Nominated for Academy Award 2025 – Best Feature Documentary 

On June 30, 1960, colonial rule formally ended in what was then known as the Belgian Congo. Less than 200 days later, the Republic of the Congo’s charismatic prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, would be dead. He was assassinated by a political rival but, as the documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat details with the twistiness of a real-life spy thriller, there were plenty others who wanted Lumumba dead. Eisenhower, for one, supposedly said he wished Lumumba would fall into a river of crocodiles.

That right there is ample material to fill a straightforward documentary, but Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez has something more exalted in mind. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat relates not just Lumumba’s assassination but the larger role the Congo, a nation rich with natural resources, played in the Cold War – or more to the point, how the U.S., USSR, and colonial powers played it – and the so-called Congo Crisis’ surprising intersections with midcentury American jazz. – Austin Chronicle

“It’s rare for a documentary as dense and lengthy as Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat to be as thrilling and riveting as it is.” – Consequence
“Riveting and propulsive.” – The Hollywood Reporter