The nominees are:

• Ascension (MTV Documentary Films)
• The First Wave (NatGeo)
• Flee (Neon/Participant)
• In The Same Breath (HBO Documentary Films)
• The Rescue (NatGeo)
• Simple As Water (HBO Documentary Films)
• Summer Of Soul (…Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (Searchlight Pictures)
• Writing With Fire (Music Box Films)

Two of the nominees, Flee and Summer of Soul, are the leading frontrunners. 

Flee earned the grand jury prize in the world cinema — documentary category at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, the Gotham Award for best documentary and the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression Award.

The animated documentary is also Denmark’s Oscar submission for best international feature; it could make history at the Academy Awards should it be nominated for documentary feature, animated feature and international feature.

The film, which tells the story of a man who comes to terms with his traumatic past as a child refugee who fled Afghanistan, is also seen as a dark horse contender for best picture.

Summer of Soul, the feature film debut from director Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, combines long-lost footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, a concert series that took place over six weekends in New York City and included Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone and The 5th Dimension.

Summer of Soul has also received numerous honors, including the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the documentary category at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, and was named best documentary by the National Board of Review.

It also swept the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, winning in all of the six categories for which it was nominated including best documentary, best first documentary feature and best director. It also earned a Grammy nomination for best music film.

The winner of the PGA award for best documentary often earns an Oscar nomination.

The 2021 PGA documentary award winner, My Octopus Teacher, also won the best documentary Oscar.

The PGA will announce its nominees for sports, children’s and short-form TV programs on Thursday, January 13.

Nominees for theatrical motion pictures, television series/specials and televised/streamed motion pictures will be announced on Thursday, January 27.