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Every Oscars Best Documentary Short Film winner

26 ceremonies, 2000–2025. 26 different winners.

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
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 bar covers the other 25.

The full list

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

More Oscars categories

Animated FeatureInternational FeaturePictureDirectorSoundSound MixingSound EditingDocumentary FeatureAnimated ShortLive Action ShortOriginal ScoreOriginal SongSupp. ActorSupp. ActressOrig. ScreenplayAdapted ScreenplayAll 25 categories

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