The New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has chosen Stories We Tell, from Canadian director Sarah Polley (pictured), as its best documentary of the year.

The news comes as the film, which focuses on Polley’s family and the nature of storytelling, yesterday made the 15-strong shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The award comes after the NFB-produced Stories won a slew of Canadian honors, including prizes from the TFCA, the Directors Guild of Canada and the Genie Awards.

Talking to realscreen in January this year, Polley said she wouldn’t rule out making another documentary in the future.

“I’d love to make more, but I think I’d have to find something I felt like I could explore well, and that I would be the right person to make the film,” she said. “But also that I could do ethically – that, for me, is the biggest obstacle to making documentaries – to make sure that I’m treating subjects with a sense of ethics and humanity, which I think is a really, really hard balance to find.”

The NYFCC comprises New York critics from daily and weekly newspapers, magazines and online publications. Last year, it chose Central Park Five for the doc prize.