The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences notified the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival recently that it has been chosen as an Academy Award qualifying festival in the Documentary Short Subject category.

A short documentary of no longer than 40 minutes that receives the Jury Award for Best Short at this year's festival, scheduled for April 4-7, will qualify for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards without the standard theatrical run, provided the film otherwise complies with the Academy rules.

The winner this year will qualify for consideration in the concurrent season (this year the season runs from Sept. 1, 2012 to Aug. 31, 2013).

One of the nation's premier documentary film festivals, Full Frame celebrates its 16th annual festival this April.

"This announcement today has energized the entire Full Frame community," said Deirdre Haj, Full Frame's executive director. "We view this as a recognition of the strength of the festival, the quality of its programming and a commitment to including film festivals in the process of discovering new filmmakers and films and helping them qualify for one of the industry's highest honors."

Many of this year's Academy Award nominated films in the documentary feature category screened at Full Frame in 2012 including "How to Survive a Plague" and "The Invisible War," which screened during the festival, and "Searching for Sugar Man," which screened during Full Frame's year-round programming.

The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is an annual international event dedicated to the theatrical exhibition of non-fiction cinema. Each spring Full Frame welcomes filmmakers and film lovers from around the world to historic downtown Durham for a four-day, morning to midnight array of more than 100 films as well as discussions, panels, and Southern hospitality.

Set within a four-block radius, the intimate festival landscape fosters community and conversation between filmmakers, film professionals and the general public.

For information, visit www.fullframefest.org.