Finalists for Best Documentary (Short Subject) are selected by the Documentary Branch based on a preliminary ballot. A second preferential ballot determines the five nominees.[1] These are the additional films that were shortlisted.
| Year | Finalists | |
|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Body & Soul: Diana & Kathy, If It Happens, Ochberg's Orphans, Portraits of a Lady[2] | |
| 2008 | David McCullough: Painting With Words, Downstream, Tongzhi in Love, Viva La Causa [3] | |
| 2009 | Lt. Watada, , Woman Rebel[4] [5] | |
| 2010 | Born Sweet, Living for 32, One Thousand Pictures: RFK’s Last Journey[6] | |
| 2011 | In Tahrir Square: 18 Days of Egypt’s Unfinished Revolution, Pipe Dreams, Witness[7] | |
| 2012 | The Education of Mohammad Hussein, ParaÍso, The Perfect Fit[8] | |
| 2013 | Jujitsu-ing Reality, Recollections, SLOMO[9] | |
| 2014 | Kehinde Wiley: An Economy of Grace, The Lion's Mouth Opens, One Child[10] | |
| 2015 | 50 Feet from Syria, Minerita, ’My Enemy, My Brother, Starting Point, The Testimony[11] | |
| 2016 | Brillo Box (3 ¢ Off), Close Ties, ’Frame 394, The Mute's House, The Other Side of Home[12] | |
| 2017 | Alone, Kayayo – The Living Shopping Baskets, ’116 Cameras, Ram Dass, Going Home, Ten Meter Tower[13] | |
| 2018 | Los Comandos, My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes, ’63 Boycott, Women of the Gulag, Zion[14] | |
| 2019 | After Maria, Ghosts of Sugar Land, Fire in Paradise, The Nightcrawlers, Stay Close[15] | |
| 2020 | Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa; Call Center Blues; Hysterical Girl; The Speed Cubers; What Would Sophia Loren Do?[16] | |
| 2021 | Águilas, A Broken House, Camp Confidential: America's Secret Nazis, Coded: The Hidden Love of J.C. Leyendecker, , The Facility, Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day, Sophie & the Baron, Takeover, Terror Contagion[17] | |
| 2022 | American Justice on Trial: People v. Newton, Anastasia, Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison, As Far as They Can Run, The Flagmakers, Happiness Is £4 Million, Holding Moses, Nuisance Bear, Shut Up and Paint, 38 at the Garden[18] | |
| 2023 | Bear, Between Earth & Sky, Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games, Camp Courage, Deciding Vote, How We Get Free, If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis, Last Song from Kabul, Oasis, Wings of Dust[19] |