Ava DuVernay's "14th" Opens 12th Doc Stories – Ten Oscar Contenders in the Lineup

TVS News AI, editorially supervised, presents Ava DuVernay's "14th" Opens 12th Doc Stories – Ten Oscar Contenders in the Lineup.

San Francisco turns its documentary gaze on awards season. The 12th edition of the documentary festival Doc Stories begins on November 5 – and opens with a Netflix film that just celebrated its premiere at the New York Film Festival.

The opening film is "14th" by Ava DuVernay. It is one of the ten Oscar-relevant documentaries that Doc Stories is including in this edition's program. This comes from a Variety exclusive that first published the line-up.

Alongside "14th," Variety lists J.M. Harper's "Soul Patrol", Sam Pollard's "Tutu", and another documentary by a director with the first name James, among others. A total of ten works that could play a role in the upcoming awards season get a stage in San Francisco.

Why the choice falls on "14th"

DuVernay's Netflix production premiered at NYFF earlier this month – making it one of the most-discussed documentaries of the fall. With "14th" as the opening film, Doc Stories is making a statement: the festival wants to become visible during awards season as a stop between New York and the Oscar ceremony, where Oscar contenders can reach their audience one more time before Academy voting.

What this means for awards season

Anyone who heads to the cinema in San Francisco between the opening and the festival's close will see ten documentaries that often aren't available via streaming elsewhere for weeks. Which ones will actually land on the Oscar shortlist remains to be seen – but their San Francisco stage is already secured.