Ferrell is not a big fan of the Academy Awards’ documentary branch after the recent 2025 nominations…
During a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Will Ferrell discussed his feature-length Netflix documentary Will & Harper, in which he goes on a cross-country road trip with his longtime friend Harper Steele, who had just come out as trans. In the documentary the Saturday Night Live alums and longtime writing partners make for a funny pair as friends discovering more about each other during a road trip across the United States.
“At the heart of Will & Harper is a friendship rendered anew as Steele gets to live her truth along with a close friend for the first time in her life. But Will has some questions for her, just like any of us would have if we found out our friend was shielding part of their identity for as long as we’ve known them,” IN‘s Matthew Creith wrote just before the film’s release in September 2024. “Through long-distance driving, endless conversations, accepting mistakes and misunderstandings, meeting up with old SNL friends, and seeing the sights of an expansive country, Will and Harper learn more about one another in 17 days than they have in 30 years.”
Despite receiving rave reviews from critics and viewers, the doc was snubbed from the 2025 Oscars in both the Best Documentary and Best Song categories.
During Ferrell’s recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the documentary came up in conversation. After Colbert praised the doc, Ferrell teased, “Ask me if we got Oscar-nominated.”
“It’s such a good documentary. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years,” Colbert raved. “It was beautiful. It was timely. It was heartfelt. I was inspired by it. How [about] the Oscar nomination?”
“We didn’t get it,” Ferrell deadpanned, as Colbert responded, “Fuck the Academy.”
“Especially the doc branch. You don’t want to hang out with the doc branch,” Ferrell joked. “What a bunch of losers.”
“In fact, I hope there’s some of them here tonight,” he added, while looking out to the audience. “If you’re a member of the doc branch, suck it.”
Had Will & Harper been nominated by the Academy, it would’ve marked Ferrell’s first ever Oscar nod. Instead, documentaries Black Box Diaries, No Other Land, Porcelain War, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and Sugarcane will compete home to take home the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film at the upcoming 97th annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 2, 2025.
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