War films dominate Oscar documentary short-list

LOS ANGELES, Nov 20 (Reuters) Films covering conflicts from World War II to Iraq dominated a short list released of movies that will compete for an Academy Award for the best documentary of 2007.

Eight of the 15 films on the short-list deal with past or current wars. Among the others is Michael Moore's ''Sicko,'' a controversial film about American health care.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awards the Oscars, also included ''Lake of Fire,'' a highly-praised portrayal of the battle over abortion and ''Please Vote for Me,'' about children in China holding an election.

Left out were a widely-touted documentary about the Apollo 11 mission, ''In the Shadow of the Moon,'' ''The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters'' about a video game competition and ''The Devil Came on Horseback,'' about the war in Darfur.

The list will be reduced to five from 15 by the Academy in January and a winner will be announced with other Oscars on February 24 in a telecast seen around the world.

Among the war films on the list are Charles Ferguson's ''No End in Sight,'' which tracks how the United States got into the Iraq war and botched the job, according to the filmmaker.

Also dealing with Iraq are ''Body of War,'' about a paralyzed soldier returning home and ''Operation homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience.'' ''Taxi to the Darkside'' deals with the Afghan war and tells of the death of a taxi driver at a US miliary base, and ''Nanking,'' looks at the killing of 300,000 civilians in China by Japanese troops in 1937. That film has caused diplomatic problems between China and Japan.

The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is the subject of ''White Light/Black Rain'' while ''The Rape of Europa'' deals with Nazi stolen art during the war.

The war in Uganda in which children are conscripted and forced to fight for the rebel group ''The Lord's Resistance'' is the subject of ''War/Dance.'' Also on the short-list are ''For the Bible Tells Me So,'' ''Autism: The Musical,'' ''The Price of Sugar,'' and ''A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman.'' REUTERS ARB RAI0844