2018 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary

The plastic artist Cesar Arechiga recreates his living room and studio in the maximum-security prison of Puente Grande, Jalisco, in which fifteen inmates learn about paper production, clay modeling, sculpting and painting. Through this artistic interaction, they share their personal experiences of how they became involved with the world of drug trafficking.

Ibogaine is a plant extract that stops drug addiction. In this documentary, a 34-year-old heroin addict undergoes ibogaine therapy with Dr Martin Polanco at the Ibogaine Association, a clinic in Rosarito, Mexico. In Gabon, where use of the iboga root is traditional, a Babongo woman's tribe uses the plant to help her recover from a depressive malaise. Director Benjamin De Loenen interviews people formerly addicted to heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine, who share their perspectives about ibogaine treatment.

Clarissa Dickson Wright tracks down Britain's oldest known cookbook, The Forme of Cury. This 700-year-old scroll was written during the reign of King Richard II from recipes created by the king's master chefs. How did this ancient manuscript influence the way people eat today? On her culinary journey through medieval history she reawakens recipes that have lain dormant for centuries and discovers dishes that are still prepared now.

It became world news in October 2019 when economic reforms in Ecuador led to gas prices suddenly shooting up by 123 percent. People from urban and indigenous communities united in protest. In The Rebellion of Memory we follow the events through their eyes, as the country’s capital, Quito, descends into smoke-filled chaos.

The Bridge is a controversial documentary that shows people jumping to their death from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco - the world's most popular suicide destination. Interviews with the victims' loved ones describe their lives and mental health.

The surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert (1942-2013): his early days as a freewheeling bachelor and Pulitzer Prize winner, his famously contentious partnership with Gene Siskel, his life-altering marriage, and his brave and transcendent battle with cancer.

“I want to be a tiger. I am an atheist from Iraq and I am seeking asylum. About my hallucinations… It’s difficult. Horrible monsters. I hope I can help those who need help.” An episode of the animation series Mental images by Antonia Ringbom. The aim of these animated documentary short films is to reduce the stigma toward mental health problems and psychological disorders.

A Zen priest in San Francisco and cookbook author use Zen Buddhism and cooking to relate to everyday life.

On 19 March 1966, a photo exhibition about the police intervention during the wedding of Beatrix and Claus opened in Amsterdam. After the opening, filmmaker Louis van Gasteren filmed how, in the distance, policemen began beating up a young man, seemingly without any provocation. This footage was shown that same evening on television. Van Gasteren interviewed the victim, a 22-year-old student, who declared that he was walking in that direction because his ‘bicycle was there’. That became the title of this short film, in which Van Gasteren used slow motion to analyse the objectionable actions taken by the police.

'Don't build prisons, they cost too much!' In this era of Great Recession, the conservative and tough-on-crime State of Texas takes an unprecedented path by becoming a social justice leader with programs that rehabilitate offenders. Looks like rape, abuse and death are no longer parts of the solution for modern-day Bonnie and Clyde...

Dash Snow rejected a life of privilege to make his own way as an artist on the streets of downtown New York City in the late 1990s. Developing from a notorious graffiti tagger into an international art star, he documented his drug- and alcohol-fueled nights with the surrogate family he formed with friends and fellow artists Ryan McGinley and Dan Colen before his death by heroin overdose in 2009. Drawing from Snow’s unforgettable body of work and involving archival footage, Cheryl Dunn’s exceptional portrait captures his all-too-brief life of reckless excess and creativity.

Trixie charmed audiences and judges as winner of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars. But the grind of performing and the pressure of the title proves that heavy is the head that wears the tiara.

Danish culinary entrepreneur and Noma co-founder Claus Meyer has kickstarted a gastronomic revolution in Bolivia’s capital of La Paz with the opening of Gustu, a fine-dining restaurant and cooking school for the country’s impoverished youth. Kenzo, a hunter raised in the Bolivian Amazon, and Maria Claudia, a native of the Andean altiplano, have resettled in La Paz in order to pursue a career in the culinary arts. Under the tutelage of Meyer, these young Bolivians are working towards a better future as they attempt to establish their country as the world’s next great culinary destination.

Keith Allen meets his long-term hero, Keith Floyd, who transformed the presentation of gastronomy on British television.

In the documentary Nola, we follow the 24 year old Daniëlle and her psychosocial assistance dog. Daniëlle has been struggling with her anxiety disorder for years and has tried many forms of therapy to no avail. Therefore, assistance dog Nola is her last hope for recovery.

Kanye West meets with Zane Lowe to discuss his highly anticipated 'Jesus Is King' album and film. Kanye discusses his newfound faith in God, how the public perceived his battle with mental health and the process of creating a new style of music. Take a glimpse into one of the most creative minds in music.

We all carry hell with us. The filmmaker’s hell exists on a canvas, which he studied carefully in childhood. The mystical picture has many names: Circus, Hell, Game at the Arena. Decades later he finds the painting again. The film unravels as loose ponderings about the plight of being an artist and touches upon the filmmaker’s personal demons. Can he see the painting in a new light?

OMA - Elk moment een nieuwe ontmoeting

Incarcerated participants in a mental health experiment watch videos of sunset-soaked beaches, wildflowers and forests on loop, prompting them to reflect on isolation and wilderness. Equal parts meditation and provocation, Blue Room identifies the damage done by withholding access to the outdoors and how we are all prisoners when the essential human need for communion with nature is denied.

At 88 years old, Ofelia reflects on her life under the attentive gaze of her grandchildren. Family, love, disputes, adventures, and tragedies. A story brimming with characters that, as a result of the passing of time, leaves Ofelia as the sole witness to recount it