News

The International Documentary Association is announcing an open call for applications to its flagship Enterprise Documentary Fund and the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, with more than $500,000 to be awarded.

The application window runs from May 29 to June 25 for non-IDA members; for IDA members, the application window remains open until July 9.

The Enterprise Documentary Fund “seeks to support crucial facts-based storytelling while helping filmmakers retain their independent voices and artistic visions,” according to a release. The fund, established in 2017, “prioritizes projects attempting to combat the misinformation being shared on social media and other internet platforms, using journalistic principles to arrive at a verifiable truth.”

‘The Phantom Pain of Rojava’

Since its launch, the Enterprise Documentary Fund has made grants totaling $5 million to 79 projects. The Phantom Pain of Rojava, a grantee in 2023, trains a lens on Kurdish guerrillas who were severely injured in battle against Isis fighters.

The Portuguese festival showcases documentaries from around the world.

The 21st edition of DocLisboa will open with Wang Bing’s Man In Black, and will close with Baan from Portuguese director Leonor Teles.

Man In Black premiered at Cannes and Baan made its debut at Locarno earlier this year.

The festival will take place in Lisbon from October 19-29.

Wang Bing, via videoconference, and Telles both participated in the festival press conference on September 28 at which festival director Miguel Ribeiro revealed this year’s programme in full.

Bing explained his film profiles 86-year-old Wang Xilin, one of China’s most important contemporary classical composers,...

Doclisboa's retrospectives are moments distinguished by curatorial projects that aim to offer a precise and comprehensive vision of the themes and filmmakers to which they are dedicated; the preview session that will take place on the terrace of the Cinemateca Portuguesa on the 7th of July at 21h30, will be a first glimpse into this year's programme.

This year Doclisboa, in partnership with Cinemateca Portuguesa, dedicates its thematic retrospective to the delicate coalition of radical filmmakers who, in the midst of the Great Depression, fought to birth the new genre of Social Documentary as a tool for socio-political change in the USA.

In parallel to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's commitment to social justice through the policies of his government's New Deal in the 1930s, a generation of filmmakers sought to infuse facts with feelings, art with agitprop and propaganda, through a cinema of reality that sought to communicate, and perhaps even help resolve,...

The Intl. Documentary Association (IDA) has announced three 25,000 grants for upcoming films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund.

The three documentaries are: Adamu Chan’s “What These Walls Won’t Hold”; Jalena Keane-Lee’s “Standing Above the Clouds”; and Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía “Beba” Contreras’s “Hummingbirds,” which will have its world premiere at the 2023 Berlin Intl. Film Festival.

Organizers of the fund, created in 2011 with support from the New York Community Trust, received more than 19 applications in 2021. Named in honor of American documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz, who was known for films including “The Plow That Broke The Plains” (1936), “The River” (1938) and “The Fight for Life” (1940), the fund provides production and post-production grants to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate issues in the United States.

“This year, we tried to consider broadly what Pare Lorentz’s legacy is for the 21st century,...

“All That Breathes,” a lyrical documentary about two brothers who rescue birds that have fallen victim to the polluted air in New Delhi, has been named the best nonfiction feature of 2022 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which took place on Saturday night in Los Angeles.

“All That Breathes” won four awards overall, an unusually robust showing at the IDA Awards. The HBO Documentary Films release won Best Feature in a category that also included “All the Beauty and the Bloodshed,” “Fire of Love” and “Navalny”; director Shaunak Sen and editors Charlotte Munch Bengtsen and Vedant Joshi won in their categories; and the film also won the Pare Lorentz award, which goes to a socially conscious film of note.

“Fire of Love” won in the writing and cinematography and categories. Director Sara Dosa shared the win for writing, while the film’s late subjects, married volcanologists Maurice and Katia Krafft,...

The Danish animated documentary “Flee” has been named the best nonfiction film of 2021 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which were streamed in a virtual ceremony on Friday night.

The film, in which director Jonas Poher Rasmussen uses animation to disguise the identity of an Afghan refugee who fled to Russian and then Denmark, scored an unprecedented trifecta when it was nominated for Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature Film categories.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson won the IDA award in the Best Director category for “Summer of Soul,” his directorial debut. The film also won in the Best Music Documentary and Best Editing categories, making it the only film to win more than one award at the ceremony.

Other winners included Jimmy Goldblum’s “A Broken House” in the Best Short category, the series “Independent Lens” for Best Curated Series,...

Summer of Soul is picking up steam as awards season accelerates.

The documentary directed by Amir “Questlove” Thompson, which showcases the long-forgotten music-powered Harlem Cultural Festival of 1969, earned a leading four nominations for the International Documentary Association Awards today, a day after winning the top prize at the Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards. The IDA recognition came for Best Documentary Feature, Best Director, Best Music Documentary and Best Editing.

Earning three IDA nominations apiece were Faya Dayi, director Jessica Beshir’s poetic evocation of Ethiopia, where she spent part of her youth, and Not Going Quietly, director Nicholas Bruckman’s documentary about liberal activist Ady Barkan, who was diagnosed with Als in 2016. Bruckman and Beshir will compete for Best Director with Thompson, Jacinta’s Jessica Earnshaw and Flee’s Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Jacinta and Flee also scored Best Documentary nominations [see full list of nominations below].

Ten films were nominated for Best Feature,...

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced grants for seven films through its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, totalling $115,000.

Seven documentary projects will receive grants of up to $20,000 each through the fund, which received more than 180 applications in 2020. Created in 2011 with support from The New York Community Trust, the initiative honors the legacy of legendary American documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz.

Each year, the fund focuses on select issue areas that were hallmarks of Lorentz’s films.

Since 2017, IDA has provided more than $4.5 million in grants through its documentary funds.

Documentaries receiving Pare Lorentz funding this year, with descriptions provided by the IDA, are:

All We’ve Lost

(Preston Randolph, director/producer)

In the small town of Laurel, Montana, a mother refuses to give up fighting for her wrongfully imprisoned son’s release, culminating in a spectacular bipartisan collective effort spanning local and national exoneration and innocence activist movements.

Black Mothers

(Débora Souza Silva,...

The International Documentary Association on Friday announced its latest round of grant funding. It’s providing a total of $245,000 out of two funds for 15 films, many of which are investigative works. The organization also announced its first class of Documentary magazine editorial fellows for a program meant to enhance opportunities for writers from underserved and underrepresented communities.

This year, 10 projects are set to receive $15,000 each from the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund, which supports in-depth explorations of contemporary stories that into journalistic practice into filmmaking. The fund is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

Among them is “11 Questions,” the working title of the project from director-producer Cassandra Herrman, which is also getting funding from “Frontline.” This marks the first-ever joint-funding collaboration between Ida and the prestigious PBS series.

Herrman has been nominated for three News & Documentary Emmy Awards, most recently for...

Filmmakers Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ “For Sama” (PBS) took top honors at the 35th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre Saturday night. The harrowing and intimate portrait of a young couple who continued to live in Aleppo with their new baby while under intense fire from government troops took home Best Feature. “It’s a dark time in the world,” said British filmmaker Watts, who helped Al-Kateab shape her extraordinary footage into a film. “When I think about documentaries right now I feel hope that things are going to get better.”

A show of enthusiastic Ida support came early in the evening with a rousing standing ovation when Al-Kateab accepted the coveted Courage Under Fire award, given to someone who demonstrates extraordinary courage in pursuit of the truth. The Channel 4 film has already notched documentary wins from the European Film Awards, the British Independent Film Awards,...

Body to offer $245,000 in support.

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced on Thursday (28) 16 grants totalling $245,000 to films through its Enterprise Documentary Fund and Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund.

Eleven feature-length documentary projects have been selected as development grantees of the Enterprise Documentary Fund with awards totalling $150,000. The Fund aims to support projects that reframe contemporary and historical events.

A further five projects will receive $95,000 in support through the Pare Lorentz Doc Fund, which supports production and post production for films that illuminate issues in the Us. This year’s themes centre on land and water.

The 11 Enterprise Documentary Fund grantees are:...

“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu’s film about working-class Illinois skateboarders whose raucous lifestyle hides brutal family stories, has been named the best nonfiction film of 2018 at the International Documentary Association’s Ida Documentary Awards, which took place on the Paramount Studios lot on Saturday night.

Liu also received the Emerging Filmmaker Award, and he and Joshua Altman won the award for best editing.

Other craft awards went to “Distant Constellation” cinematographer Shevaun Mizrahi, “The Other Side of Everything” writer Mila Turajlić and, in a tie, “Bisbee ’17” composer Keegan DeWitt and “Hale Country This Morning, This Evening” composers Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers.

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Film Review: Powerful Doc Depicts Skateboarders In Transition to Adulthood

The award for the best music documentary also ended in a tie, between Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” and Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!”

In its first year,...

The 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards were handed out Saturday night at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles with Bing Liu’s Minding The Gap taking top honors in the Best Feature category.

Hosted by actress and producer Ricki Lake, the ceremony also honored Floyd Russ’s Zion as Best Short as well as Netflix’s Wild Wild Country which won for Best Limited Series.

Other winners for the evening included HBO’s John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Pov for Best Curated Series, Showtime’s The Trade for Best Episodic Series, Mel Films for Best Short Form Series, and Jayisha Patel’s Circle for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award. The New York Times’ Caliphate won the inaugural Best Audio Documentary category.

In addition, the Career Achievement Award was presented to three-time Academy Award winner Julia Reichert and Ida...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

Rookie filmmaker Bing Liu’s “Minding The Gap” beat out the competition to win top honors at the 34th Annual Ida Documentary Awards at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday night. The portrait of a group of skateboarders took home Best Feature, Emerging Filmmaker and Best Editing. Liu had accepted a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, where the Pov film was acquired by Hulu.

Other winners include Floyd Russ’s “Zion” (Best Short), Netflix’s “Wild Wild Country” (Best Limited Series), HBO’s “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls” (the ABC News VideoSource Award), PBS’ Pov (Best Curated Series), Showtime’s “The Trade” (Best Episodic Series), Mel Films (Best Short Form Series), and Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” (the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award). Both Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!” and Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi / Maya / M.I.A.” won Best Music Documentary,...

‘This Picture Kills Fascists’ might be a motto for this bombshell essay documentary. Leo Hurwitz’s film wasn’t made welcome in 1948 and would surely be controversial today, as it’s just too &%#$ truthful and blunt about good old American bigotry and injustice. The passionate, jarring plea for humanist sanity really shakes up viewers, in a constructive way. Hurwitz said that one TV executive compared it to The Sermon on the Mount. It’s still a lightning bolt against fascist ideas flourishing in the Land of the Free.

Strange Victory

Blu-ray

The Milestone Cinematheque

1948 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 64 min. / available through Milestone Films / Street Date August 14, 2018 / 34.95

Narrators: Alfred Drake, Muriel Smith, Gary Merrill, Saul Levitt, Faith Elliott.

Actors: Virgil Richardson, Sophie Maslow, Cathey McGregor, Jack Henderson, Robert P. Donley.

Cinematography: Peter Glushanok, George Jacobsen

Film Editors: Leo Hurwitz, Faith Elliott (Hubley), Mavis Lyons

Original Music: David Diamond

Written by Saul Levitt,...

The documentary film and television community came together to honor their own at the festive 33rd Annual Ida Documentary Awards celebration Saturday night at the Paramount Studio Theatre. The evening’s top prizes went to Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s Sundance-jury-winning love story “Dina” for Best Feature, and Laura Checkoway’s Oscar-shortlisted “Edith+Eddie” for Best Short.

Other winners included Dan Lindsay and Tj Martin’s Oscar-shortlisted “La 92” for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Independent Lens for Best Curated Series, HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” for Best Limited Series, BBC’s “Planet Earth II” for Best Episodic Series, The New York Times Op-Docs for Best Short Form Series (which boasts three Oscar-shortlisted shorts), and Joel Fendelman’s “Man on Fire” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

Charles Burnett presented the Emerging Filmmaker Award to Yance Ford, winner of the Sundance Special Jury Award for Storytelling,...

The International Documentary Association has announced the initial round of nominees for the 2017 Ida Documentary Awards. The 33rd annual event will take place December 9 at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles. The Ida will honor director Marcel Mettelsiefen's Watani: My Homeland with the Pare Lorentz Award, which recognizes work that demonstrates exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination…...

The International Documentary Association has announced its initial round of nominees for the 2017 Ida Documentary Awards, including special mentions and nods for limited series, curated series, episodic series, and more. Nominees for Best Feature and Best Short, and awards for creative recognition, will be announced on November 1. The Ida will honor director Marcel Mettelsiefen’s “Watani: My Homeland” with the Pare Lorentz Award. Also receiving a special mention in the category is Joe Berlinger’s “Intent to Destroy.”

Other standouts from this first list of nominees include Bryan Fogel’s controversial “Icarus,” Ryan White’s Netflix series “The Keepers,” Ken Burns’ revelatory miniseries “The Vietnam War,” and many more of the year’s best in documentary offerings.

Read More:Joan Didion and Arthur Miller Get the Documentary Treatment From Family Members, And That Makes All the Difference — Nyff

The 33rd edition of the annual ceremony will take place Saturday, December...

Friday night’s 32nd annual International Documentary Association Awards at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood became another step in certifying a new American classic in Espn Films’ epic “O.J.: Made in America.”

Ezra Edelman’s nearly eight-hour documentary was named as the Ida’s 2016 Best Feature Award. It’s the latest in a series of accolades for the landmark saga of the life and trial of O.J. Simpson.

On the Best Short side, the top prize went to Netflix’s Syrian first-responders profile “The White Helmets,” from “Virunga” director/producer team Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara.

Ida members voted on these two categories from a list of six nominees each.

In addition to “The White Helmets,” Netflix programming comprised a significant portion of the evening’s winners. “Making a Murderer,” the true-crime investigation of the decade-spanning conviction and imprisonment of Steven Avery, was named Best Limited Series. The Best...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) hailed its own at Friday’s 32nd Annual Ida Documentary Awards and launched a $5m journalism project.

Espn’s episodic O.J.: Made In America won the best feature award in further recognition of Ezra Edelman’s work after wins at the National Board of Review and New York Film Critics Circle.

The best Short Award went to Netflix’s The White Helmets directed by Orlando von Einsiedel. Best Cinematography was presented to Gianfranco Rosi for his Fire At Sea, distributed in the Us by Kino Lorber, while Netflix’s Making a Murderer earned best limited series award.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has gifted the Ida the four-year, $5m grant to establish the Ida Documentary/Journalism Project to improve and combine work from both fields in a manner that promotes the safety of it practitioners.

This year the Ida honored five filmmakers and documentary luminaries. Lyn and [link...

With awards season gearing up, the nominees and honorees for the 2016 Ida Documentary Awards have been revealed by the International Documentary Association (Ida). The annual ceremony honors both individuals and organizations for outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking and contributions to the field, as well as recognizes the best documentary films and nonfiction series of the year.

Among the Best Feature nominees are Ava DuVernay’s “13th,” Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro” and “O.J.: Made in America” directed by Ezra Edelman. This year the Ida will also honor five outstanding filmmakers and documentary luminaries including Lyn and Norman Lear, Stanley Nelson, Ally Derks and director Nanfu Wang.

Read More: Oscars Documentary Race Heats up With 145 Features in Contention

Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are voted on by Ida’s international membership. Outside screening committees of industry professionals around the world determine the winners in the other award categories.

As a supplement to our Recommended Discs weekly feature, Peter Labuza regularly highlights notable recent home-video releases with expanded reviews. See this week’s selections below.

After a decade of the Dust Bowl destroying crops while rich land owners exploited every little farmer there was, making a film that naively bought into the American dream would seem foolish for any filmmaker. But Jean Renoir could only see hope in the plains, having fled his home to exchange the dreams of Fascism for the dreams of celluloid. While Renoir struggled in Hollywood during the war period, his break came as he went north to Millerton Lake to make The Southerner in 1945. The resulting film follows doe-eyed Zachary Scott, exuding his common-day presence, as Sam Tucker. Tucker, gullible for the promises that hard work means a better life, moves his family from a proto-Days of Heaven cotton-picking existence to a farm of one’s own,...

Looking to discover a top-quality film that honors lasting values? Jean Renoir gives Zachary Scott and Betty Field as Texas sharecroppers trying to survive a rough first year. It's beautifully written by Hugo Butler, with given realistic, earthy touches not found in Hollywood pix. And the transfer is a new UCLA restoration. With two impressive short subjects in equal good quality. The Southerner Blu-ray Kino Classics 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Carol Naish, Norman Lloyd, Zachary Scott, Percy Kilbride, Charles Kemper, Blanche Yurka, Estelle Taylor, Paul Harvey, Noreen Nash, Nestor Paiva, Almira Sessions. Cinematography Lucien Andriot Film Editor Gregg C. Tallas Production Designer Eugène Lourié Assistant Director Robert Aldrich Original Music Werner Janssen Written by Hugo Butler, Jean Renoir from a novel by George Sessions Perry Produced by Robert Hakim, David L. Loew Directed by Jean Renoir...

The 2015 Ida Documentary Awards took place at the Paramount Theater hosted by comedian Tig Notaro. Notaro was quick to point out this was the first year of the awards being “broadcasted…” on Periscope, and for that reason alone maybe the last.

The Best Feature Award was given to Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The Look of Silence,” which made the Oscar shortlist earlier in the week and happens to be the film companion for “The Act of Killing.” “The Look of Silence” has been banned in Indonesia and screenings of the film are only available through NGOs, schools/universities, religious organizations and other limited outlets.

Read More: 12 Things Joshua Oppenheimer Wants You to Know About 'The Look of Silence

The winner for Best Short Award went to the animated short “Last Day of Freedom” directed by Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman. The directors thanked the Ida for giving the award to an animated film.

Read More: Oscar Shortlisted Doc Short 'Last Day of Freedom' is a Gentle Animated Look at Complex Issues

Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Gordon Quinn, Founder and Artistic Director of Kartemquin Films. The award was presented by Chaz Ebert, whose husband Roger Ebert was the subject of Quinn’s film “Life Itself” and by Haskell Wexler, influential cinematographer, producer, and director.

Academy Award® winning director Kathryn Bigelow presented the Courage Under Fire Award to Director Matthew Heineman for his immersive and brave work in the pursuit of truth in “Cartel Land.” Bigelow executive produced Heineman’s “Cartel Land.”

Read More: Matthew Heineman on Going Beyond the Headlines and Body Count in 'Cartel Land'

Ted Sarandos, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix, was awarded with The Pioneer Award, in recognition to the company’s game-changing and support to the production of non-fiction programming. The Pioneer Award is presented by the Ida to acknowledge extraordinary contributions to advancing the nonfiction form and providing exceptional vision and leadership to the documentary community.

Read More: 'Best of Enemies' Co-Director Morgan Neville on Intellectual Divas and the Theatricality of Politics

Actor, director and political activist Danny Glover presented Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation ( www.berthafoundation.org) with the Ida’s Amicus Award in recognition of their work supporting the essential needs of the non-fiction media landscape.

Full List of 2015 Ida Documentary Awards Honorees & Winners:

Career Achievement Award

Gordon Quinn

Pioneer Award

Ted Sarandos

Amicus Award

Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award sponsored by the Archibald Family Foundation

Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe

Courage Under Fire Award

Matthew Heineman

Best Feature Award

"The Look of Silence"

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen

Drafthouse Films and Participant Media

Best Short Award

"Last Day of Freedom"

Directors: Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

Pare Lorentz Award

"How to Change the World"

Director: Jerry Rothwell

Creative Recognition Award Winners

Best Cinematography

"The Russian Woodpecker"

Cinematography by: Artem Ryzhykov

Best Editing

"Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck"

Edited by: Joe Beshenkovsky and Brett Morgen

Best Writing

"Listen to Me Marlon"

Written by: Stevan Riley

Co-Writer: Peter Ettedgui

Best Music

"Best of Enemies"

Original Score by: Jonathan Kirkscey

ABC News VideoSource Award

"Best of Enemies"

Directors: Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville

Magnolia Pictures

Best Curated Series Award

"Independent Lens"

Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer and Lois Vossen

Itvs, PBS

Pov

Executive Producers: Simon Kilmurry and Chris White

Pov, PBS

Best Limited Series Award

"The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst"

Executive Producer: Jason Blum

Co-Executive Producer: Zac Stuart-Pontier

Produced by: Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling

HBO

Best Episodic Series Award

"Chef’s Table"

Executive Producers: David Gelb and Andrew Fried

Netflix

Best Short Form Series Award

"Do Not Track"

Executive Producer: Hugues Sweeney

National Film Board of Canada, Upian, Arte, and Br

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award

"The Archipelago"

Director: Benjamin Huguet

The National Film and Television School...

Joshua Oppenheimer's searing documentary about the 1960s Indonesian genocide won big at the 31st Annual Ida Documentary Awards trampling down award season favorite "Amy." The Best Short Documentary award went to Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman's "Last Day of Freedom."

Here's the complete list of nominees and winners (highlighted) of the 31st Annual Ida Documentary Awards are:

Best Feature

"Amy"

"The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution"

"Listen to Me Marlon"

"The Look of Silence" -- Winner

"The Russian Woodpecker"

"What Happened, Miss Simone?"

Best Short Documentary

"Body Team 12"

"Claude Lanzmann: Specters of the Shoah"

"The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul"

"Object"

"Last Day of Freedom" -- Winner

ABC News VideoSource Award

"(T)error"

"Best of Enemies" -- Winner

"Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll"

"Night Will Fall"

"What Happened, Miss Simone?"

Curated Series Award

"30 For 30" (Espn)

"Independent Lens" (Itvs/PBS) -- Winner...

Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to The Act Of Killing earned the best feature award at the International Documentary Association’s 2015 Ida Documentary Awards on Saturday night.

The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Gordon Quinn, the Kartemquin Films founder and artistic director, while Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos collected the Pioneer Award.

The prize was presented “in recognition of the company’s game-changing and unwavering support of creating and showcasing nonfiction programming.”

Kathryn Bigelow awarded Matthew Heineman the Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award for Cartel Land.

Full list of winners:

Career Achievement Award

Gordon Quinn

Pioneer Award

Ted Sarandos

Amicus Award

Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award sponsored by the Archibald Family Foundation

Lyric R Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe

Courage Under Fire Award

Matthew Heineman

Best Feature Award

The Look Of Silence

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer

Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen

Best Short Award

Last Day Of Freedom

Directors:...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) has revealed the nominees for the 2015 Ida Documentary Awards. Winners will be announced at their annual awards gala to be held on Sunday, December 5 at the Paramount Theater in Los Angeles.

The nominees of the 31st Annual Ida Documentary Awards are:

Best Feature

"Amy"

"The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution"

"Listen to Me Marlon"

"The Look of Silence"

"The Russian Woodpecker"

"What Happened, Miss Simone?"

Best Short Documentary

"Body Team 12"

"Claude Lanzmann: Specters of the Shoah"

"The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul"

"Object"

"Last Day of Freedom"

ABC News VideoSource Award

"(T)error"

"Best of Enemies"

"Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodia's Lost Rock and Roll"

"Night Will Fall"

"What Happened, Miss Simone?"

Curated Series Award

"30 For 30" (Espn)

"Independent Lens" (Itvs/PBS)

"Storyville" (BBC)

"America Reframed" (World Channel)

Limited Series Award

"Blood Brothers" (Vara Television)

"Hard Earned" (Al Jazeera, Kartemquin Films)

"The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst...

We've compiled a list of organizations offering grants for both international filmmakers and those in a specific region, as well as for various stages of production and outreach. These are listed below in order of deadlines: Read More: Indiewire's Ultimate Guide to Documentary Filmmaking Advice Paren Lorentz Documentary Fund What It Does: The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund will provide production grants totaling $195,000 to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate pressing issues in the United States. Grants will be made to up to 12 projects that tell a compelling story and focus on one of Pare Lorentz's central concerns—the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all or the illumination of pressing social problems. Deadline: April 27 More Information: http://www.documentary.org/parelorentz Good Pitch Australia What it Does: The winning applications are invited to this annual event where about...

March 12, 2015 New York Community Trust Re-ups Support for Pare Lorentz Doc Fund

In 2010, the New York Community Trust (Nyct) provided a generous grant to establish the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund at the International Documentary Association. This program creates awareness and honors the legacy of a groundbreaking documentarian by providing production support for nonfiction film projects that reflect his central concerns (appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all or the illumination of pressing social problems) and high creative standards.

Read more...

"Citizenfour," the Edward Snowden documentary from director Laura Poitras, was named the Best Feature documentary of the year according to the International Documentary Association which revealed the winners of the 2014 Ida Documentary Awards.

Here's the complete list of the winners of the 2014 Ida Documentary Awards"

Career Achievement Award

Robert Redford

Pioneer Award

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

Preservation And Scholarship Award

Rithy Panh

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award sponsored by Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm

Darius Clark Monroe

Best Feature Award

Citizenfour

Director: Laura Poitras

RADiUS-twc, Participant Media, and

HBO Documentary Films

Best Short Award

Tashi And The Monk

Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke

HBO Documentary Films

Best Curated Series Award

Independent Lens

Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer

Deputy Executive Producer: Lois Vossen

Independent Television Service (Itvs) in association with PBS

Best Limited Series Award

Time Of Death

Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Alexandra Lipsitz

Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood,...

It's sort of a bummer to me that the two films at the forefront of this year's Best Documentary Oscar race — Laura Poitros' "Citizenfour" and Steve James' "Life Itself," each of which I like just fine — can't really hold a candle to some of the very best films in contention, whether "The Overnighters" (my favorite), "Tales of the Grim Sleeper," "Virunga," etc. Alas, that's how it's shaping up. And that's just, like, my opinion, man. But I get it. We must protect whistleblowers and the spotlight of the Oscars is important for this kind of thing, yada, yada, yada. (Not that there isn't a ton of nuance in this situation to be chewed on no matter what side of the political line you fall on.) But... Anyway, Poitros' film won the International Documentary Association's Best Feature prize Friday night, out of a field of nominees that included the aforementioned "Grim...

Laura Poitras’ Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour took the top honor, the best feature award, at the Ida Documentary Awards on Friday night. The International Documentary Association’s event, held at the Paramount Theatre in Los Angeles, also honored Robert Redford with the career achievement award, and gave Tashi and the Monk, directed by Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton, two honors: best short and the Pare Lorentz Award. Citizenfour follows a series of in-person meetings between Poitras and the former CIA technical assistant turned whistleblower Snowden, who reached out to Poitras directly when she was working on a piece about surveillance in

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Laura Poitras’ acclaimed documentary has prevailed in the International Documentary Association’s 2014 Ida Documentary Awards.

Citizenfour was named best feature and centres on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton’s Tashi And The Monk won best short and the Pare Lorentz Award, presented to films that demonstrate “exemplary filmmaking while focusing on environmental and social issues.”

Robert Redford received the Ida’s Career Achievement Award.

Full list of winners:

Career Achievement Award

Robert Redford

Pioneer Award

Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

Preservation And Scholarship Award

Rithy Panh

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award Sponsored by Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm

Darius Clark Monroe

Best Feature Award

Citizenfour

Best Short Award

Tashi And The Monk

Best Curated Series Award

Independent Lens

Executive producer: Sally Jo Fifer

Deputy executive producer: Lois Vossen

Best Limited Series Award

Time Of Death

Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Alexandra Lipsitz

Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood, Sandy Shapiro

Best...

Wednesday morning, the International Documentary Association announced its nominees and select winners for the 2014 Ida Awards, an annual tribute to the best-of-the-best of non-fiction film and television. Pertinent to award season are the Best Feature contenders, including Lara Poitras’ recent hit “Citizenfour” “Point and Shoot,” an American filmmaker’s look inside Libyan prisons, “Finding Vivian Maier,” a portrait of the posthumously legendary photographer, Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado's artist profile “The Salt of the Earth,” and Nick Broomfield’s verite serial killer investigation, “Tales of the Grim Sleeper.” Unlike years past, all five films look like viable Best Documentary candidates come Oscar time, making the Ida Awards even more influential. Past winners include “The Square” (2013), “Searching for Sugar Man” (2012), “Nostalgia for Light” (2011), and “Waste Land” (2010). For his work founding the Sundance Institute and producing documentaries through Sundance Productions, the Ida Awards will honor Robert Redford with its career achievement award.

The International Documentary Association (Ida) announced nominations for the 2014 Ida Documentary Awards today, with awards being bestowed December 5th at the Paramount Theatre on the studio lot. The top films nominated in the best feature category include the critically-acclaimed Citizenfour from filmmaker Laura Poitras about Edward Snowden and the state of surveillance of civilians post 9/11 which has been enjoying a theatrical run and Nick Broomfield’s Tales Of The Grim Sleeper about the serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over 25 years. In the limited series category is Playtone’s CNN doc The Sixties, among others. Best episodic include Oprah Winfrey’s Master Class and HBO’s Vice exec produced by Bill Maher (and others). In addition, Robert Redford will receive the Career Achievement award from the Ida.

Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by Ida’s international membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City,...

For documentary filmmakers looking for funding (and who isn't?), here is a list of organizations offering grants for both international filmmakers and those in a specific region, as well as for various stages of production and outreach. Future articles alerting filmmakers to more grants will be coming. Note that these are listed in order of deadlines: Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund What It Does: The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund provides grants of $95,000 for the production of original, independent, and feature-length documentary films. These must be concerned with social and political issues in the United States and "focus on one of Pare Lorentz’s central concerns—the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all or the illumination of pressing social problems." Deadline: March 31 More Information: http://www.documentary.org/parelorentz Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Public Television Grants What It Does: Provides partial...

Jehane Noujaim's "The Square" edged out Joshua Oppenheimer's "The Act of Killing" to emerge as the big winner of the 2013 Ida Documentary Awards! The documentary about the 2011 Egyptian Revolution also beat Jason Osder's "Let the Fire Burn," Gabriela Cowperthwaite's "Blackfish," and Sarah Polley's Stories We Tell" for the prize.

Here's a full list of winners of the 2013 Ida Documentary Awards:

Best Feature Award

The Square

Director: Jehane Noujaim

Producer: Karim Amer; Executive Producers: Geralyn Dreyfous, Mike Lerner, Sarah Johnson, Jodie Evans, Lekha Singh, Gavin Dougan, Dan Catullo III, Lisa Nishimura, Adam Del Deo, Khalil Noujaim, Alexandra Johnes, Jeff Skol; Noujaim Films, Netflix Originals

Best Short Award

Slomo

Director: Josh Izenberg; Producer: Amanda Micheli; Executive Producer: Neil Izenberg; Big Young Films, Runaway Films

Best Limited Series Award

Inside Man

Producers: Kristen Vaurio, Lisa Kalikow, Shannon Gibson, Suzanne Hillinger, Lara Benario; Writers: Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock; Executive Producers: Jeremy Chilnick,...

The International Documentary Association’s 2013 Ida Documentary Awards honoured Jehane Noujaim’s Egyptian activism story The Square with the best feature award on Friday night (December 6) in Los Angeles.

The best short award went to Josh Izenberg’s Slomo, about neurologist turned rollerblader Dr John Kitchin.

The Ida’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Alex Gibney, currently in awards contention with The Armstrong Lie.

The Ida Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producer credits include The Square, Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War and The Crash Reel.

Laura Poitras received Ida’s Courage Under Fire Award in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Poitras and Glenn Greenwald, broke the story of National Security Agency (Nsa) whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the Prism programme in the process.

Poitras is currently in Berlin editing a film about Nsa surveillance, the third of...

This is a tough awards season! Lots of great movies to see, so little time! I'm catching up like crazy before we vote for the Critics' Choice Movie Awards for the Broadcast Film Critics Association. So I apologize if I haven't updated you with the latest on the awards season 2013-2014! And there were many award-giving bodies announcing nominations.

We already told you about the Rome Film Festival and the Film Independent Spirit Awards, now let's talk about the 2013 Gotham Awards, the Ida Documentary Awards, the Cinema Eye, and the Producers Guild announcing its best documentary choices.

First stop, we have the 2013 Gotham Awards where Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" topped the nominations with three nods including best feature, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong'o.

Winners will be announced on Dec. 2nd where Richard Linklater, Forest Whitaker, and Katherine Oliver (head of the NYC...

The International Documentary Association (Ida) aren’t necessarily the most indicative of where the Academy’s documentary branch will go, but they’re important and prestigious so it’s always good to see where their members go. This year’s selection of nominees is quite a highbrow collection with a heavy slant towards politics and activism with three very high profile contenders battling it out against a pair of smaller-scale, yet mightily intimidating, documentaries about prejudice some 30 years apart.

Best Documentary Feature

The Act of Killing

Blackfish

Let the Fire Burn

The Square (Nyff review)

Stories We Tell

I am a big fan of Jehane Noujaim’s up-to-the-minute look at the Egyptian democracy crisis, The Square, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s disturbing look at SeaWorld’s animal cruelty, Blackfish, and Sarah Polley’s fragmented family tree, Stories We Tell, but the other two – sadly, two I have not yet had the chance...

Six feature-length documentary films have been selected to receive a total of $95,000 from the Ida Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund this year.

The Pare Lorentz Documentary fund was created with support from The New York Community trust to honor the legacy of legendary American documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz by making grants to documentary projects that shed light on critical issues in the United States and focus on Pare Lorentz’s central concerns—the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems.

This year the fund ...

Final Deadline: Monday, April 22, 2013

The International Documentary Association is accepting proposals for the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund through Monday, April 22, 2013. This fund, named in honor of the landmark documentary filmmaker, provides production support for full-length independent documentary films that illuminate pressing issues in the United States and focus on one of Pare Lorentz’s central concerns—the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all or the illumination of pressing social problems.

This year the Fund will provide a total of $95,000 to up to six films with Individual grants ranging from $15,000- $25,000.

The Fund supports full-length documentary films that reflect the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz’s work, exhibiting objective research, artful storytelling, strong visual style, high production values, artistic writing, outstanding music composition, as well as skillful direction, camerawork and editing. Complete guidelines and application are available at www.documentary.org/parelorentz.

Previous recipients of the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund Grant have included ¿Más Bebés?, As Goes Janesville, After Tiller, Citizen Koch and Remote Area Medical.

A program of the International Documentary Association, the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund is made possible by The New York Community Trust.

One of my favorite documentaries this year, "Searching for Sugar Man," received top honors at the 2012 Ida Documentary Awards winning the Best Feature prize. The documentary about the search for the elusive musician, Rodriguez, is truly a brilliant film illuminating failed dreams and eventual redemption.

Here's the complete winners list of the 2012 Ida Documentary Awards:

Career Achievement Award

Arnold Shapiro

Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award

David France

Pioneer Award

Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program And Fund

Best Feature Award

Searching For Sugar Man

Director/Producer/Writer: Malik Bendjelloul

Producer: Simon Chinn

Executive Producer: John Battsek

Red Box Films, Sony Pictures Classics

Best Short Award

Saving Face

Director: Daniel Junge, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

Producers: David Coombe, Daniel Junge, Alison Greenberg, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Sabiha Sumar

Co-Producers: Aaron Kopp, Fazeelat Aslam

Senior Producer: Lisa Heller (HBO)

Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins (HBO)

HBO Documentary Films, Milkhaus, LLC, and JungeFilm, LLC

Best Limited Series Award...

We are excited to announce that three Ida-supported titles—After Tiller, Citizen Koch, and Valentine Road—have been selected among the 16 films in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

After Tiller is one of the five films to receive grants this year from our Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. The fund, made possible by The New York Community Trust, supports full-length documentary films that reflect the spirit and nature of Pare Lorentz’s work, exhibiting objective research, artful storytelling, strong visual style, high production values, artistic writing, outstanding music ...

This year, the esteemed Pare Lorentz Award will go to The Island President, directed by John Shenk. Each year, the Ida gives this award to a film that demonstrates concern for the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems. Previous winners of the Pare Lorentz Awards include The Last Mountain, Wasteland, and An Inconvenient Truth.

Ida’s Pare Lorentz Award recipient The Island President, directed by Jon Shenk, is the story of President Mohamed Nasheed of the Maldives. Nasheed brings democracy to the ...

The International Documentary Association is pleased to announce the five feature-length documentary films that have been selected to receive a total of $75,000 from the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. The Fund, which was created with support from The New York Community Trust, goes to projects that illuminate pressing issues in the United States and honor the legacy of the landmark documentary filmmaker Pare Lorentz.

This year Ida received a record number of grant applications from 216 filmmakers from across the U.S. and around the world. Submissions were judged on their ...

The Documentary Channel and the Ida have reteamed to create a special Doctalk show from the Ida’s 27th Annual Documentary Awards. This year, the awards show was hosted by Eddie Schmidt, Tiffany Shlain and Josh Fox. This special Doctalk show features exclusive interviews with the nominated feature and short subject filmmakers, along with red carpet and awards show footage.

The Ida awarded its prestigious 2011 Career Achievement Award to legendary filmmaker Les Blank, which was presented by Werner Herzog. The Pare Lorentz award went to Bill Haney for The Last Mountain, ...

The International Documentary Association is now accepting proposals for the Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, which provides production support for full-length documentary films. The Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund is made possible by a grant from The New York Community Trust.

Named in honor of the landmark documentary filmmaker, the Fund provides annual grants totaling $75,000 to be used in the creation of original, independent documentary films that illuminate pressing issues in the United States. In 2012, grants will be made to up to 5 projects that tell a compelling story and focus ...

Patricio Guzmán's "Nostalgia for the Light" was the big winner at the 2011 International Documentary Association (Ida) Awards receiving the Best Feature trophy. Here's the full list of winners:

Career Achievement Award

Les Blank

Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Filmmaker Award

Danfung Dennis

Best Feature Award

"Nostalgia For The Light"

Director/Writer: Patricio Guzmán

Producer: Renate Sachse

Atacama Productions (France), Blinker Filmproduction GmbH and Wdr (Germany), and Cronomedia Ltda. (Chile), Icarus Films

Best Short Award

"Poster Girl"

Director/Producer: Sara Nesson

Executive Producer: Sheila Nevins (HBO)

Producer: Mitchell Block

Supervising Producer: Sara Bernstein (HBO)

Consulting Producer: Ross Kauffman

Portrayal Films, Inc. in association with HBO Documentary Films

Best Limited Series Award

"Boomtown"

Executive Producer/Director: Rachel Libert

Executive Producers: Josh Braun, Ken Druckerman, Susannah Ludwig, Banks Tarver

Co-Executive Producer: Matthew Galkin

Producer: Kevin Vargas

Left/Right Inc., Discovery Channel- Planet Green

Best Continuing Series Award

"Pov"

Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry

Co-Executive...