Last year, 169 films were eligible for the best documentary feature Oscar. Not even the most diligent members of the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences saw anywhere near that many before casting their ballots to determine the shortlist of 15 finalists or the five eventual Oscar nominees. There are just not enough hours in the day.

The goal of the SCAD Savannah Film Festivals Docs to Watch Panel, which has been presented by The Hollywood Reporter and hosted by yours truly since 2014, has always been to highlight 10 of the years doc features that are truly outstanding and worthy of attention. And it seems like the doc branch is paying attention: over the past 11 years, 24 docs that were represented on the panel went on to Oscar noms (of a possible 55), and eight went on to win (of a possible 11). On Oct. 29, the directors of outstanding 2025 documentaries descended on the nations largest university-run film festival for this years Docs to Watch Panel, a 90-minute conversation about the challenges and rewards of making their current films, and docs in general, which you can watch in its entirety right here:

The filmmakers who appeared on this years panel are:

On behalf of Nat Geos The Tale of Silyan, which chronicles the unlikely bond of a struggling farmer and an injured White stork in North Macedonia, an Oscar nominee for 2019s Honeyland, the director Tamara Kotevska On behalf of HBOs The Alabama Solution, an expos about the bleak conditions in and corrupt governance of Alabamas prisons, an Oscar nominee for 2003s Capturing the Friedmans, the co-director, with Charlotte Kaufman, Andrew Jarecki On behalf of Netflixs The Perfect Neighbor, which illustrates the dangers of stand your ground laws by zeroing-in on one particularly tragic case, the director Geeta Gandbhir On behalf of Apples Come See Me in the Good Light, a portrait of Colorados poet laureate confronting a diagnosis of incurable cancer, the director Ryan White On behalf of HBOs My Mom Jayne, in which the filmmaker endeavors to learn more about the movie star mother she lost when she was just three, the director Mariska Hargitay On behalf of Netflixs Apocalypse in the Tropics, a study of the rise of Christian Nationalism on the far right in Brazil and the aftermath of that nations own version of Jan. 6, an Oscar nominee for 2019s The Edge of Democracy, the director Petra Costa On behalf of PBSs 2000 Meters to Andriivka, in which the filmmaker embeds with a Ukrainian platoon as it attempts to liberate a Russian-occupied village, an Oscar winner for 2023s 20 Days in Mariupol, the director Mstyslav Chernov On behalf of Oscilloscopes Natchez, an exploration of a small Mississippi towns Antebellum history and its reverberations in the present day, the director Suzannah Herbert On behalf of Kino Lorbers Riefenstahl, for which exclusive access was granted to the never-before-seen archives of Hitlers favorite film propagandist, the director Andres Veiel On behalf of Magnolias Its Never Over, Jeff Buckley, a chronicle of the extraordinary rise and premature death of a generation-defining singer-songwriter, an Oscar nominee for 2006s Deliver Us from Evil, the director Amy J. Berg During the fest, THR moderators also conducted post-screening QAs with each of the docs director or directors, which we will be posting on our website over the coming days, ahead of the period of voting to determine the Oscar shortlists (Dec. 8-12) and the announcement of the shortlists (Dec. 16).