Differing Responses to COVID Showcased in Two Oscar Documentary Contenders

In the Oscar shortlist for best documentary feature, two different hopefuls — The First Wave and In the Same Breath — focus entirely on governmental and community response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But while both docs share a common subject, their scope distinguishes them vastly. 

NatGeo’s The First Wave, directed by Matthew Heineman (a previous Oscar nominee in 2016 for the documentary Cartel Land) focuses on one hospital in New York City during the first four months of the pandemic. The Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, along with its doctors, nurses and patients, becomes the intimate subjects of Heineman’s verité-style, extremely graphic film. The First Wave follows one physician in particular, Dr. Nathalie Dougé, as she observes COVID disparately impacting communities of color. It showcases the daily losses and unimaginably painful moments medical professionals continue to go through as the pandemic rages on. Alex Gibney, an Oscar winner in 2008 for Taxi to the Dark Side and nominee in 2006 for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, serves as executive producer. The film premiered in October at the Hamptons Film Festival and has received the Pare Lorentz award from the International Documentary Association, also earning nominations at the PGA and Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

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Meanwhile, HBO Max’s In the Same Breath zooms out and takes a much broader look at the COVID epidemic, focusing instead on the respective responses of the Chinese and American governments. In the Same Breath is directed by Nanfu Wang, an Emmy nominee for Born in China (2019) whose documentary feature One Child Nation (2019) was also Oscar-shortlisted. Wang embeds her own narrative — her fears of traveling with her family to her hometown of Jiangxi, China — into the story of how the Chinese government covered up early COVID cases and downplayed the virus’ severity in an effort to save face. Wang spotlights the propaganda machine of the Communist party before turning her attentions to America, where she shines a light on the dangerous spread of misinformation at the hands of alt-right, anti-lockdown militants. The film debuted at last year’s Sundance Film Festival and later scooped an audience award at the SXSW Film Festival as well as nominations for IDA, PGA and Independent Spirit Awards.

What’s remarkable about both films — and could boost each closer to a respective Oscar nomination — is the fact that their subject matter necessitated an incredibly rapid production timeline. Both premiered last year, meaning each filmmaker had to find their story, collect and edit their footage and package their findings into a finished piece about the past two years within a time span of even less than that. On top of that, making a film about COVID necessitates an extra level of precautions for the crew, who are working in extremely vulnerable conditions and risking their own health. “It was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever made,” Heineman told The Hollywood Reporter in December about filming The First Wave. “It was absolutely terrifying.”

The films will face stiff competition to make it from the shortlist of 15 to the final five nominees — music docs, notoriously beloved by the Academy, are well represented with Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Summer of Soul and The Velvet Underground. Acclaimed features like Flee and The Rescue will also be ones to watch out for. Voting for the nominations for the 94th Academy Awards concludes on Feb. 1, with nominees announced Feb. 8.