"This year all five nominees are politically charged, four are about war, and amazingly, only one feels like homework," writes Caryn James in the New York Times about the documentary feature race. "We'll never really know how much the list of nominees simply reflects the quirks of the committees, drawn from the Academy’s documentary branch, which chose them through two rounds of voting. Their list of 15 semifinalists included works stronger than some of those nominated, like 'Lake of Fire.'" READ MORE.