LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A movie on late singer Amy Winehouse won the Oscar on Sunday for Best Documentary Feature, even though the film upset her family.

Director Asif Kapadia, accepting the golden statuette, said Amy strove to show the truth behind the soul singer who died in 2011 at age 27.

"This film is all about Amy, showing the world who she really was. The beautiful girl, the amazing soul.

"Funny, intelligent, witty. Someone special. Someone who needed looking after. We just wanted to show the world who she really was," he said.

Amy became the second-highest grossing documentary at the British box office. But her father attacked the film, saying it dwelled on the negative and not on Winehouse's fun-loving side, hinting that the family would come out with its own official documentary in the future.

Amy beat out another music documentary - What Happened, Miss Simone? - which features archival footage of legendary singer Nina Simone who became active in the United States civil rights movement.

Other nominees included The Look Of Silence by Joshua Oppenheimer, his latest documentary to probe Indonesia's mass killings of suspected leftists and ethnic Chinese in 1965-66. The film was a follow-up to his 2012 The Act Of Killing, which was also nominated for an Oscar and is credited with renewing calls for accountability over a dark chapter in Indonesia's history which had long been officially ignored.

The other nominees this year were Cartel Land, which focused on the Mexican drug war and vigilantism on the US side of the border, and Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight For Freedom, about the protests that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych and intensified a showdown with Russia.

The Oscars' host, comedian Chris Rock, quipped after the award: "You know, the people that made Ukraine On Fire (sic) are going to hate Amy Winehouse's music for the rest of their lives."

Repeat telecasts of the 88th Annual Academy Awards will air on HBO (StarHub TV Channel 601) on March 2 (9pm), March 4 (10.30pm) and March 6 (4pm).