On November 29th, Matthew Heineman’s documentary American Symphony plays on Netflix after being on the festival circuit beginning at Telluride. It recounts a year in the life of Grammy winning musician Jon Batiste and family.
Heineman is no stranger to awards hopefuls in the genre. 2015’s Cartel Land made the quintet of nominees. 2021’s The First Wave and last year’s Retrograde were discussed for attention and was up in other precursors though each failed to make the Academy cut.
Symphony is at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes and scored six Critics Choice nods at their ceremony over the weekend honoring true life works. It won two with Best Music Documentary and Score (losing the main prize to Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie).
Drawing a correlation between Critics Choice and the Academy is risky. As I’ve discussed numerous times, the doc branch of voters at the big ceremony are unpredictable. Symphony stands an excellent shot at making the eventual quintet, but it’s gotta make the shortlist first and surprises seem to occur there every year when revealed. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
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