The Only Girl in the Orchestra has received an Academy Award nomination for best documentary short film

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A documentary about Orin O’Brien, the New York Philharmonic double bassist who became the orchestra’s first full-time female musician, has garnered a 2025 Oscar nomination for best documentary short film.

The Only Girl in the Orchestra began streaming worldwide on Netflix on 4 December 2024, following its success with numerous festival official selections. It won best documentary short at the Minneapolis St Paul International Film Festival and best short documentary at the 2024 Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards.

The 34-minute documentary shines a light on O’Brien, who was hired by Leonard Bernstein in 1966 to join the New York Philharmonic. The bassist, now 87 years old, is recently retired and features in the documentary in interviews. The film is directed by Molly O’Brien, Orin O’Brien’s niece. 

Other films nominated in the best documentary short film category are Death by Numbers, I Am Ready, Warden; Incident, plus Instruments of a Beating Heart, which follows first graders in a Tokyo public elementary school preparing to perform ’Ode to Joy’ at a ceremony for the new incoming first graders.

The 2025 Oscars will take place on Sunday 2 March

Watch the trailer here.

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