We could not be prouder to share this news: Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing (2012) has been voted the Greatest Documentary of the 21st Century!
The film tops Documentary Magazine's brand-new list of the greatest documentaries released since 2000. The list was voted on by more than 300 members of the international documentary community: filmmakers, producers, programmers, academics and critics.
According to the International Documentary Association, which publishes the magazine, The Act of Killing stood out decisively, receiving more than three times as many votes as any other film on the list.
For all of us at Final Cut for Real, this means a great deal. The Act of Killing was produced by Signe Byrge Sørensen for Final Cut for Real, as an international co-production with a wide range of international funders - with support from the Danish Film Institute, DR and Danida, and with a large Danish team on board. Since its premiere in 2012 the film has gone on to receive more than 70 film prizes and over 50 nominations, including a BAFTA and an Academy Award nomination.
Our deepest congratulations and thanks go to Joshua Oppenheimer, to Signe Byrge Sørensen, and to the whole team and the many collaborators who made this extraordinary film possible — including those who remain anonymous to this day to protect their lives.
The full Top 25 list:
The Act of Killing — Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012
O.J.: Made in America — Ezra Edelman, 2016
I Am Not Your Negro — Raoul Peck, 2016
Cameraperson — Kirsten Johnson, 2016
Stories We Tell — Sarah Polley, 2012
The Gleaners and I — Agnès Varda, 2000
Hale County This Morning, This Evening — RaMell Ross, 2018
No Other Land — Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor, 2024
Bowling for Columbine — Michael Moore, 2002
Minding the Gap — Bing Liu, 2018
Man on Wire — James Marsh, 2008
Citizenfour — Laura Poitras, 2014
Honeyland — Tamara Kotevska & Ljubomir Stefanov, 2019
Waltz With Bashir — Ari Folman, 2008
Leviathan — Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2012
Grizzly Man — Werner Herzog, 2005
Time — Garrett Bradley, 2020
Four Daughters — Kaouther Ben Hania, 2023
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed — Laura Poitras, 2022
The Fog of War — Errol Morris, 2003
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat — Johan Grimonprez, 2024
Navalny — Daniel Roher, 2022
An Inconvenient Truth — Davis Guggenheim, 2006
Dick Johnson Is Dead — Kirsten Johnson, 2020
All That Breathes — Shaunak Sen, 2022