Oscar Winners - Best Documentary Feature

Story of China's fight for freedom against Japan during WWII

The planning and implementation of an RAF night raid on Germany in World War II, concentrating on a low level mission by a Wellington bomber on an oil storage facility by the Rhine.

The Allied campaign to drive Germany and Italy from North Africa is analysed, with the major portion of the film examining the battles at El Alamein, including a re-enactment.

An in-depth look at aircraft carrier combat operations during World War II. Real combat footage. Very strong and compelling.

A documentary account of the allied invasion of Europe during World War II compiled from the footage shot by nearly 1400 cameramen.

An Academy Award winner for best documentary, the film opens with a notice that..."Exhibition of confiscated Japanese film material authorized by permission of the Alien Property Custodian in the public interest under License No. LM 979"...and was assembled from hundreds of captured newsreels, historical dramas and propaganda films. While revealing the steps that Japan took that led to Pearl Harbor, it goes back 700 years to the feudal caste system, a peasant revolt suppressed after the Samurai murdered over 40,000 people, to Admiral Perry forcibly opening Japan to foreign trade, to the perversion of converting the Shinto religion of nature-worship to that of a fanatic state creed that preached the Japanese were a Master Race and the Emperor was a sun-god to be blindly obeyed. The film carried no credit for a director, while Richard Fleischer shared the Producer credit with Theron Warth.

The 1946-1947 U.S. military expedition to explore and map Antarctica, led by Admiral Richard E. Byrd, is presented from its planning stages through its successful completion.

This 47-minute documentary, financed by HRH's government, won an Oscar in the special category, and most of it was later edited into a 1953 two-segment documentary called "Savage World" by the same crew of film-makers listed on this film. The story here is about an African tribe that is working to build a maternity hospital, with the aid of government officials, and against the opposition of some tribal members.

The story follows Michelangelo's life, career, and renowned artworks from his early works to lasting fame, showcasing detailed looks at his most celebrated creations against the backdrop of his era.

A documentary about the Kon-Tiki expedition of the Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl.

Oscar-winning documentary based on Rachel L. Carson's pioneering study of ocean life chronicled in her award-winning and best-selling 1951 book of the same name.

Although first glance reveals little more than stones and sand, the desert is alive. Witness moving rocks, spitting mud pots, gorgeous flowers and the never-ending battle for survival between creatures of every shape, size and description.

Story of the American prairie as it was when vast herds of bison and elk grazed there.

This documentary chronicles the life of Helen Keller, who was struck by an illness as a young child that left her both blind and deaf. Aided by her devoted teacher, Anne Sullivan, Keller is able to develop ways to communicate and becomes an author and advocate. Made when Keller was 72 years old, this film, directed by Nancy Hamilton and narrated by actress Katharine Cornell, features old and recent footage of Keller as her remarkable journey leads her to meet President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

A documentary about the undersea explorers and how they penetrate into the underwater world.

This biographical drama/documentary narrative written by Dr. Albert Schweitzer and spoken by Fredric March, traces the life of Dr. Schweitzer (with actors playing the characters), from his birth in France up to about the age of 30 when he makes the decision to go to French Equatorial Africa and build his jungle hospital. The latter half of the film encompasses a full day in the hospital-village following the 80s-plus Samaritan in his daily rounds.

The wildlife of the Arctic is explored in this true-life adventure.

The borders of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania were initially drawn without considering the herds of grass-eating wild animals. The recording of seasonal animal movements by the film team at the end of the 1950s forms the framework for action, so that based on this work, new boundaries of the park could be determined in such a way, that the most important animal populations are protected all year round. The beauty of the savannah landscape and the sideways glance at numerous wild animal species living there, some of which were presented to a broader audience for the first time in this film, fill this nature documentary.

A palimino cow pony, through a series of owners and adventures becomes a champion mount for one of the US equestrian team.

In September, 1959, six Europeans leave Cook's Bay on the southern coast of Dutch New Guinea, now West Papua or Irian Jaya, to trek north to the far side of the island. The journey (450 miles, as a crow flies) across unmapped territory took seven months; three Muyu porters died. Near both coasts, the expedition met villagers who invited them to observe rituals and live with them. In the interior, all villagers kept them at bay, and they depended on air lifts from Hollandia for food and supplies. They climbed above 10,000 feet, built 14 bridges, and fought leeches and malaria. The narrator focuses on describing Stone Age savages, headhunters, and cannibals.

The rise and fall of Nazi Germany in part through the use of classical allegory.

Acclaimed poet Robert Frost reminisces on his career. He is also seen giving lectures at Amherst and Sarah Lawrence Colleges, in daily life at his rural Vermont home, and receiving the Congressional Gold Medal from President Kennedy.

Fascinating underwater documentary filmed with hand-held cameras by frogmen and mostly filmed in deep-water seas from within a special designed batiscaff, by the Cousteau family of sea explorers.

Richard Kaplan documents the life of one of America's most influential first ladies. Orphaned at age 10, Eleanor Roosevelt marries her fifth cousin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1905. His election in 1932 allows Eleanor to step up to national prominence, battling for civil rights and visiting troops during World War II. After her husband's death, Roosevelt continues to advocate for human rights at the U.N., proving herself one of America's great humanitarians.

A docudrama depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain.