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A visual history · Oscars

The winners who defined Documentary Feature.

81 ceremonies, 1944–2025. 82 different winners.

Who won most recently?
No Other Land in 2025.
  1. No Other LandYabayay Media
  2. 20 Days in MariupolPBS Distribution
  3. NavalnyWarner Bros. Pictures
  4. Summer of SoulSearchlight Pictures
  5. My Octopus TeacherNetflix
  6. American FactoryNetflix
Years explored
1944–2025
Different winners
82
Category leader
No leader
About this record

Best Documentary Feature was first awarded in 1944, so it does not run the full 1929–2025 window.

2000–2025

26 ceremonies

19442025

01 / The reigns

26 winners shaped this category.

The timeline turns the 2000–2025 record into a sequence of reigns. Longer bands reveal sustained runs; color shows the credited distributor.

One band per year, because no winner has gone back-to-back in the years on record. Colored by distributor; scroll sideways for the full run.
One Day in September'00
Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport'01
Murder on a Sunday Morning'02
Bowling for Columbine'03
The Fog of War'04
Born into Brothels'05
March of the Penguins'06
An Inconvenient Truth'07
Taxi to the Dark Side'08
Man on Wire'09
The Cove'10
Inside Job'11
Undefeated'12
Searching for Sugar Man'13
20 Feet from Stardom'14
Citizenfour'15
Amy'16
O.J.: Made in America'17
Icarus'18
Free Solo'19
American Factory'20
My Octopus Teacher'21
Summer of Soul'22
Navalny'23
20 Days in Mariupol'24
No Other Land'25

02 / The power map

Who stood behind the winners?

Netflix leads the recorded distributor credits with 3 wins, 2000–2025. The full distribution shows whether power was concentrated or shared.

Netflix3 wins
Sony3 wins
Disney2 wins
RADiUS-TWC2 wins
THINKFilm2 wins
Warner Bros.2 wins
Wins by distributor
  1. Netflix312%
  2. Sony312%
  3. Disney28%
  4. RADiUS-TWC28%
  5. THINKFilm28%
  6. Warner Bros.28%
  7. Other1246%

04 / The archive

Every year.
Every winner.

The complete reference behind the story, showing 2000–2025. Open any year to see the rest of the field when nominee records are available.

YearWinnerDistributor
2025No Other Land
beat 4 others
  • Black Box Diaries
  • Porcelain War
  • Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
  • Sugarcane
Yabayay Media
202420 Days in Mariupol
beat 4 others
  • Bobi Wine: The People's President
  • The Eternal Memory
  • Four Daughters
  • To Kill a Tiger
PBS Distribution
2023Navalny
beat 4 others
  • All That Breathes
  • All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
  • Fire of Love
  • A House Made of Splinters
Warner Bros. Pictures
2022Summer of Soul
beat 4 others
  • Ascension
  • Attica
  • Flee
  • Writing with Fire
Searchlight Pictures
2021My Octopus Teacher
beat 4 others
  • Collective
  • Crip Camp
  • The Mole Agent
  • Time
Netflix
2020American Factory
beat 4 others
  • The Cave
  • The Edge of Democracy
  • For Sama
  • Honeyland
Netflix
2019Free Solo
beat 4 others
  • Hale County This Morning, This Evening
  • Minding the Gap
  • Of Fathers and Sons
  • RBG
National Geographic Documentary Films
2018Icarus
beat 4 others
  • Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
  • Faces Places
  • Last Men in Aleppo
  • Strong Island
Netflix
2017O.J.: Made in America
beat 4 others
  • Fire at Sea
  • I Am Not Your Negro
  • Life, Animated
  • 13th
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
2016Amy
beat 4 others
  • Cartel Land
  • The Look of Silence
  • What Happened, Miss Simone?
  • Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
Altitude Film Distribution
2015Citizenfour
beat 4 others
  • Finding Vivian Maier
  • Last Days in Vietnam
  • The Salt of the Earth
  • Virunga
RADiUS-TWC
201420 Feet from Stardom
beat 4 others
  • The Act of Killing
  • Cutie and the Boxer
  • Dirty Wars
  • The Square
RADiUS-TWC
2013Searching for Sugar Man
beat 4 others
  • 5 Broken Cameras
  • The Gatekeepers
  • How to Survive a Plague
  • The Invisible War
NonStop Entertainment
2012Undefeated
beat 4 others
  • Hell and Back Again
  • If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
  • Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
  • Pina
The Weinstein Company
2011Inside Job
beat 4 others
  • Exit Through the Gift Shop
  • Gasland
  • Restrepo
  • Waste Land
Sony Pictures Classics
2010The Cove
beat 4 others
  • Burma VJ
  • Food, Inc.
  • The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
  • Which Way Home
Lionsgate
2009Man on Wire
beat 4 others
  • The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
  • Encounters at the End of the World
  • The Garden
  • Trouble the Water
Magnolia Pictures
2008Taxi to the Dark Side
beat 4 others
  • No End in Sight
  • Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
  • Sicko
  • War/Dance
THINKFilm
2007An Inconvenient Truth
beat 4 others
  • Deliver Us from Evil
  • Iraq in Fragments
  • Jesus Camp
  • My Country, My Country
Paramount Classics
2006March of the Penguins
beat 4 others
  • Darwin's Nightmare
  • Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
  • Murderball
  • Street Fight
Buena Vista International France
2005Born into Brothels
beat 4 others
  • The Story of the Weeping Camel
  • Super Size Me
  • Tupac: Resurrection
  • Twist of Faith
THINKFilm
2004The Fog of War
beat 4 others
  • Balseros
  • Capturing the Friedmans
  • My Architect
  • The Weather Underground
Sony Pictures Classics
2003Bowling for Columbine
beat 4 others
  • Daughter from Danang
  • Prisoner of Paradise
  • Spellbound
  • Winged Migration
United Artists
2002Murder on a Sunday Morning
beat 4 others
  • Children Underground
  • LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton
  • Promises
  • War Photographer
Pathé
2001Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport
beat 4 others
  • Legacy
  • Long Night's Journey into Day
  • Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
  • Sound and Fury
Warner Bros. Pictures
2000One Day in September
beat 4 others
  • Buena Vista Social Club
  • Genghis Blues
  • On the Ropes
  • Speaking in Strings
Sony Pictures Classics