate; Trade Secret exposes a disturbing threat to polar bears that has seen the magnificent creatures trafficked for their skins and body parts; The Age of Disclosure <\/a>blows the lid off the U.S. government\u2019s knowledge of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena\u2014what used to be called UFOs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tClick here <\/a>for the Contenders Documentary<\/a> preview magazine<\/p>\n

\n\tA medical mystery that afflicts a surprisingly large number of people, especially children, comes under the microscope in Complicated, from Open Eye Pictures. In The Hemingway, a filmmaker living with ALS, Patrick Sean O\u2019Brien, takes us inside the world of his imagination in a short film of startling humor and visual audacity co-directed by Evan Mathis.<\/p>\n

\n\tNo film this year is more audacious than Trains, a black & white journey along steel rail lines through events of the 20th century, some poignant and evocative, others terrifying. The film from Polish master Maciej Drygas chugs along without a word of dialogue.<\/p>\n

\n\tFollow along all day on Deadline.com and on social via #DeadlineContenders, and check back Tuesday when we launch the event\u2019s streaming site with the full panel videos.<\/p>\n

\t\tContenders Film: Documentary\t<\/p>\n

\n\t(order subject to change)<\/p>\n

\n\tNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Tale of Silyan<\/p>\n

\n\tTamara Kotevska (Director\/Producer)
Jean Dakar (Cinematographer\/Producer)<\/p>\n

\n\tCHARLOTTE STREET FILMS\/WATERMELON PICTURES<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Six Billion Dollar Man<\/p>\n

\n\tEugene Jarecki (Writer\/Director\/Producer)<\/p>\n

\n\tSONY PICTURES CLASSICS<\/p>\n

\n\tBecoming Led Zeppelin<\/p>\n

\n\tBernard MacMahon (Writer\/Director)
Allison McGourty (Writer\/Producer)<\/p>\n

\n\tOPEN EYE PICTURES<\/p>\n

\n\tComplicated<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Abrahams (Director\/Producer\/Principal DP)<\/p>\n

\n\tEPF MEDIA & DRYGAS FILM PRODUCTION<\/p>\n

\n\tTrains<\/p>\n

\n\tMaciej J Drygas (Writer\/Director)<\/p>\n

\n\tINCIPIT FILM\/LA MONTE PRODUCTIONS<\/p>\n

\n\tAi Weiwei\u2019s Turandot<\/p>\n

\n\tMaxim Derevianko (Writer\/Director\/Cinematographer)
Christine La Monte (Producer)
Marta Zaccaron (Producer)<\/p>\n

\n\tOPEN EYE PICTURES<\/p>\n

\n\tDog Warriors<\/p>\n

\n\tAndrew Abrahams (Director\/Producer\/Principal DP)<\/p>\n

\n\tMASTERCLASS\/GREEWICH ENTERTAINMENT<\/p>\n

\n\tDiane Warren: Relentless<\/p>\n

\n\tDiane Warren (Songwriter\/Subject
Bess Kargman, Director\/Producer<\/p>\n

\n\tONERIC LTD<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Hemingway<\/p>\n

\n\tPatrick Sean O\u2019Brien (Co-Director)
Evan Mathis (Co-Director)<\/p>\n

\n\tUNTITLED FILM WORKS<\/p>\n

\n\tTrade Secret<\/p>\n

\n\tAbraham Joffe (Director\/Producer)<\/p>\n

\n\tLA MONTE PRODUCTIONS\/SIMONSAYS ENTERTAINMENT\/WANBLI<\/p>\n

\n\tViva Verdi!<\/p>\n

\n\tYvonne Russo (Writer\/Director\/Producer)
Christine La Monte (Writer\/Producer)
Nicholas Pike (Music Composer)<\/p>\n

\n\tRELENTLESS RELEASING<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Age of Disclosure<\/p>\n

\n\tDan Farah (Director\/Producer)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just more than 200 documentary features qualified for Oscar consideration this year, a record-breaking number. With so many…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[78674,111334,156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-172653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-awardsnews","9":"tag-contenders-documentary","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}