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A visual history · Oscars

The winners who defined Documentary Short.

81 ceremonies, 1944–2025. 82 different winners.

Who won most recently?
The Only Girl in the Orchestra in 2025.
  1. The Only Girl in the OrchestraNetflix
  2. The Last Repair ShopSearchlight Pictures
  3. The Elephant WhisperersNetflix
  4. The Queen of BasketballThe New York Times
  5. ColetteThe Guardian
  6. Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)Lifetime Films
Years explored
1944–2025
Different winners
82
Category leader
No leader
About this record

Best Documentary Short Film 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.
King Gimp'00
Big Mama'01
Thoth'02
Twin Towers'03
Chernobyl Heart'04
Mighty Times: The Children's March'05
A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin'06
The Blood of Yingzhou District'07
Freeheld'08
Smile Pinki'09
Music by Prudence'10
Strangers No More'11
Saving Face'12
Inocente'13
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life'14
Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1'15
A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness'16
The White Helmets'17
Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405'18
Period. End of Sentence.'19
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)'20
Colette'21
The Queen of Basketball'22
The Elephant Whisperers'23
The Last Repair Shop'24
The Only Girl in the Orchestra'25

02 / The power map

Who stood behind the winners?

HBO leads the recorded distributor credits with 8 wins, 2000–2025. The full distribution shows whether power was concentrated or shared.

HBO8 wins
Netflix5 wins
Apollo Cinema1 win
California Newsreel1 win
Cinema Guild1 win
Direct Cinema1 win
Wins by distributor
  1. HBO832%
  2. Netflix520%
  3. Apollo Cinema14%
  4. California Newsreel14%
  5. Cinema Guild14%
  6. Direct Cinema14%
  7. Other832%

1 further win has no distributor on record and is not counted in the 25 above.

1 of these 26 wins has no distributor on record, so the chart covers the other 25.

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
2025The Only Girl in the Orchestra
beat 4 others
  • Death by Numbers
  • I Am Ready, Warden
  • Incident
  • Instruments of a Beating Heart
Netflix
2024The Last Repair Shop
beat 4 others
  • The ABCs of Book Banning
  • The Barber of Little Rock
  • Island in Between
  • Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó
Searchlight Pictures
2023The Elephant Whisperers
beat 4 others
  • Haulout
  • How Do You Measure a Year?
  • The Martha Mitchell Effect
  • Stranger at the Gate
Netflix
2022The Queen of Basketball
beat 4 others
  • Audible
  • Lead Me Home
  • Three Songs for Benazir
  • When We Were Bullies
The New York Times
2021Colette
beat 4 others
  • A Concerto Is a Conversation
  • Do Not Split
  • Hunger Ward
  • A Love Song for Latasha
The Guardian
2020Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
beat 4 others
  • In the Absence
  • Life Overtakes Me
  • St. Louis Superman
  • Walk Run Cha-Cha
Lifetime Films
2019Period. End of Sentence.
beat 4 others
  • Black Sheep
  • End Game
  • Lifeboat
  • A Night at the Garden
Netflix
2018Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405
beat 4 others
  • Edith+Eddie
  • Heroin(e)
  • Knife Skills
  • Traffic Stop
Grasshopper Film
2017The White Helmets
beat 4 others
  • Extremis
  • 4.1 Miles
  • Joe's Violin
  • Watani: My Homeland
Netflix
2016A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
beat 4 others
  • Body Team 12
  • Chau, Beyond the Lines
  • Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah
  • Last Day of Freedom
HBO
2015Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
beat 4 others
  • Joanna
  • Our Curse
  • The Reaper (La Parka)
  • White Earth
HBO
2014The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
beat 4 others
  • CaveDigger
  • Facing Fear
  • Karama Has No Walls
  • Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Netflix
2013Inocente
beat 4 others
  • Kings Point
  • Mondays at Racine
  • Open Heart
  • Redemption
ShortsHD
2012Saving Face
beat 4 others
  • The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
  • God Is the Bigger Elvis
  • Incident in New Baghdad
  • The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
HBO
2011Strangers No More
beat 4 others
  • Killing in the Name
  • Poster Girl
  • Sun Come Up
  • The Warriors of Qiugang
HBO
2010Music by Prudence
beat 4 others
  • China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
  • The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
  • The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
  • Rabbit à la Berlin
HBO
2009Smile Pinki
beat 3 others
  • The Conscience of Nhem En
  • The Final Inch
  • The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Smile Train
2008Freeheld
beat 3 others
  • La Corona (The Crown)
  • Salim Baba
  • Sari's Mother
No distributor credited
2007The Blood of Yingzhou District
beat 3 others
  • Recycled Life
  • Rehearsing a Dream
  • Two Hands
Cinema Guild
2006A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
beat 3 others
  • The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club
  • God Sleeps in Rwanda
  • The Mushroom Club
Apollo Cinema
2005Mighty Times: The Children's March
beat 4 others
  • Autism Is a World
  • The Children of Leningradsky
  • Hardwood
  • Sister Rose's Passion
HBO
2004Chernobyl Heart
beat 2 others
  • Asylum
  • Ferry Tales
HBO
2003Twin Towers
beat 3 others
  • The Collector of Bedford Street
  • Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks
  • Why Can't We Be a Family Again?
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment
2002Thoth
beat 2 others
  • Artists and Orphans: A True Drama
  • Sing!
Direct Cinema
2001Big Mama
beat 4 others
  • Curtain Call
  • Dolphins
  • The Man on Lincoln's Nose
  • On Tiptoe: Gentle Steps to Freedom
California Newsreel
2000King Gimp
beat 2 others
  • Eyewitness
  • The Wildest Show in the South: The Angola Prison Rodeo
HBO