Late last night I tweeted some last minute predictions for the Oscar nominees in the Documentary Feature category. Just to toot my horn, I got 4 out of 4, and I can kind of explain my choices, which didn’t include two of my favorite (and certainly the best) docs of last year: Project Nim and We Were Here. Before analyzing, though, here are the nominees for both the feature and short documentary categories (nominated persons in parenthesis are the producers):

BEST DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

Hell and Back Again (Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner)

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman)

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky)

Pina (Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel)

Undefeated (TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas)

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin)

God Is the Bigger Elvis (Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson)

Incident in New Baghdad (James Spione)

Saving Face (Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy)

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen)

First of all, let me say that I love all four of the feature nominees that I’ve seen. The one I keep missing is Undefeated, which I hear is an amazing sports film. I knew it would be recognized regardless because its distributor is The Weinstein Company, notorious as they are for their Oscar hunger.

The other nominees that had to be include the third Paradise Lost film, which is both the first nod of its series and the first for Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. I think it will win if only because these films helped in the release of three innocent men. It’s also a good final chapter to the trilogy. It’ll be the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King of docs.

It’s exciting to see a 3D dance film in there, and Pina is Wenders’ second nomination in the category (surprisingly he’s never been nominated for his narrative films). I hope that was chosen partly for its innovation and distinction with the form. If a Tree Falls director Marshall Curry also received his second nom. Their firsts were Buena Vista Social Club (in 2000) and Street Fight (in 2006), respectively. Here’s a statement from Wenders sent to Doc Channel Blog in response to the honor this morning:

It’s fantastic to be nominated for Best Documentary for the second time after Buena Vista Social Club, especially as it is the first time for a 3D film to be given that honor. All the dancers and collaborators of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, together with the crew and the production company Neue Road Movies, are extremely honored. With our journey into the magical kingdom of the great German choreographer Pina Bausch we wanted to raise a monument to this pioneer of modern dance. The worldwide success of Pina and now this Oscar nomination are fantastic rewards and recognition of our common work.

Last but not least is Hell and Back Again, the debut of Danfung Dennis and fortunately not overlooked as a repeat of last year’s Afghanistan War-based nominee, Restrepo. Again, I hope some of the recognition is for the unconventional structure of the doc, which plays like a real life Deer Hunter in a way. Also for the cinematography. Both those factors make it a highly cinematic doc, and that’s supposedly what the Academy’s interested in now. Hell and Back Again hit DVD, Blu-ray and online streaming sites today. See it immediately.

I can’t say much about the short films because I’ve only seen one of them. And I’m not a huge fan of it, so I won’t even name it at the moment. I’m very intrigued about the rest, especially those I know little to nothing about. A good friend keeps telling me that Incident in New Baghdad is excellent, so that’s as much as I can tell you.

Many short nominees are also making a return to the Oscars, including Tsunami director Lucy Walker, recognized last year for her feature Waste Land, and Barber co-director Gail Dolgin, nominated in 2003 for her and Vicente Franco’s Daughter from Danang. God is the Bigger Elvis director Rebecca Cammisa was previously nominated in 2009 for her feature Which Way Home and Saving Face director Daniel Junge was recognized two years ago for his short The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner.

The Academy Awards can never be taken too seriously, and we’ve already been reminded of the doc category issues numerous times this year (and their changes). People remain very unhappy that The Interrupters didn’t make the shortlist, for instance. I congratulate all the nominees today, but I also want to express to the excluded that it’s not a big deal. A big hypocritical, I know. How about just congrats to all the great docs of the past year?

What do you think of the 2012 Oscar nominees?