IDA Documentary Awards 2011

We are excited to announce the winners of the 27th annual IDA Documentary Awards!

BEST FEATURE: Nostalgia for the Light

BEST SHORT: Poster Girl

View a list of all the winners and nominees.

Josh Fox and Tiffany Shlain Join IDA's Eddie Schmidt as Awards Hosts

Representing the dizzying diversity of documentary filmmaking, this trio of hosts shared duties at the 2011 IDA Documentary Awards. Oscar®-nominated Josh Fox, hailed by The New York Times as "one of the most adventurous impresarios of the New York avant-garde,” and Sundance veteran and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain, one of Newsweek’s “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” will join Oscar®-nominated filmmaker, doc commentator and IDA Board President Eddie Schmidt to honor the year’s best in documentary filmmaking. Another Oscar®- nominated documentary filmmaker, Lucy Walker, lended her DJ skills to this year’s Awards, where she was spinning live during the show.

Les Blank Receives Career Achievement Award

Les Blank to Receive Career Achievement AwardOn Friday, December 2nd, the IDA awarded its prestigious 2011 Career Achievement Award to legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank. This award is given to a filmmaker who has made a major impact on the documentary genre through a long and distinguished body of work. For over 40 years, Les Blank has created films about the lives and music of passionate people who live at the periphery of American society. In previous years, IDA has bestowed its Career Achievement Award on documentary luminaries such as Sheila Nevins, Michael Apted, Ken Burns, Albert Maysles, Haskell Wexler, Michael Moore, Errol Morris, and last year’s recipient, Barbara Kopple.

To learn more about Les Blank and his life's work, read this interview with the master himself.

Danfung Dennis Receives Jacqueline Donnet Award

Danfung Dennis to Receive Jacqueline Donnet AwardEach year IDA recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film. Danfung Dennis, director of one of the year’s most celebrated films, Hell and Back Again, this year received the 2011 Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award. A still photographer who has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2006, Danfung Dennis won the 2010 Bayeux-Calvados Award For War Correspondents and in the same year was named one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine.

To learn more about Danfung Dennis and his film, read an interview with Dennis and scan this feature on Hell and Back Again, Life During Wartime.

2011 IDA Documentary Awards

BEST FEATURE AWARD

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (Winner)
Director/Writer: Patricio Guzmán
Producer: Renate Sachse
Atacama Productions (France), Blinker Filmproduction GmbH and WDR (Germany), and Cronomedia Ltda. (Chile), Icarus Films

BETTER THIS WORLD
Directors/Producers/Writers: Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega
Producer: Mike Nicholson
Executive Producers: Julie Goldman, John Battsek, Nicole Stott, Chana Ben-Dov, Sally Jo Fifer (ITVS), Simon Kilmurry (American Documentary|POV)
Loteria Films, Bullfrog Films, Cat & Docs

HOW TO DIE IN OREGON
Director/Producer: Peter D. Richardson
Executive Producers: Melody Korenbrot, Sheila Nevins (HBO)
Supervising Producer: Jacqueline Glover (HBO)
Associate Producers: Sophie Harris, Jordan Curnes
Clearcut Productions in association with HBO Documentary Films

THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED
Directors/Producers: Eric Strauss & Daniele Anastasion
Executive Producers: Gregory Henry, David Shadrack Smith
Part2 Pictures

THE TINIEST PLACE (EL LUGAR MÁS PEQUEÑO)
Director: Tatiana Huezo
Executive Producer: Liliana Pardo, Henner Hoffman
Producer: Nicolás Celis
Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica/Foprocine

BEST SHORT AWARD

POSTER GIRL (Winner)
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

BROKEN DOORS
Director/Producer: Goro Toshima

MAYA DEREN’S SINK
Director/Producer/Writer: Barbara Hammer
Barbara Hammer Productions

MINKA
Director/Producer: Davina Pardo
Producer: Andrew Blum
Birdling Films

THE WARRIORS OF QIUGANG
Director/Producer: Ruby Yang
Executive Producer: Walter & Shirley Wang
Producer: Thomas Lennon
Thomas Lennon Films, Smiley Film Distribution & World Sales, Cinema Guild

BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD

BOOMTOWN (Winner)
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

IF GOD IS WILLING AND DA CREEK DON’T RISE
Director/Producer: Spike Lee
Executive Producer: Shelia Nevins (HBO)
Producer: Sam Pollard
Supervising Producer: Jacqueline Glover (HBO)
Line Producer: Butch Robinson
40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks for HBO Documentary Films

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN’S AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Director/Producer/Writer: Amber Edwards
Executive Producer: Ken Bloom
Co-Producer: Dave Davidson
Hudson West Productions, PBS

THE NATIONAL PARKS PROJECT
Directors: Brenda Kovrig, Mike Downie, David New, Sarah Goodman, Jeff Thrasher, Sean Michael Turrell, Ryan J. Noth, Geoff Morrison
Executive Producer: Michael McMahon
Producers: Joel McConvey, Kristina McLaughlin, Kevin McMahon, Michael McMahon, Geoff Morrison, Ryan J. Noth
Writer: Joel McConvey
Primitive Entertainment Inc., FilmCAN, FilmOption International Inc.

ON SERIES
Directors: Tom Barbor-Might, Jon Brooks, Neil Edson
Executive Producers: James DuBern, James Baker
Producers: Tom Barbor-Might, Toby Lichtig
Current TV

BEST CONTINUING SERIES AWARD

POV (Winner)
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Co-Executive Producer: Cynthia López
VP of Programming and Production: Chris White
Series Producer: Yance Ford
Coordinating Producer: Andrew Catauro
American Documentary | POV

30 FOR 30
Executive Producers: Keith Clinkscales, John Dahl, Joan Lynch, Connor Schell, Bill Simmons, John Skipper, John Walsh
ESPN Films

AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
Senior Producer: Sharon Grimberg
PBS

THE PASSIONATE EYE
Executive Producer: Catherine Olsen
Producers: Andrew Johnson, Carissa Neekon, Rosa Kim, Julia Nunes
CBC News Network

VANGUARD
Executive Producers: Jim Fraenkel, Adam Yamaguchi
Producers: Christof Putzel, Adam Yamaguchi, Mariana van Zeller, Darren Foster, Cerissa Tanner, Jeff Plunkett, Alex Simmons, Joanne Shen, Noreen Moustafa, Yasu Tsuji
Current TV

DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD

This award recognizes exceptional achievement in non-fiction film and video production at the university level and brings greater public and industry awareness to the work of students in the documentary field.

GUAÑAPE SUR (Winner)
Director/Executive Producer/Writer: János Richter
Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella
Producer: Georg Zeller
ZeLIG- School for Documentary, Andanafilms, Icarus Films

HEART-QUAKE
Director/Writer: Mark Olexa
Executive Producers: Heidi Gronauer, Lorenzo Paccagnella
Producers: Georg Zeller, Nadia Caruso
ZeLIG - School for Documentary

RIVER OF VICTORY
Director/Producer: Trevor Wright
Executive Producer: Jack Emery
Producers: A. Todd Smith, Jordan Augustine
Full Mountain Pictures, Brigham Young University

SMOKE SONGS
Director/Producer/Writer: Briar March
On the Level Productions, Standford University

TRANSIT
Director/Writer: Regina Tan
Producers: Haley Quartarone, Juvia Chua, Emily Manheim
Writer: Eysham Md Ali
Chapman University Singapore, Chapman University

HUMANITAS DOCUMENTARY AWARD

The HUMANITAS Documentary Award is given to a documentarian whose film strives to unify the human family by exploring the stories of human beings who are different in culture, race, lifestyle, political loyalties and religious beliefs.

POSITION AMONG THE STARS (STAND VAN DE STERREN) (Winner)
Director/Writer: Leonard Retel Helmrich
Producer/Writer: Hetty Naaijkens - Retel Helmrich
Scarabee Films and HUMAN Broadcasting in association with HBO Documentary Films

THE CARRIER
Director/Producer/Writer: Maggie Betts
Executive Producer: Roland Betts
Producers: Ben Selkow, Joedan Okun, Benjamin Prager
Tent Full of Birds Productions

THE LEARNING
Director/Producer/Writer: Ramona S. Diaz
Executive Producers: Tony Gloria for Unitel, Sally Jo Fifer (ITVS), Simon Kilmurry (American Documentary|POV)
CineDiaz, POV, Women Make Movies

THE TINIEST PLACE (EL LUGAR MÁS PEQUEÑO)
Director: Tatiana Huezo
Executive Producer: Liliana Pardo, Henner Hoffman
Producer: Nicolás Celis
Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica/Foprocine

ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD

This award is given each year for the best use of news footage as an integral component in a documentary.

THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH (Winner)
Director/Producer/Writer: Chad Freidrichs
Producers: Jaime Freidrichs, Paul Fehler, Brian Woodman
Unicorn Stencil Documentary Films

THE GREEN WAVE
Director/Writer: Ali Samadi Ahadi
Producers: Jan Krueger, Oliver Stoltz
Dreamer Joint Venture Filmproduktion, Red Flag Releasing

MICHAEL FEINSTEIN’S AMERICAN SONGBOOK- EP. 2 “BEST BAND IN THE LAND”
Director/Producer/Writer: Amber Edwards
Executive Producer: Ken Bloom
Producer: Dave Davidson
Hudson West Productions, PBS

POV- “THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS”
Directors/Producers/Writers: Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Executive Producer: Jodie Evans, Sally Jo Fifer (ITVS) Simon Kilmurry (POV)
Co-Executive Producer: Cynthia López (POV)
VP of Programming and Production: Chris White (POV)
Series Producer: Yance Ford (POV)
Coordinating Producer: Andrew Catauro (POV)
ITVS, American Documentary | POV

REAGAN

Director/Producer/Writer: Eugene Jarecki
Executive Producers: Nick Fraser, Sheila Nevins (HBO)
Co-Executive Producer: Roy Ackerman
Senior Producer: Lisa Heller
Producer: Kathleen Fournier
Co-Producers: Melinda Shopsin, Christopher St. John
Associate Producers: Daniel DiMauro, Shirel Kozak
Consulting Producer: Alexander Johnes
Charlotte Street Films in association with HBO Documentary Films

PARE LORENTZ AWARD

The Pare Lorentz Award recognizes films that demonstrates exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems.

THE LAST MOUNTAIN (Winner)
Director/Producer/Writer: Bill Haney
Executive Producers: Tim Disney, Sarah Johnson Redlich, Tim Rockwood
Producers: Clara Bingham, Eric Grunebaum
Writer: Peter Rhodes
Uncommon Productions, Dada Films, New Video

Creative Recognition Awards

The Creative Recognition category recognizes special achievement in cinematography, editing, music and writing in films entered in the Feature Category.
Award recipient: The primary person involved in the recognized craft of the selected film.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

IL CASTELLO (Winner)
Cinematography: Massimo D'Anolfi
Directors: Massimo D'Anolfi & Martina Parenti

BEST EDITING

SENNA (Winner)
Editors: Chris King & Gregers Sall
Director: Asif Kapadia

BEST MUSIC

BETTER THIS WORLD (Winner)
Composer: Paul Brill
Directors: Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega

2011 IDA DOCUMENTARY AWARDS TIMELINE

October:

10/25 - Ad Reservation Deadline for Documentary magazine
10/27 - 2011 IDA Documentary Awards Nominees Announced
10/27 - 2011 IDA Documentary Awards Tickets On Sale

November:

11/1 - Artwork deadline for Documentary magazine
11/2 - Final Voting for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short begins*
11/15 - Final Voting ends*

December:

12/2 - 2011 IDA Documentary Awards @ The Director’s Guild of America

Awards Issue of Documentary magazine on newsstands the first week of December.

For advertising opportunities in Documentary magazine please contact Jodi Pais Montgomery at jodi@documentary.org.

*Award winners for Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short are selected by a group of IDA members from the nominees.

The awards were presented at our annual fundraiser on the evening of December 2, 2011 at the Directors Guild Theater in Los Angeles.