EXCLUSIVE: Netflix has announced the acquisition of two award-winning documentary shorts that should put the streamer squarely back into Oscar contention.

Set to join the platform are an open field, winner of Best Short Documentary at the 2025 International Documentary Festival (IDFA), and One Last Order, which has earned multiple honors including Best Documentary and the Audience Award at the 2026 Aspen Shortsfest, the Short Film Audience Award at the Miami Film Festival, and the Best Documentary Short Audience Award at the Nantucket Film Festival.

Teboho Edkins, director of an open field, tragically lost his brother Max Thabiso Edkins in the catastrophic crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft in Ethiopia in 2019. The air disaster, caused by the faulty activation of Boeing’s MCAS automated flight software, killed all 157 people on board. Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 went down in an open farm field in the Gimbichu district of Ethiopia.

“In an open field, we learn that dozens of nearby villagers immediately converged on the site to help, and that some stood vigil for a month to protect and preserve the crash area,” notes a synopsis. “Years later, they continue to mourn alongside family members who visit the site, including [director Teboho] Edkins and his father, Don, who produced the film. Boeing’s widely criticized response to the crash stands in sharp contrast to the community’s enduring compassion. Both a personal essay on loss and an exploration of the potential healing power of collective mourning, Edkins’s film is a quiet testament to humanity— moments of warmth, resolve, grief, fear, patience, and simple acts of kindness.”

In a statement, director Teboho Edkins said, “This is a delicate and personal work, and about something fundamental to being human. I hope that the film can find its way to as many people as possible, and that something in it might resonate with them. Having Netflix bring the film to its global audiences is very meaningful to me and I’m grateful for their support as it makes its way out into the world.”

One Last Order, directed by Lauren DeFilippo and Sam Soko, tells an uplifting story from Gainesville, FL. For decades, Sighle (pronounced “Sheila”) Williams has brought joy to her community as a loving and caring presence at a fast-food hamburger stand.

“At Mac’s Drive-Thru in Gainesville, Florida, Sighle Williams is working her final shift after 37 years,” reads the synopsis. “She’s the voice who knows your order before you say it, the smile that turned fast food into something personal. But this isn’t just any farewell. The owner of Mac’s announces every dollar earned that day goes straight to Sighle. Cars wrap around the block. Three-hour waits. All carrying a Sighle story. One Last Order is the story of a woman who met the world with kindness through a drive-thru window and made the most routine moment of someone’s day feel like it counted.”

One Last Order is produced by Lauren DeFilippo, Sam Soko, and Amanda Pollak.

“Sighle remembered every order and every smile. Now we get to celebrate her, and all the other Sighles out there who make an ordinary day feel a little brighter,” observed DeFilippo and Soko. “This film is a love letter to everyday kindness and the people who make ordinary places extraordinary. We’re thrilled Netflix is sharing it with you, too.”

One Last Order is an Insignia Films & LBx Africa production in association with The Harnisch Foundation. Executive producers include Ruth Ann Harnisch, Sam Bisbee, Ron DeFilippo, Bramwel Iro, Stephen Ives.

an open field, meanwhile, is a production of Day Zero Film and Video Productions (South Africa), Day Zero Films UG (Germany), and Survivance (France). Don Edkins and Carine Chichkowsky produced the film.

Netflix has won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short the last two years – All the Empty Rooms in 2026 and The Only Girl in the Orchestra in 2025. It has another Oscar contender lined up with The Baddest Speechwriter of All, which the streamer acquired out of the Sundance Film Festival. That film, directed by two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot and NBA great Stephen Curry, centers on Clarence B. Jones, a key adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who help craft King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The Baddest Speechwriter of All has claimed numerous awards, including the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at Sundance, and the Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary and the Audience Award for short doc at the Annapolis Film Festival in Maryland.

Tom McCarthy’s “A Statement” and Jonathan Glazer’s “Joy of Joys” will make their world premieres at the 64th New York Film Festival as part of the Spotlight lineup, Film at Lincoln Center shared on Tuesday. As previously announced, Takashi Yamazaki’s “Godzilla Minus Zero” will make its global debut as the Spotlight Gala on Sept. 26. The festival runs from Sept. 25-Oct. 12.

Based on Nathaniel Rich’s 2019 book “Losing Earth,” “A Statement” is a dramedy co-written and directed by the “Spotlight” filmmaker, set at a Florida conference in 1980, where 20 scientists write a treatise on climate change. It stars Paul Rudd, Paul Giamatti, Evan Peters, Tatiana Maslany, John Turturro and Amy Ryan, and will be released by Sony Pictures Classics.

“What drew me to this story originally was the timeless idea that no matter our differences, we must find ways to work together if we have a hope of solving our problems,” McCarthy said in a statement to TheWrap earlier this year. “The joy of working on the movie so far has been realizing how entertaining that process can be. I feel incredibly lucky that these amazing partners including Anonymous Content and Sony Pictures Classics are all making it together for the right reasons.”

Glazer’s “Joy of Joys” is a documentary made with English musician Mica Levi that focuses on the recording at Abbey Road of “HELP(2),” a charity album benefiting children in war zones.

Additional films playing in the Spotlight selection include Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” the winner of this year’s Palme d’Or starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan; Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid,” Noah Segan’s “The Only Living Pickpocket in New York,” Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut.”

Among the other documentaries playing at the festival is “Making Marie Antoinette,” the late Eleanor Coppola’s film about her daughter Sofia Coppola’s 2006 period drama.

Two shorts programs will feature “South of Tehran” from Kleber Mendonça Filho and Charlotte Wells’ “New York Never Let Me Down,” in addition to several others.

Earlier this month, Film at Lincoln Center announced that James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” will open the festival, Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth!” will be the Centerpiece and Ava DuVernay’s “14th” will close the fest.

Below, the full list of the Spotlight selection.

64th New York Film Festival Spotlight

Spotlight Gala: “Godzilla Minus Zero” (Takashi Yamazaki)

“Bucking Fastard” (Werner Herzog)

“Club Kid” (Jordan Firstman)

“The Debut” (Jesse Eisenberg)

“Edward Said: Between Worlds” (Maiken Baird)

“Fjord” (Cristian Mungiu)

“Iron Boy” (Louis Clichy)

“Joy of Joys” (Jonathan Glazer)

“Making Marie Antoinette” (Eleanor Coppola)

“One More Time” (Cindy Kleine and André Gregory)

“The Only Living Pickpocket in New York” (Noah Segan)

“Sixteen Moments of My Life” (Albert Serra)

“A Statement” (Tom McCarthy)

Spotlight Shorts

“South of Tehran” (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

“Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo” (Kamal Aljafari)

“A Stolen Movie” (Camilo Restrepo)

“Torino Shadow” (Jia Zhangke)

“Screening Room” (Morgan Fisher)

New York Shorts

“The People’s Beach” (J. Wortham)

“ee” (Heather Landsman)

“The House Call” (Eliza Barry Callahan)

“A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere” (Fanny Texier)

“New York Never Let Me Down” (Charlotte Wells)

The next season of the TCM podcast The Plot Thickens will train a spotlight on the famously reclusive, notoriously obsessive Stanley Kubrick.

Hosted by Ben Mankiewicz and made in partnership with the Criterion Collection, the 11-episode “Stanley” premieres Sept. 24 and features excerpts from a never-before-heard 1972 audio interview with the filmmaker conducted by Newsday film critic Joseph Gelmis tied to the release of A Clockwork Orange (1971).

In the interview, Kubrick talks about directing actors, independent filmmaking, football and even his beloved pets, offering a rare glimpse into the mind of one of cinema’s most influential figures.

The podcast also includes Mankiewicz interviews with Steven Spielberg, Sofia Coppola, Matthew Modine, Josh Safdie, George Miller, Phil Rosenthal, Michael Bauman and Lee Unkrich; with Kubrick’s stepdaughter, Katharina Kubrick; with longtime Kubrick collaborator James B. Harris; and with authors Claire Dederer and Jon Ronson.

“The Plot Thickens podcast has become one of the most ambitious and rewarding ways we explore the stories behind the people who shape filmmaking, and this season on Stanley Kubrick is a perfect example of that,” Charlie Tabesh, TCM senior vp programming and content strategy, said in a statement.

“The discovery of this previously unheard conversation with Kubrick is truly extraordinary, and alongside new interviews and other archival recordings, it helps create the most complete portrait of the filmmaker possible. As a network dedicated to preserving and celebrating film history, TCM is the ideal home to share a recording like this, pairing Kubrick’s own voice with thoughtful storytelling and the insights of those who knew and studied his work.”

New episodes will be released every Thursday. (Watch the trailer here.)

In conjunction with the seventh season of the podcast, TCM will present every one of Kubrick’s features over four consecutive Thursdays next month, starting at 5 p.m. PST on Sept. 3 with Killer’s Kiss (1955).

Viewers also will be treated to Fear and Desire (1952), The Killing (1956), Paths of Glory (1957), Spartacus (1960), Lolita (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon (1975), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and Eyes Wide Shut (1999).

Two of his short films, Day of the Fight and Flying Padre, both from 1951, will also be screened.

Criterion, which put out The Killing and Paths of Glory on laserdisc back in the day, will release a “Complete Kubrick” special edition box set in October.

Previous Plot Thickens seasons have focused on Peter Bogdanovich, the 1990 film The Bonfire of the Vanities, Lucille Ball, Pam Grier, John Ford and the making of Cleopatra (1963).