'Jane' the best documentary not nominated at the 2018 Oscars for World Wildlife Day

Happy World Wildlife Day!*  To celebrate, I'm following up on a promise to write about "Jane" I first made in 'Get Out,' 'The Handmaid's Tale,' and 'BoJack Horseman' win WGA Awards for Fat Tuesday/Paczki Day when I wrote "I plan to write about "Jane" and the awards it has won plus its Oscar snub after the BAFTA Awards.  Stay tuned."  I repeated that promise at the end of 'Blade Runner 2049,' 'Coco,' 'Game of Thrones,' and 'War for the Planet of the Apes' among Golden Reel Awards winners.  I made and repeated that promisie because I'm irked that it was not nominated for an Academy Award. I thought that was an injustice, as I mentioned in the comments to 'The Shape of Water,' 'Wonder Woman,' 'Game of Thrones,' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' all winners at the Costume Designers Guild Awards in my reply to Infidel 753.

Infidel: Unfortunately, "Wonder Woman" is not nominated in any category at the Oscars

Good grief, how stupid. There's something of a "WTF were they thinking" history of omissions at the Oscars, and this one will certainly join them.

Me: I agree. It's one of the two snubs of the year, the other being "Jane," the story of Jane Goodall, not being nominated for Best Documentary Feature.

Before I follow through with listing the awards the film has won and comparing it to the films that were nominated, I'm sharing the Official Film Trailer from National Geographic.

Drawing from never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives, director Brett Morgen tells the story of JANE, a woman whose chimpanzee research revolutionized our understanding of the natural world.

My readers will see Brett Morgan's name again.  Just follow over the jump.

It was not an accident that I promised to blog about "Jane" while I was reporting on the WGA Awards.  That's because it won the award for Documentary Screenplay there.  Watch Brett Morgen wins the 2018 Writers Guild Documentary Screenplay Award for Jane.  I told my readers they'd see his name again!

LA to Vegas star and Golden Globe-winning actor Dylan McDermott and Puddles Pity Party present the 2018 Writers Guild Award for Documentary Screenplay to Brett Morgen for Jane (Written by Brett Morgen; National Geographic).

Watching that makes me think that McDermott's finacee Maggie Q should have presented the award instead; she's a big animal lover.  Enough of that aside -- back to "Jane" and its awards.

IMDB lists all of the documentary's nominations and awards.  In addition to    the WGA Award, it won the following awards, not counting film festivals and local critics societies:

• ACE Eddie Awards: Best Edited Documentary - Feature
• Cinema Audio Society Awards: Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for Motion Pictures - Documentary
• Cinema Eye Honors Awards: Cinema Eye Audience Choice Prize for Brett Morgen, The Unforgettables for Jane Goodall, and Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Score for Philip Glass
• Critics' Choice Documentary Awards: Best Documentary
• MPSE Golden Reel Awards: Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing - Sound effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR for Documentary Feature Film
• National Board of Review: Best Documentary
• PGA Awards: Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
• Women Film Critics Circle Awards: Best Documentary by or About Women

Using the same points system I used in The most honored political documentaries of 2017 examine crime, injustice, and the Syrian Civil War, the film earned 20 points on wins alone.  Adding in the nominations from other awards shows and national critics associations gives it 29 points.  Wow!

As for the Oscar nominees, "Abacus: Small Enough to Jail" has 12 points, "Faces, Places" has 40 points (32 if one excludes French awards, for which the other documentaries are not eligible), "Icarus" has 11 points, "Last Men in Aleppo" has 28 points, and "Strong Island" has 16 points.  These data prompt me to say three things.  First, "Jane" is more deserving than four of the five nominees.  Second, "Last Men in Aleppo" really came on strong since the end of December, when it had only five points, while "Strong Island" has almost stalled since then, earning only four more points.  Finally, "Faces, Places" looks like the clear favorite among documentaries.  "Jane" deserved to be here, but it might not have won.  I suspect both "Jane" and "Abacus" will be eligible for News and Documentary Emmy Awards this fall, where they will be favored in their categories.

That's it for today.  I might have something for Marching Music Day tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

*Last year, I inadvertently celebrated the day by posting More evolution in action among urban animals.  Newsy may have known what day it was; I had no idea until International Women's Day, five days later.