American Documentary

Overview

New York, N.Y. – December 22, 2022 – American Documentary is proud and delighted for the film teams of POV Shorts’ Shut Up And Paint and Happiness is £4 Million on being shortlisted in the 95th Academy Awards'® Documentary Short Film category as was announced yesterday, December 21, 2022, by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The short films air as part of POV Shorts landmark 5th season.

"I am so thrilled for Titus Kaphar and Alex Mallis, directors of Shut Up And Paint and directors Weixi Chen and Kai Wei of Happiness is £4 Million, and so very excited for an even broader audience to see these films," said Opal H. Bennett, co-producer and POV Shorts producer. "It’s wonderful to see these films, which we already thought were amongst the year’s best, receive this honor.”

POV Shorts’ Shut Up And Paint and Happiness is £4 Million were shortlisted from among 98 qualified films in the Documentary Short Film category.

You can read more about the films below.

Shut Up And Paint Directors: Titus Kaphar and Alex Mallis/ Producers: Matt O’Neill, Perri Peltz, Chloe Gbai

24 MIN | USA | 2022

Painter Titus Kaphar looks to film as a medium in the face of an insatiable art market seeking to silence his activism. 2022 Tribeca Film Festival. Best Short, Big Sky Film Festival & 2022 IFF Boston. 2022 BAMcineFest Selection.

Happiness is £4 Million Directors: Weixi Chen, Kai Wei/ Producer: Hao Wu

24 MIN | China/USA | 2022

An idealistic, young journalist in Beijing profiles China's biggest real estate speculator. Their divergent life experiences and clashing values reflect the generational and societal changes happening in the country. A co-release with The New York Times Op-Docs. 2022 Sheffield DocFest.

Nominations voting begins at 9 a.m. PT, Thursday, January 12, 2023, and concludes at 5 p.m. PT, Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The nominations for the95th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2023, while the Oscars ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and will be televised live on ABC and in more than 200 territories worldwide.

About

About POV
Produced by American Documentary, POV is the longest-running independent documentary showcase on American television. Since 1988, POV has presented films on PBS that capture the full spectrum of the human experience, with a long commitment to centering women and people of color in front of, and behind, the camera. The series is known for introducing generations of viewers to groundbreaking works like Tongues Untied, American Promise and Minding The Gap and innovative filmmakers including Jonathan Demme, Laura Poitras and Nanfu Wang. In 2018, POV Shorts launched as one of the first PBS series dedicated to bold and timely short-form documentaries. All POV programs are available for streaming concurrent with broadcast on all station-branded PBS platforms, including PBS.org and the PBS Video app, available on iOS, Android, Roku streaming devices, Apple TV, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung Smart TV, Chromecast and VIZIO. For more information about PBS Passport, visit the PBS Passport FAQ website.

POV goes “beyond the broadcast” to bring powerful nonfiction storytelling to viewers wherever they are. Free educational resources accompany every film and a community network of thousands of partners nationwide work with POV to spark dialogue around today’s most pressing issues. POV continues to explore the future of documentary through innovative productions with partners such as The New York Times and The National Film Board of Canada and on platforms including Snapchat and Instagram.

POV films and projects have won 46 Emmy Awards, 27 George Foster Peabody Awards, 15 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. Learn more at pbs.org/pov and follow @povdocs on social media.

About American Documentary, Inc.
American Documentary, Inc. (AmDoc) is a multimedia company dedicated to creating, identifying and presenting contemporary stories that express opinions and perspectives rarely featured in mainstream media outlets. AmDoc is a catalyst for public culture, developing collaborative strategic engagement activities around socially relevant content on television, online and in community settings. These activities are designed to trigger action, from dialogue and feedback to educational opportunities and community participation.

Major funding for POV is provided by PBS, the Open Society Foundations, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation, Reva & David Logan Foundation, Park Foundation, and Perspective Fund. Additional funding comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Sage Foundation, Nancy Blachman and David desJardins, Chris and Nancy Plaut, Abby Pucker, Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee and public television viewers. POV is presented by a consortium of public television stations, including KQED San Francisco, WGBH Boston and THIRTEEN in association with WNET.ORG.