The Oscars said in a release on Dec. 16 that 117 films qualified for the documentary short film category, and only 15 made the shortlist.
ARKANSAS, USA — A documentary about an Arkansas journalist killed while covering war has made the Oscars shortlist for best documentary short.
The film, titled “Armed Only with a Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud,” premiered on HBO in October 2025 and follows Brent’s life work as a wartime journalist before he was killed while covering the war in Ukraine in 2022.
Brent and his brother Craig are from Little Rock and made headlines in the early 2000s when they traveled overseas to be embedded with the Arkansas National Guard.
“Brent was very proud of being from Arkansas,” Craig told 5NEWS. “Even when we were abroad or overseas, he often had his Arkansas Razorback hat on. It’s something that when he would come back and visit our father before he passed away, that’s what they loved to do together was watch the Razorbacks play … He would be trying to figure out how to get internet access in a war zone to try to watch the Razorbacks play.”
The Oscars said in a release on Dec. 16 that 117 films qualified for the documentary short film category, and only 15 made the shortlist. A select few will advance to the category for the 98th Academy Awards.
The documentary is available now on HBO. Official Oscar nominations are released in late January.