There is a prevalent sentiment among documentary filmmakers that most streamers and distributors are only interested in projects about the three C's — cults, crime and celebrities. But this year's five Oscar-nominated feature documentaries prove that, while that may be largely true, such a belief is only one side of the picture, and that even documentaries that fall into these categories can still bring an innovative, moving and impactful approach to nonfiction storytelling.
Despite the challenging issues all these films explore — from terminal illness, to life in one of the deadliest prison systems in the United States and in a small Russian town in the midst of a war — these filmmakers tackle them with sensitivity, humanity and unexpected humor. In the era of big-budget documentaries, these films are a great reminder of the transformative power of nonfiction stories, and that, more often than not, all you need is a camera and a strong story that must be told to move and connect with audiences.
The Alabama Solution
The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. It simply reads "excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Nearly 235 years later, thousands of people have died while in government custody, at prisons and jails, in what advocates — and courts — have said are direct violations of prisoners' constitutional rights. Perhaps nowhere is this more true than in Alabama, one of the deadliest prison systems in America.
The Alabama Solution is a six-year investigation into the crisis unfolding at prisons across the southern state, discovering over 1,300 deaths of people in custody inside Alabama correctional facilities between 2019 and 2024. Documenting abuse inside prisons is dauntingly difficult, but thanks to the bravery of a group of incarcerated men and their families, filmmakers Andrew Jarecki and Charlotte Kaufman expose the brutal reality of life in custody through smuggled footage that these men filmed from inside. These videos are graphic and incredibly hard to watch, but a necessary step in understanding the lived reality of the estimated 28,000 people currently in custody in Alabama. Earlier this year, three of the whistleblowers featured in the documentary were transferred into solitary confinement. While one of them has since been released, the other two remain in solitary confinement.
Come See Me in the Good Light
I will admit that, of all the nominated documentaries this year, Come See Me in the Good Light was the one I dreaded watching the most. The film, which chronicles the life of Colorado's former poet laureate Andrea Gibson and their wife Megan Falley following Gibson's terminal cancer diagnosis, screened at almost every film festival I attended over the last year, won the 2025 Sundance Festival Favorite Award, and even has the coveted 100% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics. My hesitancy was rooted not in the quality of what I expected would be a moving film, but rather in how Gibson's story would force me to confront my own mortality. Tissues handy, I finally pressed play, fully prepared to cry, but completely unaware of how much I, too, would laugh.
Director Ryan White lets the couple's relationship shine beautifully throughout this film — as they go to doctors' appointments, read each other's work, and prepare for what would ultimately be Gibson's last spoken-word performance in 2024, before their passing in July 2025. If I had to summarize Come See Me in the Good Light in one sentence, it would be best to use Andrea's own words from their poem Life Anthem: "my story is one about happiness being easier to find once we realize we do not have forever to find it." This film is a celebration of unconditional love, friendship, family, poetry, and how the little things in life — casual dinners with friends, a barking dog, a broken mailbox — ultimately make us most alive. Keep your tissues nearby.
Cutting Through Rocks
Before Sara Shahverdi became the first female councilor in her Iranian village, she was a midwife, delivering over 400 babies, by her estimate. It is no surprise, then, that Shahverdi's role as the head councilor in her village is part of her plan to make life better for the women around her, many of whom are young girls she helped bring into this world.
Cutting Through Rocks is an intimate portrait of Shahverdi's fight for women's rights in a patriarchal society that refuses to acknowledge their right to exist safely and independently. Over the course of 95 minutes, filmmakers Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni show life in Iran through Shahverdi's relentless pursuit to give women and girls more opportunities, from riding a motorcycle to co-owning property with their husbands. Her determination and bravery are a source of inspiration to the young girls who admire her courage, daring to dream of a life free of violence and full of happiness. This is perhaps best seen in Fereshteh, a 16-year-old who asks Sara for help getting a divorce from the 35-year-old man she was forced to marry when she was just 12. Through Shahverdi and these young girls, Cutting Through Rocks calls us to question what it would really take to improve the lives of women in male-dominated spaces, and how, if at all, this change can happen.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin introduced a new "federal patriotic education policy" that saw school curricula across the country change overnight to foster support for the war. Pavel "Pasha" Talankin, a teacher and event coordinator at a small school in Karabash, one of the most polluted cities on Earth, is asked to start filming these lessons at the school, part of a mandatory reporting system.
But when Talankin stumbles upon a social media callout asking for people who have been impacted by Russia's new policies, he finds himself uniquely positioned to document the lives of children during the war, his work as a videographer allowing him to hide in plain sight as he collaborates with a team of international filmmakers to capture what few can, in a country notorious for its repression of journalists and those opposing the government. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is a film about the indoctrination of young children through government institutions, and how, little by little, safe spaces where they can think critically and express themselves freely are taken from them, fomenting fear and suspicions between citizens to control them into obedience and compliance.
The Perfect Neighbor
Over the course of my journalism career, I've covered many crimes where race is believed to have played a role, including the death of Ajike "A.J." Owens, a Black mother of four young children who was shot by her white neighbor, Susan Lorincz, on June 2, 2023, in Florida. It's not uncommon for these cases to make national news, a snapshot in time of how neighborly disputes can turn deadly. But rarely do audiences have the opportunity to witness the events that lead to such violence. For reporters and documentary filmmakers, the question is often: how can you tell a story intimately when you're not there to film it? Geeta Gandbhir's The Perfect Neighbor does so by cleverly piecing together police body camera footage, interrogation video and audio from witness interviews to dissect two years of events that led to Owens' death and Lorincz's subsequent manslaughter conviction.
The Netflix documentary opens with the 911 call reporting Owens' shooting, then unfolds the way detectives work: by tracing back all the available evidence of what happened in the lead up to that fateful summer day in 2023, building a case against Lorincz, who complains about the neighborhood's children playing outside and calls them racist slurs. Police body camera footage itself becomes a witness to the escalation that resulted in Owens' killing. Sandwiched between the first call Lorincz ever made to the Marion County Sheriff's Office to complain about the children and her sentencing hearing, The Perfect Neighbor powerfully lingers in a moment often missed in the headlines: the immediate aftermath of the killing.
The documentary lets audiences bear witness to what happens to Owens' 10-year-old son Isaac, who was with her when Lorincz shot her, how the neighbors came together to look after the children as medics administered aid to Owens, and the devastating moment the children learn their mom will not be coming home. Through it all, this film calls us to question how, if ever, these unnecessary deaths can be prevented.
Copyright 2026 NPR
