Deadline’s Doc Talk Podcast: Breaking Down An Emotional Oscars, And A True Accounting Of The True/False Festival

If Vladimir Putin was watching the Academy Awards on Sunday night from his dacha on the Black Sea, his mood may have been blackened by the Best Documentary Feature category. As Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast had predicted, the Oscar went to 20 Days in Mariupol, Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing film about the early days of Russia’s brutal siege of the Ukrainian port city. 

Chernov delivered emotional remarks as he accepted the Oscar, saying he would gladly trade his trophy for the lives of the thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russia’s aggression. Kate McKinnon and America Ferrera served as presenters for that category as well as for Best Documentary Short; Doc Talk called that race accurately as well, predicting victory for The Last Repair Shop, the film by Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers. 

In the new episode of the pod, hosts John Ridley and Matt Carey react to the Oscar show – and not just the doc categories. Carey explains why he watched the live Oscar telecast from a theater in Greece packed with Yorgos Lanthimos fans. And Ridley gives a shout-out to Oscar presenter Regina King, who stars in Ridley’s upcoming narrative film.

The Academy Awards recap is just the starter course for this edition of Doc Talk. The entrée is Ridley’s report from the just-concluded True/False festival in Columbia, MO, one of the country’s most prestigious documentary film festivals.

Ridley speaks with True/False artistic director Chloe Trayner, and to two filmmakers who brought new work to the festival: Sumira Roy, director of Bhangaar Obsolete, a film about an elderly Indian couple who demanded the right to end their lives on their own terms and schedule, and Sylvain Cruiziat, director of Boyz, about three friends on the cusp of adulthood. One of the protagonists of that film is the filmmaker’s younger brother. Cruiziat shares how his film began as a fictional short but somehow transformed into a feature documentary.

That’s on the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, hosted by Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave) and Carey, Deadline’s Documentary Editor. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and John Ridley’s Nō Studios.