"Waiting for 'Superman'" is among the 15 finalists in the coveted Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature

Credit: Paramount

Fifteen documentaries out of an initial crowd of one hundred and one will advance into another round of voting to become nominees for the Documentary Feature category of the 83'rd annual Academy Awards. Notable docs include "Waiting For Superman" about our nation's failing school system, "Exit Through the Gift Shop" about famed street artist Banksy, and "The Tillman Story" about the friendly fire military cover up of the death of Pat Tillman.

The Documentary Branch Screening committee viewed all eligible documentaries and will now select five nominees out of the following fifteen, listed in alphabetical order.

• •“Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer,” Alex Gibney, director (ES Productions LLC)
• •“Enemies of the People,” Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, directors (Old Street Films)
• •“Exit through the Gift Shop,” Banksy, director (Paranoid Pictures)
• •“Gasland,” Josh Fox, director (Gasland Productions, LLC)
• •“Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould,” Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont, directors (White Pine Pictures)
• •“Inside Job,” Charles Ferguson, director (Representational Pictures)
• •“The Lottery,” Madeleine Sackler, director (Great Curve Films)
• •“Precious Life,” Shlomi Eldar, director (Origami Productions)
• •“Quest for Honor,” Mary Ann Smothers Bruni, director (Smothers Bruni Productions)
• •“Restrepo,” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, directors (Outpost Films)
• •“This Way of Life,” Thomas Burstyn, director (Cloud South Films)
• •“The Tillman Story,” Amir Bar-Lev, director (Passion Pictures/Axis Films)
• •“Waiting for ‘Superman’”, Davis Guggenheim, director (Electric Kinney Films)
• •“Waste Land,” Lucy Walker, director (Almega Projects)
• •“William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe,” Emily Kunstler and Sarah Kunstler, directors (Disturbing the Universe LLC)

Among the high profile docs missing from the list are Sundance favorites "Catfish," "Joan Rivers: Piece of Work" and Alex Gibney's "Casino Jack and the United States of Money." 

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

The Oscars will air live Sunday, February 27, 2011, on ABC