The Oscar race begins -- documentary division

According to indiewire.com, the documentary branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the short list for eligible feature non-fiction films, and it's a pretty rock solid list. And how's this for a surprise -- many of the fifteen titles have already been released in theaters! Also not surprisingly, the war in Iraq is the topic of four of the documentaries: Patricia Foulkrod's excellent "The Ground Truth," James Longley's "Iraq in Fragments," Laura Poitras' "My Country, My Country," and New Hampshire filmmaker Deborah Scranton's "The War Tapes." Toss in "The Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing," by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck -- due in theaters tomorrow; Wesley's review will run then -- and you have five.

The Al Gore global warming powerpoint presentation "An Inconvenient Truth," directed by Davis Guggenheim, is also here, and the world of politics is covered in Frank Popper's "Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?" and the Ralph Nader doc "An Unreasonable Man," directed by Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan and due out in early 2007. Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing's "Jesus Camp" also made the list; it's been in the news recently thanks to the presence in it of disgraced minister Ted Haggard and the subsequent closure of the camp itself. Also on the short-list is Amy Berg's mesmerizing "Deliver Us from Evil," about a pedophile priest in California. (Great film -- so why did Lionsgate take its excellent website down?)

What's not on the list? The devastating kids-with-cancer documentary "A Lion in the House." "The U.S. vs John Lennon," which might have been expected to play well with the Academy. The California-centric "Who Killed the Electric Car?" And -- this has to be a first -- any documentaries dealing with the Holocaust.