This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for Best Documentary, inaugurated as a category in 1942, although the first awards for feature-length documentaries were bestowed as Special Awards to Kukan and Target for Tonight the previous year.

And you can watch most of them online! Click "Read Notes" for links. TBA means "to be accessed," with no link available as of last update. Dead links are inevitable, and it will take me time to update those.

Documentary is defined as a nonfiction motion picture "dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects," and may be photographed in actual occurrence, or may employ partial reenactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact, and not on fiction. It must have a run time of more than 40 minutes.

NOTE 1: In 1942, feature length and short subject documentaries were placed together under the category of "Best Documentary."

NOTE 2: I am using the year the films were released in, not the year their Oscar ceremonies were broadcast. Hence, the 1975 Oscars is for 1975 films, although the broadcast year is 1976.