Financial meltdown film wins documentary Oscar

LOS ANGELES Feb 27 (Reuters) - "Inside Job," a film blaming financial institutions for triggering the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, won the Academy Award for best documentary on Sunday.

The prize went to director/producer Charles Ferguson, who recently won the documentary prize from the Directors Guild of America, and producer Audrey Marrs.

Ferguson, a self-described "policy wonk" with a doctorate in political science, interviewed fund managers, central bankers and political advisers for his film, which uncovered an uncomfortably close professional relationship between academia and hedge funds.

The other Oscar-nominated documentaries "Exit through the Gift Shop," "Gasland," "Restrepo" and "Waste Land."

Earlier, the Oscar for documentary short subject went to "Strangers No More," a film revolving around immigrant children at a school in Tel Aviv.

(Reporting by Dean Goodman; Editing by Sandra Maler)