The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has presented the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film yearly since 1941. The Academy Film Archive holds copies of all the winning films as well as most of the nominations. Before the announcement of nominees, fifteen films are shortlisted.
Best Documentary Short Film Oscar Winners
Here is a list of all the short documentaries to have won the award since the award’s debut in 1941:
| Year | Winners | Producer(s) |
| 1941 | Churchill's Island | National Film Board of Canada |
| 1943 | December 7th | United States Navy |
| 1944 | With the Marines at Tarawa | United States Marine Corps |
| 1945 | Hitler Lives? | Gordon Hollingshead |
| 1946 | Seeds of Destiny | United States Department of War |
| 1947 | First Steps | United Nations Division of Films and Visual Information |
| 1948 | Toward Independence | United States Army |
| 1949 | A Chance to Live / So Much for So Little | Richard de Rochemont / Edward Selzer |
| 1950 | Why Korea? | Edmund Reek |
| 1951 | Benjy | Fred Zinnemann & Paramount Pictures |
| 1952 | Neighbours | Norman McLaren |
| 1953 | The Alaskan Eskimo | Walt Disney |
| 1954 | Thursday's Children | World Wide Pictures & Morse Films |
| 1955 | Men against the Arctic | Walt Disney |
| 1956 | The True Story of the Civil War | Louis Clyde Stoumen |
| 1958 | Ama Girls | Ben Sharpsteen |
| 1959 | Glass | Bert Haanstra |
| 1960 | Giuseppina | James Hill |
| 1961 | Project Hope | Frank P. Bibas |
| 1962 | Dylan Thomas | Jack Howells |
| 1963 | Chagall | Simon Schiffrin |
| 1964 | Nine from Little Rock | Charles Guggenheim |
| 1965 | To Be Alive! | Francis Thompson |
| 1966 | A Year toward Tomorrow | Edmond A. Levy |
| 1967 | The Redwoods | Mark Harris & Trevor Greenwood |
| 1968 | Why Man Creates | Saul Bass |
| 1969 | Czechoslovakia 1968 | Denis Sanders & Robert M. Fresco |
| 1970 | Interviews with My Lai Veterans | Joseph Strick |
| 1971 | Sentinels of Silence | Manuel Arango & Robert Amram |
| 1972 | This Tiny World | Charles & Martina Huguenot van der Linden |
| 1973 | Princeton: A Search for Answers | Julian Krainin & DeWitt L. Sage, Jr. |
| 1974 | Don't | Robin Lehman |
| 1975 | The End of the Game | Claire Wilbur & Robin Lehman |
| 1976 | Number Our Days | Lynne Littman |
| 1977 | Gravity Is My Enemy | John Joseph & Jan Stussy |
| 1978 | The Flight of the Gossamer Condor | Jacqueline Phillips Shedd & Ben Shedd |
| 1979 | Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist | Saul J. Turell |
| 1980 | Karl Hess: Toward Liberty | Roland Hallé & Peter W. Ladue |
| 1981 | Close Harmony | Nigel Noble |
| 1982 | If You Love This Planet | Edward Le Lorrain & Terri Nash |
| 1983 | Flamenco at 5:15 | Cynthia Scott & Adam Symansky |
| 1984 | The Stone Carvers | Marjorie Hunt & Paul Wagner |
| 1985 | Witness to War: Dr. Charlie Clements | David Goodman |
| 1986 | Women--for America, for the World | Vivienne Verdon-Roe |
| 1987 | Young at Heart | Sue Marx & Pamela Conn |
| 1988 | You Don't Have to Die | William Guttentag & Malcolm Clarke |
| 1989 | The Johnstown Flood | Charles Guggenheim |
| 1990 | Days of Waiting | Steven Okazaki |
| 1991 | Deadly Deception | Debra Chasnoff |
| 1992 | Educating Peter | Thomas C. Goodwin & Gerardine Wurzburg |
| 1993 | Defending Our Lives | Margaret Lazarus & Renner Wunderlich |
| 1994 | A Time for Justice | Charles Guggenheim |
| 1995 | One Survivor Remembers | Kary Antholis |
| 1996 | Breathing Lessons | Jessica Yu |
| 1997 | A Story of Healing | Donna Dewey & Carol Pasternak |
| 1998 | The Personals | Keiko Ibi |
| 1999 | King Gimp | Susan Hannah Hadary & William A. Whiteford |
| 2000 | Big Mama | Tracy Seretean |
| 2001 | Thoth | Sarah Kernochan & Lynn Appelle |
| 2002 | Twin Towers | Bill Guttentag & Robert David Port |
| 2003 | Chernobyl Heart | Maryann DeLeo |
| 2004 | Mighty Times: The Children's March | Robert Hudson & Bobby Houston |
| 2005 | A Note of Triumph | Corinne Marrinan & Eric Simonson |
| 2006 | The Blood of Yingzhou District | Ruby Yang & Thomas Lennon |
| 2007 | Freeheld | Cynthia Wade & Vanessa Roth |
| 2008 | Smile Pinki | Megan Mylan |
| 2009 | Music by Prudence | Roger Ross Williams & Elinor Burkett |
| 2010 | Strangers No More | Karen Goodman & Kirk Simon |
| 2011 | Saving Face | Daniel Junge & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy |
| 2012 | Inocente | Sean Fine & Andrea Nix Fine |
| 2013 | The Lady in Number 6 | Malcolm Clarke & Nicholas Reed |
| 2014 | Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 | Ellen Goosenberg Kent & Dana Perry |
| 2015 | A Girl in the River | Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy |
| 2016 | The White Helmets | Orlando von Einsiedel & Joanna Natasegara |
| 2017 | Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405 | Frank Stiefel |
| 2018 | Period. End of Sentence. | Rayka Zehtabchi & Melissa Berton |
| 2019 | Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone | Carol Dysinger & Elena Andreicheva |
| 2020 | Colette | Anthony Giacchino & Alice Doyard |
| 2021 | The Queen of Basketball | Ben Proudfoot |
| 2022 | The Elephant Whisperers | Kartiki Gonsalves & Guneet Monga |
| 2023 | The Last Repair Shop | Ben Proudfoot & Kris Bowers |
| 2024 | The Only Girl in the Orchestra | Molly O'Brien |
Also Read: Best Documentary Feature film award winners
FAQs about Oscars
A. The Last Repair Shop won the Best Documentary Short Film Oscar in 2024.
A. The Best Documentary Short Film award was introduced in 1941 at the Oscars.
A. In the year 1957, there was no award represented for the Best Documentary Short Film at the Oscar.
A. The Only Girl in the Orchestra won the Best Documentary Short Film Oscar in 2025.
