Once Upon a Time in Harlem is continuing its strong push for Oscar recognition, earning five nominations Tuesday for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. That’s added to the distinction of premiering at Sundance, and being honored with berths at the Cannes, Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals – the only documentary to do so this year.

The film directed by David Greaves and produced by Liani Greaves (David’s daughter) is based on extraordinary footage from an event in 1972 – a reunion for one afternoon only of the surviving members of the Harlem Renaissance. They gathered at the home of Duke Ellington for what would be a final opportunity to renew friendships, share stories and engage in vigorous debate about the Harlem Renaissance, its artists and scholars, and Black cultural and political life in America.

The documentary, based on material shot by William Greaves – David’s father and Liani’s grandfather – opens theatrically in New York this Friday and in Los Angeles on October 23. David and Liani join the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast to discuss their remarkable nonfiction feature and how they crafted it from almost 30 hours of raw footage.

David was one of the original cameramen on the 1972 shoot. He recalls working with his father to capture the once-in-a-lifetime gathering and how William wanted the finished film “to be a theatrical experience that moves at a snappy pace.” Liani reflects on her grandfather who was a true Renaissance man himself: actor, sculptor, poet, dancer, songwriter and filmmaker.

RELATED: ‘Once Upon A Time In Harlem’ Trailer: Oscar Contender Reveals Extraordinary Reunion Of Harlem Renaissance Leaders

The Greaves also explore the interpersonal dynamics at play in the reunion of so many artists and thinkers who gathered that day in Harlem. Disagreements emerged among the group on how to define the Harlem Renaissance and whether its legacy would continue or be lost. The Greaves speak to the importance of women to the Harlem Renaissance and how their integral role is sometimes overlooked.

Certain frictions or frustrations became apparent during the reunion as some of those women tried to make their voices heard in the din of lively conversation.

Liani Greaves reveals why the presence of George Schuyler at the gathering triggered strong emotions among some of the attendees (having to do with his contrarian politics). She also relates one unflattering remark aimed at Schuyler — a moment not included in the documentary. Doc Talk co-host John Ridley explains why he particularly identified with comments made in the film by Richard Bruce Nugent, one of those fascinating living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance featured in the documentary.

That’s on the new episode of Doc Talk hosted by Oscar winner Ridley (12 Years a Slave, Shirley) and Matt Carey, Deadline’s senior documentary editor. The pod is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.

Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.

EXCLUSIVE: The New York Times’ prestigious Op-Docs platform has acquired The Revolution Against Death, the new short film directed by two-time Oscar nominee Joshua Oppenheimer.

The documentary set at an annual longevity conference known as the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival will be co-released globally in early December by New York Op-Docs and MUBI. It premiered at the Tampere Film Festival in Finland and recently screened at the Telluride Film Festival.

At sessions as part of the Revolution Against Aging and Death Festival, “fear is in the air — of illness, of invisibility, of dying alone,” notes a release. “Directed by Oppenheimer, the film offers a visceral portrait of aging, death and the quest for immortality.”

Oppenheimer (The Look of Silence, The Act of Killing) is no mere impartial observer of the festival proceedings.

“Haunted by a fear of death since I was a child, I traveled to a gathering of would-be immortals,” he writes of the film project. “I recognized myself, clinging white-knuckled to the hope that I might defeat death. In the years that followed, I discovered that because nothing lasts, everything matters — and eternity lies in change itself. This film is my poem about that journey.”

In a statement, Op-Docs Executive Producer Alexandra Garcia commented, “We are honored to bring Joshua Oppenheimer’s work to the Op-Docs audience with this unique film that is a haunting, observational look at the fundamental human conflict between the reality of death and the relentless drive for immortality.”

The Revolution Against Death joins seven other films on Op-Docs’s 2026 slate of awards contenders, including Living With a Visionary, winner of the Short Film Jury Award for Animation at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival; The Tuners, winner of a Silver Dragon at the 2026 Krakow Film Festival, and A Wolf in the Suburbs, which premiered at SXSW this year. Op-Docs won an Academy Award for its 2021 short The Queen of Basketball, directed by Ben Proudfoot. The series has claimed seven Oscar nominations, including in 2025 for Instruments of a Beating Heart, directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki, and in 2024 for Island In Between, directed by S. Leo Chaing.

The Revolution Against Death screens Saturday at the Chicago International Film Festival and next month at IDFA in Amsterdam, the world’s biggest documentary film festival.

Oppenheimer is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, widely known as the “genius grant,” that is awarded to “extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential.” The filmmaker made his fiction debut in 2024 with The End, a post-apocalyptic musical thriller starring Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, and George MacKay.

The New York Times Op-Docs is a collection of more than 450 short films that “have sparked global conversations, influenced national policies and garnered an array of industry distinctions, including Emmy Awards, Peabody Awards and an Oscar.” Alexandra Garcia is executive producer of the series and Yvonne Ashley Kouadjo is the producer.