Oscar History Shows the Long Odds for 'You Can See Everything' and Its Best Picture Hopes

A documentary is a film, too, but the Oscars have never fully treated it that way. That tension hangs over this awards season thanks to "You Can See Everything," the A24 release from directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. After a surprise world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in September, the film opened Oct. 16 and has grossed nearly $80 million domestically through its fourth weekend, and many pundits expect it to become the first documentary feature ever nominated for best picture.

The historical record shows how rare that is. Across 98 ceremonies, feature documentaries have earned 33 nominations in categories other than documentary feature, according to Academy statistics, and only three won. Since the 85th ceremony in 2013, nonfiction films have collected 14 nominations outside their own race, 10 of them in best original song.

The documentary feature race is decided by the Documentary Branch, formed in 2001 and now counting 719 voting members, the third largest of the Academy's 19 branches, behind Actors and Executives. Each branch nominates within its own discipline; the full membership picks best picture. Preliminary voting runs Dec. 7 to 11, with a 15-film shortlist announced Dec. 15 and the five nominees revealed Jan. 21.

Academy rules do not expressly bar documentaries from other categories, but nonfiction films rarely surface in races built around fictional storytelling. A24 is pushing "You Can See Everything" in 11 categories, including best picture, director, supporting actress and documentary feature, and an updated awards site dropped its earlier listings for production design, costume design, makeup and hairstyling and sound. Seyfried's performance, Variety previously reported, is eligible at the Oscars and Critics Choice but not BAFTA, SAG or the Golden Globes.

No documentary has ever been nominated for best picture or director. The closest call came at the inaugural Oscars, when "Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness" (1927), shot in Siam by future "King Kong" filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, was nominated for unique and artistic picture. "With Byrd at the South Pole" (1930) then won cinematography, the first documentary Oscar, more than a decade before the Academy created a documentary category in 1942.

The music branch was the friendliest for decades, nominating documentary scores from "The Fight for Life" (1940) through "Birds Do It, Bees Do It" (1975), and "Let It Be" (1970) won original song score, the Beatles' only Oscar. "Woodstock" (1970) set the crossover benchmark: a documentary feature win plus editing and sound nominations, three total, tied with "Flee" as the most ever. An editing nomination for "Hoop Dreams" (1994), which the documentary branch famously shut out, became a notorious snub that forced changes in the branch's process.

The craft branches have stayed closed since: no documentary has been nominated in cinematography since 1953, sound since 1971 or editing since 1995. The surviving side door is original song, where 12 documentaries have been nominated, from "Mondo Cane" (1963) to "Viva Verdi!" (2025). Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006) is the only winner, and 10 of the 12 nominees came from films the documentary branch had passed over.

International feature has offered another route, one requiring a country's official submission. The documentary "Waltz With Bashir" (2008) was nominated for Israel despite missing documentary feature, North Macedonia's "Honeyland" (2019) became the first film nominated for both documentary feature and international feature, Romania's "Collective" (2020) repeated the feat, and Denmark's "Flee" (2021) was the first film nominated in documentary, animated and international feature in the same year. None of them won.

For "You Can See Everything," which swept all five of its categories at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, Variety's predictions foresee three nominations: best picture, supporting actress for Seyfried and film editing, with documentary feature absent. Best picture is decided by the voting membership of more than 10,000, not the documentary branch. The first verdict arrives Dec. 15.