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IDA's Fiscally Sponsored 'The Invisible War', Two DocuWeeks Shorts Get Oscar Nods

By IDA Editorial Staff


On the morning of Thursday, January 10, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced their nominees for Oscars 2013. The IDA is proud to highlight our strong relationship with several films in the running, including nominees in both the Documentary Feature and Documentary Short categories.

In the Feature category, Kirby Dick's The Invisible War is one of the five films to receive this much anticipated nomination. A groundbreaking investigative documentary about the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military, The Invisible War is a participant in IDA's Fiscal Sponsorship Program, a formal arrangement in which the IDA sponsors a project for the purpose of fundraising through grants and donations. The film paints a startling picture of the extent of the problem—today, a female soldier in combat zones is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. The Invisible War exposes the epidemic, breaking open one of the most under-reported stories of our generation, to the nation and the world. Dick's film was also in the running in the Best Feature category at the 28th annual IDA Documentary Awards.

Dick's film is up against four other outstanding selections, including David France's How to Survive A Plague and Malik Bendjelloul's Searching for Sugar Man. At the IDA Awards on December 7, 2012, David France was awarded the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award to recognize his contribution to the documentary form with this, his first feature film. Bendjelloul also walked away with two awards for Sugar Man that night: one for Best Music, and another for Best Feature of 2012.

In the Documentary Short category, the IDA is proud to have helped both Open Heart (dir. Kief Davidson) and Kings Point (dir. Sari Gilman) qualify for Oscar consideration with our 16th annual DocuWeeks program in both New York and Los Angeles. A bittersweet look at our national obsession with self-reliance, Kings Point explores the dynamic tension between living and aging—between our desire for independence and our need for community—and underscores our powerful ambivalence toward growing old. Another film dealing with a struggle over life, Open Heart reveals the intertwined endeavors of Dr. Emmanuel, Rwanda's lone government cardiologist fighting to save the lives of his young patients, and Dr. Gino, the Salam Center's head surgeon, who is fighting to save his hospital, Africa's only link to life-saving free cardiac surgery for the millions who need it. Both films were also considered in the IDA Documentary Awards Best Short category back in December.

These two shorts are up against other IDA Documentary Award nominee Mondays at Racine, the story of two bold, brassy sisters who, every third Monday of the month, open the doors of their Long Island hair salon to women diagnosed with cancer.

See below for a full list of nominees in both the Documentary Feature and Short categories.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, Nominees to be determined
How to Survive a Plague, Nominees to be determined
The Invisible War, Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man, Nominees to be determined

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Each of these films will be playing at IDA's DocuDay at the Writers Guild of America Theater in Beverly Hills on Saturday, February 23. Buy your passes today!