Banksy’s debut feature film, “guerrilla documentary” Exit Through The Gift Shop, has been named as one of 15 shortlisted documentaries in The Academy Awards‘ Best Documentary category. This means that Banksy could be a potential Oscar nominee or winner in a few months times. What a tantalizing prospect, if only for the possible unveiling of Banksy’s highly guarded identity. He’s the world’s most prolific phantom street artist; so, hypothetically, if he does make it onto the final list of Academy Award nominees and then his name gets called out on the night, what the hell will happen next? Awkward silence? The return of Sacheen Littlefeather? The unveiling of an elaborate Banksy prank from inside the Kodak Theatre?
Hypothetical wins aside, the most interesting part of Exit Through The Gift Shop’s spot on the shortlist is the validation that it is, in fact, a documentary. As those who’ve seen it will attest, the film’s final third feels like calculated parody – high satire of art world dilettantes and those who buy, sell, make and fuel contemporary art. Many critics called it a mockumentary in their reviews but in the Academy’s eyes – it’s all real. Personally, I still can’t decide whether it’s more I’m Still Here or Beautiful Losers but I’m ecstatic that an artist this subversive can get mainstream recognition from such an iconic institution. God, imagine if he wins the Best Documentary award then reveals it was satire all along. You’d never see something more beautiful in your life.
Here’s a list of the other films that made the pre-nomination shortlist:
“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)
“Enemies of the People” Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors (Old Street Films)
“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
“Gasland” Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
“Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould” Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont, directors (White Pine Pictures)
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
“The Lottery” Madeleine Sackler, director (Great Curve Films)
“Precious Life” Shlomi Eldar, director (Origami Productions)
“Quest for Honor” Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, director (Smothers Bruni Productions)
“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
“This Way of Life” Thomas Burstyn, director (Cloud South Films)
“The Tillman Story” Amir Bar-Lev, director (Passion Pictures/Axis Films)
“Waiting for ‘Superman” Davis Guggenheim, director (Electric Kinney Films)
“Waste Land” Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)
“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe” Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, directors (Disturbing the Universe LLC)
The Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting. Documentary Branch members will now select the five nominees from among the 15 titles on the shortlist.
The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
