November 27, 2024

Watch 20 Oscar-Winning Feature Film Documentaries for Free Online

Starting in 1942, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences began bestowing the award for Best Documentary Feature Film. In recent years, many of these excellent feature-length documentaries have become available legally for free on YouTube and free movie sites like Tubi. From the war propaganda films of World War II to the contemporary political and social issue documentaries that often win today, you’ll get a wide variety of documentaries from film history in this list. So here, in chronological order, are twenty Oscar-winning feature film documentaries available to watch for free online. We’ve written reviews of many of them below and will write more reviews here as we watch them all!

1. Prelude to War (1942)

Watch this historic first documentary in Frank Capra’s Why We Fight series produced by the US Department of War from 1942 to 1945. The 50-minute film is an effective piece of war propaganda directed by Capra that was initially meant to be shown to American soldiers to explain why we were heading to war. President Franklin Roosevelt liked the film so much that he pushed for it to be viewed publicly, and it was eventually seen by over 50 million Americans.

In the film, Capra uses propaganda footage from the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan, and re-contextualizes it to contrast it with the American way of life. Capra had watched Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935) and wanted to make a counterpart to that piece of Nazi propaganda. He sets the stage for the film by contrasting the world of freedom and the world of slavery. Using animations drawn by Walt Disney Productions, he shows maps of the spreading of fascism in Europe and Asia. And he shows the leaders Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Hirohito in a villainous light.

The documentary does show Americans arguing for isolationism which was popular at the time, but the movie argues that totalitarian militarism was spreading fast and would soon reach American shores if not countered. In the end, the movie quotes Army Chief of Staff George Marshall: “The victory of the democracies can only be complete with the utter defeat of the war machines of Germany and Japan”. This documentary was the very first film to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film.

2. The True Glory (1945)

This Oscar-winning documentary features amazing footage from the U.S. Office of War Information and the British Ministry of Information in the final year of World War II. General Dwight D. Eisenhower introduces the film which features narration of the words of soldiers and others who contributed to the war effort. The documentary footage begins with the Normandy landings on D-Day of June 6, 1944, all the way through the battles in France and Germany up to the fall of Berlin and the German unconditional surrender on May 8, 1945. Along the way, dramatized voices from the Allied Forces chime in with accompanying combat footage from land, sea, and air.

While it’s not a comprehensive history lesson of the final year of the war, it certainly leaves an impression of what the last year of World War II was like in the European theatre of combat. From the beaches of Normandy to the concentration camps in Germany, you’ll see the triumphs and horrors of this major 20th-century conflict, restored in high definition by the U.S. National Archives. The direction of the film is attributed to British director Carol Reed, with many other significant contributors, utilizing footage from over 1,000 cameramen.

3. Kon-Tiki (1951)

Watch the harrowing journey of Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl and his crew of five men as they travel from Peru to the Polynesian Islands on a raft named “Kon-Tiki” made out of balsa logs. Heyerdahl hypothesized that South Americans could have reached Polynesia during pre-Columbian times, and he set out on a crazy journey to prove his point. At first, the documentary might make you seasick from the shaky camera work as the Kon-Tiki sails across the Pacific Ocean. But you’ll soon settle in and witness this survival tale as the men battle off sharks and whales and deal with other treacherous elements that seek to end their voyage. In the end, they do arrive on a Polynesian island after 101 days and 4,300 miles. While Heyerdahl admits this doesn’t prove South Americans made this voyage, he nevertheless showed that it was possible. Thor Heyerdahl wrote the narration of the film which is read by an English narrator. The footage is black and white 16mm and the transfer isn’t great in this version on Tubi, but it still makes for a compelling watch in this Oscar-winning documentary from 1951.

4. Albert Schweitzer (1957)

This documentary on the life of Albert Schweitzer uses archival footage to detail the life and work of the beloved philosopher, doctor, and humanitarian. Starting with Schweitzer’s upbringing, the viewer gains direct insight into what motivated him, including an early love of nature, animals, and the searching way he went from being a musician, to preaching, to teaching, until he decided upon a life of service in equatorial Africa. In addition, this program offers priceless footage of Schweitzer’s daily work habits, and follows him on a return trip he made later in life to the village where he grew up. This film won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

5. Sky Above and Mud Beneath (1961)

Sky Above and Mud Beneath follows a grueling 7-month journey of a Franco-Dutch expedition led by Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau into what was at the time Dutch New Guinea. The film is part ethnographic and part exploration as they encounter tribes along the way. The encounters with cannibals, headhunters, and Pygmies present the more interesting aspects of film, as the filmmakers capture many ceremonies and rituals of the various tribes. The exploration part of this documentary is more ridiculous as the explorers complain of the horrid conditions and are air-dropped rescue supplies frequently. Nevertheless, the filmmakers capture some gorgeous places along their thousand-mile journey. The film has no dialogue and only narration. William Peacock narrates the English version of this film with a script by director Pierre-Dominique Gaisseau. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1961.

6. Marjoe (1972)

7. The Man Who Skied Down Everest (1975)

Watch this impressive documentary on Yuichiro Miura’s attempt to become the first person to ski down Mount Everest on May 6, 1970. Most of the movie covers the large crew’s ascent up Everest starting in Kathmandu, Nepal until they reach the summit. The film is shot on 35mm CinemaScope providing some gorgeous views as they climb the mountain. The audio narration consists of excerpts of Yuichiro Miura’s insightful diary during the climb and is narrated by Douglas Rain (who interestingly enough provided the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey). The expedition takes a dark turn when six Sherpas died after a glacier collapse. The rest of the voyage up is a brutal, existential survival story and we won’t spoil the ending, but it is riveting. This movie won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film in 1975.

8. Scared Straight! (1978)

9. From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China (1980)

10. Genocide (1981)

11. Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt (1989)

12. The Panama Deception (1992)

13. The Long Way Home (1997)

14. Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001)

15. Bowling for Columbine (2002)

16. Born Into Brothels (2004)

17. Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

18. Undefeated (2011)

19. Citizenfour (2014)

In this chilling and paranoia-inducing documentary, director Laura Poitras follows around whistleblower Edward Snowden as he exposes the current methods the NSA is spying on people around the globe. At first Snowden’s paranoia seems a bit ridiculous, but all involved including journalist Glenn Greenwald are rapidly engulfed in a web of global surveillance, as the United States seeks to bring Snowden back to the U.S. for violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and other counts. It’s a fascinating and frightening tale that is sure to get you thinking about how your digital life is being monitored. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 2015 Oscars.

20. 20 Days in Mariupol (2023)

Watch this brutal documentary on the invasion of Mariupol, Ukraine, by Russian forces in 2022. The documentary was directed by Ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov and produced by the Associated Press and PBS Frontline, which is offering the documentary for free on their YouTube channel. The footage Chernov captures is the ground-level reality of the siege of Mariupol over the first 20 days of the invasion. It features the killing of civilians, the bombing of hospitals, and other war crimes carried out by Russian forces. Chernov presents the thoughts and emotions of the people of Mariupol as the invasion is carried out and all the chaos and suffering that ensues. It is bleak and essential viewing of the realities of a war that has killed thousands of Ukrainians.

And you can check out over 1,500 Free Documentaries in our LearnOutLoud.com Free Documentaries Collection!