Savannah picks 10 documentaries for Docs to Watch panel
Ron Howard, Rory Kennedy and Jimmy Chin are among the film-makers taking new documentaries to Savannah next month. The SCAD Savannah Film Festival and The Hollywood Reporter have chosen 10 films for the 13th annual Docs to Watch panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The 90-minute session takes place on the afternoon of Wednesday, Oct. 28 at the Lucas Theatre. It sits inside the 29th SCAD Savannah Film Festival, scheduled for Oct. 24 to 31, 2026. The series is hosted by Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter, as reported by Variety.
The line-up mixes portraits, mountain films and stories pulled from the news. Ron Howard brings Avedon (Netflix), built from personal archives around the life, work and legacy of American portrait photographer Richard Avedon. Poh Si Teng brings American Doctor (Watermelon), which follows three American physicians, one Jewish, one Palestinian and one Zoroastrian, volunteering at a hospital in Gaza.
Rory Kennedy brings The Trial of Alec Baldwin (Abramorama). Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi bring Everest: The Other Side (Nat Geo). Amir Bar-Lev brings The Last First: Winter K2 (Apple).
The rest of the list is Alysa Nahmias with Cookie Queens (Roadside), Itab Azzam and Jack MacInnes with One in a Million (Frontline), Julia Loktev with My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile (MUBI), Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim with You Can See Everything (A24), and William Greaves and David Greaves with Once Upon a Time in Harlem (Neon).
The record is striking. Over the past 12 years, 27 films featured on the panel went on to receive an Oscar nomination for best documentary feature, the Academy Award category for non-fiction film, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Eight went on to win: Amy (2015), O.J.: Made in America (2016), Icarus (2017), Free Solo (2018), American Factory (2019), Summer of Soul (2021), Navalny (2022) and 20 Days in Mariupol (2023).
What makes this stand out for viewers is timing. SCAD describes the roundtable as a curated collection of films with Academy Award ambitions. For anyone picking up their phone for this story, that simply means these are the non-fiction titles their makers and distributors want awards voters to see first.
