Academy shortlist: gorillas to guerillas and grunts, 15 docs are eligible for nomination.(EYE ON THE OSCARS: DOCUMENTARIES)(List)

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BATTLE FOR BROOKLYN

Directors: Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley U.S., Rumur

Galinsky and Hawley chronicle the years-long grassroots resistance to the design-, delay- and deception-plagued Atlantic Yards project in New York.

"When we came to this project, we saw the seeds of something that was part of a bigger whole," Hawley says. "A well-known corporate Goliath was being shown favoritism over the little guy. We found one of those little guys, Daniel Goldstein, and he didn't want to take it anymore."

That said, Galinsky believes the doc is not a "left-issue or a right-issue film. This is an Occupy Wall Street movie. It's about the whole system being hopelessly corrupt."

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BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK

Director: Richard Press U.S., Zeitgeist Films

Press offers a portrait of eccentric New York Times' "On the Street" and "Evening Hours photographer Bill Cunningham. "It took eight years for myself and my producer, Philip Gefter, to convince Bill to agree to do the film. He genuinely could not imagine why anyone would want to make a movie about him. When he did finally agree, I don't think he actually realized what he was getting into. I shot him for about a week during Fashion Week in 2008, then I came back with my camera that next Monday and he said, 'What are you doing here?' I said, 'What do you mean? We are making a movie.' He thought it was just going to be that one week. So it was really a constant negotiation in terms of access."

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BUCK

Director: Cindy Meehl U.S., Sundance Selects

It took Meehl all of "two minutes" to persuade horse whisperer Buck Brannaman to star in her first documentary, which turned into a …