The recently concluded Cannes Film Festival, not exactly the doc-happiest place on earth, nonetheless showcased a handful of nonfiction work out of competition that got some decent notice. Charles Ferguson's Inside Job, about the global financial crisis, garnered much attention on the Croisette, at least among the American media. Here's a post, along withn links to interviews with Ferguson, from The New York Times. The film, which will open in theaters this fall through Sony Pictures Classics, also topped the IndieWire Critics Poll (along with Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Palme d'Or-winning Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives). Another documentary, Janus Metz's Armadillo, a Danish perspective on the war in Afghanistan, captured the International Critics Week Grand Prize.

Closer to home, IDA secured an Academy Foundaiton Institutional Grant of $7,500 for its Doc U series!.

1)      Awards

Academy Foundation/Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Institutional Grants:

Internship Programs:
$10,000
California Institute of the Arts (Valencia)
Columbia University School of the Arts (New York City)
Emerson College (Boston)
New York University - Kanbar Institute of Film & Television
University of California, Los Angeles - Film and Television Program
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)
University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Winston-Salem)
University of Southern California (Los Angeles)

$9,500
New York University - Moving Pictures Archive and Preservation Program

$8,300
Stanford University

$7,500
Columbia College Hollywood (Tarzana, CA)
DePaul University (Chicago)
Florida State University (Tallahassee)
Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles)

$5,000
Brooklyn College
Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)
Hampshire College (Amherst, MA)
Montclair State University (New Jersey)
Penn State University (University Park)
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
University of Arizona (Tucson)

Institutional Grants:
$15,000
American Film Institute (Los Angeles) - -Directing workshop for women
Streetlights (Los Angeles)-- Job training program

$12,500
Inner-City Filmmakers (Los Angeles) -- Job training program
Los Angeles County Museum of Art -- Film program

$10,000
Film Independent (Los Angeles) - Project: Involve
George Eastman House (Rochester, NY) - Visiting artist series
UCLA Film & Television Archive - Screening series
Writers Guild Foundation (Los Angeles) - Education programs

$7,500
The ACME Network (Los Angeles) - The ACME Animation Program
American Documentary (New York City) - History of Documentary film project
Cornell Cinema (Ithaca, NY) - Visiting filmmaker program
The Flaherty/International Film Seminars (New York City) - 56th Flaherty Film Seminar
Frameline (San Francisco) - Frameline at the Center screening series
International Documentary Association (Los Angeles) - Doc U Seminar series
Jacob Burns Film Center (Pleasantville, NY) - Filmmaker residencies
The MacDowell Colony (Peterborough, NH) - Filmmaker residencies
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston - Visiting filmmakers program
National Association of Latino Independent Producers (Santa Monica, CA) - -Latino Producers Academy
New York Women in Film & Television -- Women's film symposium
Salt Lake City Film Center -- Visiting artists program
Wesleyan University (Middletown, CT) -- Guest speakers' program

$5,700
Crowing Rooster Arts (New York City) -- Cine Institute Haitian film training program

$5,000
Appalshop (Whitesburg, KY) - AMI Advanced Lab program
The Autry National Center of the American West (Los Angeles) - Crossing Borders film series
Brooklyn Museum (New York City) - First Saturdays screening series
California College of the Arts (Oakland) - Master class program
California State Summer School for the Arts (Los Angeles) - Visiting artist residency
Cinefamily (Los Angeles) - Silent Treatment film series
Film Forum (New York City) - Premiere screenings/filmmakers-in-person program
IFP (New York City) - Independent filmmaker labs
IFP Chicago - Producers' workshop series
The Light Factory (Charlotte, NC) - German New Wave tribute program
Maysles Institute (New York City) -- filmmaking education program scholarship fund
Northwest Film Forum (Seattle) - Visiting artist program
Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) - Conference on film criticism
Oklahoma City Museum of Art - Hollywood Costume Design exhibition
Outfest (Los Angeles) - Access LA seminar series and screenwriting lab
Paramount Center for the Arts (Peekskill, NY) - Music and Film series
SIFF (Seattle) - FutureWave Filmmakers Visits program
San Francisco Film Society - Artist-in-residence program
Southern Arts Federation (Atlanta) - Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers
Squaw Valley Community of Writers (CA) - Screenwriting program
Tribeca Film Institute (New York City) - Tribeca All Access program
Vassar College (Poughkeepsie, NY) - Guest filmmaker series
Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, MN) - Filmmakers in Conversation program
Wexner Center for the Arts (Columbus, OH) - Visiting filmmaker series

$3,700
Berklee College of Music (Boston) -- Visiting artists program

$3,500
IFP Minnesota - Independent Producers Conference
3rd i South Asian Independent Film (Berkeley, CA) -- Speaker series

$3,000
Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles) -- Microcinema screening series

$2,800
Boulder Public Library (CO) - Stan Brakhage screening program

$2,500
Northeast Historic Film (Bucksport, ME) -- Summer film symposium

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
Public Education Award: Boy Interrupted (Dir./Prod..: Dana Perry; HBO Documentary Films)

British Academy of Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards- Nominees
Factual Series:
Blood, Sweat and Takeaways (Mark Rubens, Tim Quicke, James Christie-Miller, Jo Bishop; BBC Three/Ricochet)
The Family (David Clews, Beejal-Maya Patel, Jonathan Smith, Sanjay Singhal; Channel 4/Dragonfly Productions)
One Born Every Minute (Channel 4/ Dragonfly Productions)
Who Do You Think You Are? (Liz Dobson, Colette Flight, Lucy Carter, Alex Graham; BBC One/Wall To Wall)

Specialist Factual:
Art of Russia  (Andrew Graham-Dixon, John Hay, Silvia Sacco, Karen McGann;  BBC Four/BBC Productions)
Chemistry: A Volatile History (Jim Al-Khalili, Helen Thomas, Sacha Baveystock, Kim Shillinglaw; BBC Four/BBC Productions)
Inside Nature's Giants (David Dugan, Julian Thomas, Alex Tate, Yvonne Bainton;  Channel 4/Windfall Films)
Yellowstone (BBC Two/BBC Productions)

Single Documentary:
Katie: My Beautiful Face (Jessie Versluys, Dan Goldsack, Kate Collier, Samuel Santana; Channel 4/Mentorn)
Louis Theroux: A Place for Paedophiles (Louis Theroux, Emma Cooper, Guy King, Nick Mirsky; BBC Two/BBC Productions)
Tsunami: Caught on Camera (Channel 4/Darlow Smithson Productions)
Wounded (Sara Hardy, Jane Aldous, Gwyn Jones, Roger Courtiour; BBC One/BBC Productions)

Current Affairs:
Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines (Dispatches)
Generation Jihad (Peter Taylor, Leo Telling, Sam Bagnall; BBC Two/BBC Current Affairs)
Gypsy Child Thieves (This World) (Liviu Tipurita, Sam Bagnall, Lucy Hetherington; BBC Two/BBC Current Affairs)
Terror in Mumbai (Dispatches) (Dan Reed, Eamonn Matthews; Channel 4/Quicksilver Media)

One World Media Awards (UK)--Nominees
TV Documentary Award:
Afghanistan: Behind Enemy Lines (Jamie Doran, John Moffat, Najibullah Quraishi, Paul Woolwich; Clover Films for Channel 4)
Dispatches: Afghanistan's Dirty War (Tom Roberts, Najibullah Razaq, Peter Lindley; October Films for Channel 4)
Kids for Sale: Stacey Dooley Investigates (Matt Reid, Julie Noon, Paddy Lynas, Simon McMahon, Stacey Dooley; BBC Three)

Feature Documentary Award:
Last Train Home (Dir.: Lixin Fan; EyeSteelFilms)
Mugabe and the White African (Dirs.: Andrew Thompson, Lucy Bailey; Arturi Films with Explore Films, Agency for Wales, Arts Council for Wales, Molinare Productions) Presumed Guilty (Dirs.: Roberto Hernandez, Geoffrey Smith; Lawyers With Cameras).

Environment Award:
The End of the Line (Dir.: Rupert Murray; Prods.: Claire Ferguson, Claire Lewis; The Fish Film Company for More 4)
ITV News: Expedition Everest (John Angier, James Mates; ITV1)
Report on Lithium in Bolivia (Lindsey Hilsum; Channel 4 News/ITN)

Student Academy Awards
Documentary
Dreams Awake (Suea Despierto) (Dirs.: Kevin Gordon, Rebekah Meredith; Stanford University)
Rediscovering Pape (Dir.: Maria Royo; City College of New York)
Yizkor's Remembrance (Dir.: Ruth Fertig; University of Texas at Austin)

2)      Festivals

Cannes Film Festival
International Critics Week-Grand Prize: Armadillo (Dir.: Janus Metz)
American Pavilion--Emerging Filmmaker Showcase:
Student Documentary Award: Still Here (Dir.: Alex Camilleri)
Emerging Documentary Award: Nico's Challenge (Dir.: Steve Audette)
IndieWire Critics Poll:  Inside Job (Dir.: Charles Ferguson)

Cannes Independent Film Festival
Best Documentary: Daddy I Do (Dir.: Cassie Jaye)
Best Short Documentary: Breaking News Breaking Down (Dir.: Mike Walter)

China Documentary Film Festival
Independent Spirit Award: Spiral Staircase of Harbin (Dir.: Ji Dan)
Jury Prize: Fortune Teller (Dir.: Xu Tong)
Excellent Documentary Award: Martian Syndrome (Dir.: Xue Jianqiang)
Special Mentions: A Song of Love, Maybe (Dir.: Zhang Zanbo); Mouthpiece (Dir.: Guo Xizhi)

East End Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature: Presumed Guilty (Dirs.: Roberto Hernández / Geoffrey Smith)

Human Rights Watch Film Festival
Cinereach Award: War Don Don (Dir.: Rebecca Richman Cohen)

Provincetown International Film Festival
Faith Hubley Memorial Award: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman

Santa Cruz Film Festival
Best Documentary Feature:  House of Numbers  (Dir.: Brent W. Leung)
Best EarthVision Environmental Film: Burning in the Sun  (Dirs.: Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson)
Audience Award--Best Documentary Feature: La Vie en Verte: The WAMM Movie  (Dirs.: Charlie Hall, Bevin Bell-Hall)
Best EarthVision Environmental Film: Paddle to Seattle: Journey through the Inside Passage (Dirs.: J.J. Kelley, Josh Thomas)
Best Documentary Short: Ride a Wave  (Dir.: Rocky Romano)
Best International Film: Garbage Dreams (Dir.: Mai Iskander)
Best Locally Produced Work: Until We Meet Again... Building a School in Tanzania (Dir.: Peggy Selz)

Silverdocs: The Good Pitch @ Silverdocs Projects
Dear Mandela (Dir.: Dara Kell)-As South Africa prepares to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the government is trying to "eradicate the slums" by evicting shack dwellers from their homes at gunpoint. Dear Mandela chronicles the rise of three young leaders and a non-violent movement to stop the bulldozers that are literally tearing apart homes and communities.
Hell and Back Again (Dir.: Danfung Dennis)--Dozens of films over the last decade have showcased the realities of war on the battlefield, but few have showcased the physical and mental pain that service members endure when faced with the challenges of readjusting to the lives they left back home.
Higher Ground (Dir.: Jon Shenk)--The film follows Maldives' president Mohamed Nasheed in his Herculean effort to save 385,000 people from drowning as his nation of 1,200 low-lying islands are slipping below the rising sea levels due to global warming.
The House That Herman Built (Dir.: Angad Bhalla)--The film captures the remarkable creative journey and unlikely friendship between Herman Wallace, who has lived in a 6-foot-by-9-foot cell for over three decades, and artist Jackie Sumell. It looks at the transformative power of art while examining the injustice of prolonged solitary confinement.
The Interrupters (Dir.: Steve James)--The film chronicles a group of men and women in Chicago whose singular mission is to prevent shootings. The Interrupters were themselves once participants in street violence and guide the viewer through the discomfiting gunplay in America's cities.
$ h i t (Director: Annika Gustafson)--A radical shift in sanitation for the urban poor through the promise of the "Peepoo," a portable, self-sanitizing toilet, sets the stage for an opportunity to save countless lives and provide much needed fertilizer. Can the Peepoo be accepted in the marketplace?
The Truth Will Set You Free (Dir.: Macky Alston)--Bishop Gene Robinson, the first openly gay partnered bishop in the high church traditions of Christendom, is a key subject in this film chronicling a movement of activists and leaders seeking to restore balance in the current church/state battles for LGBT equality.
A Whole Lott More (Dir.: Victor Buhler)--Ohio's Lott Industries employs 1,200 workers with developmental disabilities. For decades the company has built car parts at the highest level and capacity, but its livelihood is threatened by the current economic climate. The film follows a 12-month period during which the company seeks to save itself and its employees.

TrentoFilmfestival
Best Film: Himalaya, le chemin du ciel (Dir.: Marianne Chaud)
Best Film on Mountaineering or Mountains: Alone on the Wall (Dirs.: Peter Mortimer,  Nick Rosen)
Best Film for Exploration or Adventure: Birdman of the Karakoram (Dir.: Alun Hughes)
Critics Prize: Nanga Parbat (Dir.: Josef Vilsmaier)
Jury Prize: Salt (Dir.: Michael Angus; Prod.: Murray Fredericks)
Best Artistic-Technical Contribution: Mount St. Elias (Dir.: Gerald Salmina)