“It often seems that when there isn’t an obvious, populist pick in the Academy’s documentary feature category (such as Bowling for Columbine, March of the Penguins or An Inconvenient Truth), the field is rife for an upset,” points out Kris Tapley. This may, he suggests, be evidence enough that James Marsh’s 
According to Jeff Wells, Larry Charles and Bill Maher’s Borat-style religion doc Religulous is playing this week in Claremont, CA in order to meet the Academy’s rule stating that non-fiction films must screen for one week in a commercial theater in both New York and L.A. in order to qualify for a Best Documentary nomination. “That means Religulous is probably playing in some out-of-the-way theatre in the Manhattan area also,” Wells writes.
Sure enough, a Moviefone search reveals that the film is currently playing a publicity-free two matinees per day run at the Creative Entertainment Coliseum Quad on 181 Street–the same theater where Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired had its qualifying run last spring. So far there’s been no surreptitious Manohla Dargis review of Religulous, so if you find yourself in Claremont or in the noseblood section of Manhattan and decide to check it out, by all means, report back.
