Peter Raymont has been shortlisted for the Oscars, and on Monday saw his latest film, A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, put in the early running for best feature documentary of 2007 by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The list puts Promise in the running alongside box-office hits and headline grabbers such as Michael Moore’s Sicko and the Iraq War piece No End in Sight.

Promise, which made its debut in September at the Toronto International Film Festival, recounts the life and work of the renowned writer and essayist who served as chief of staff to Chilean president Salvador Allende and survived the 1973 military coup. It is based in part on his memoir Heading South, Looking North, and was directed and produced by Raymont through his Toronto shop White Pine Pictures in 2006.

The 15 doc finalists, pared down from 70 submissions, will move on to the voting process for the 80th Academy Awards. The final five nominees will be announced on Jan. 22, leading into Oscar night on Feb. 24.

Also on the list are the abortion piece Lake of Fire, the World War Two exposé Nanking, the Iraq doc Taxi to the Dark Side, and War/Dance, a piece about a Ugandan musical competition. Other docs about World War Two and Iraq also got preliminary nods, including Body of War, Operation Homecoming: Writing from Wartime Experience, White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and The Rape of Europa.

Autism: The Musical, For the Bible Tells Me So, Please Vote for Me and The Price of Sugar round out the list.