(LT to RT) Julie Goldman, Brittany Shyne, and Impact Partners
International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the honorary awards to be presented at the 41st annual IDA Documentary Awards, which will be held on December 4,5,6, 2025, in Los Angeles.
This year, American documentary filmmaker Julie Goldman will receive the Career Achievement Award; Brittany Shyne (Seeds) will receive the Emerging Filmmaker Award; and Impact Partners will receive the Pioneer Award.
Dominic Asmall Willsdon, Executive Director of IDA, said, “This December, IDA will gather the documentary community at multiple events across downtown Los Angeles to celebrate this year’s films and honor with special awards filmmakers Julie Goldman and Brittany Shyne, and the pioneering work of Impact Partners.”
What’s New at the IDA Documentary Awards?
This year, for the first time, IDA Documentary Awards events will span three days in December. This change is to enhance the connection between nominees, give them more opportunities to build their networks with fellow nominees, distributors, studios, television networks, press, and other constituencies who will participate in the gatherings. The weekend will kick off with a reception on Thursday, December 4, followed by a day long “Meet the Nominees” event on Friday, December 5 where 100+ nominees will have different chances to explore each other's work and connect with the Los Angeles documentary industry.
On the final day, Saturday, December 6, winners will be announced during a brunch at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) followed by an open to the public screening of Best Short and Best Feature award winning titles at the Aratani Theater in JACCC.
Learn more about the IDA Documentary Awards at documentary.org/awards2025. Watch the recording of the 2024 IDA Documentary Awards here.
550+ Documentaries Entered IDA Documentary Awards from 55 Countries
Entries for the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards are closed, and IDA received 550+ entries from 55 countries to be considered for 15 award categories. The nominees in all categories will be announced on November 18, 2025. Thousands of IDA members from 85+ countries will view and vote for the Best Short and Best Feature category winners between November 18 and December 2, whereas all other category winners will be selected by blue-ribbon jurors consisting of 150 documentary professionals from around the world.
Career Achievement Award: Julie Goldman
First given in 1985, the IDA Career Achievement Award is presented annually to an individual film or video maker who, through a body of work, has made a major and lasting contribution to the documentary form. The recipient is selected by IDA’s Board of Directors. Previous recipients include Dawn Porter, Julia Reichert, Werner Herzog, William Greaves, Les Blank, Sheila Nevins, and Errol Morris.
Julie Goldman is an Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning producer and executive producer of documentary and fiction films and series. Goldman is the first documentary producer to receive the Amazon Studios Sundance Institute Producer’s Award and the Cinereach Producer’s Award.
She recently produced Selena y Los Dinos, which premiered at Sundance and won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award, in addition to Audience Awards at SXSW and Miami Film Festivals. In 2023, three of her films premiered at Sundance: the Emmy-winning Victim/Suspect, the Grand Jury Prize-winning and Oscar-Nominated The Eternal Memory, and Roger Ross Williams’ acclaimed fiction feature Cassandro, starring Gael Garcia Bernal and featuring Bad Bunny.
Goldman produced Nanfu Wang’s Peabody Award-winning and Oscar-shortlisted In the Same Breath; Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground; the Peabody and Emmy Awards winner A Thousand Cuts; The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlile, and the Oscar-nominated films Life, Animated, and Abacus. She executive-produced the Oscar-nominated The Mole Agent and the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning Weiner.
Goldman’s current slate includes the second season of the hit Netflix series A Man on the Inside starring Ted Danson, and new films from directors such as Maite Alberdi, Roger Ross Williams, Kathlyn Horan, and Marcus Lindeen.
Emerging Filmmaker Award: Brittany Shyne
IDA’s Emerging Filmmaker Award has been given annually since 2003 to a filmmaker who, by virtue of their early work, shows extraordinary promise in exploring the possibilities of the nonfiction form. The recipient is selected by IDA’s Board of Directors and typically presented to a filmmaker with a notable recent first or second feature film. Previous recipients include Shiori Ito, Nanfu Wang, Garett Bradley, Alex Rivera, and Natalia Almada.
Brittany Shyne is an independent filmmaker and cinematographer based in Dayton, Ohio. Her debut feature, Seeds, premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it received the esteemed U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Award.
Working in the narrative and nonfiction form, Shyne’s work seeks to depict the complexity of everyday life by examining themes such as personal histories, alienation, and cultural modernization. By utilizing observational techniques and poetic language, her films lyrically weave together frameworks of race, class, culture, and family lineage. She has worked as a cinematographer on films such as The Debutantes (Tribeca, ‘24), This Time, This Place (Tribeca, ‘21), and Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar’s Academy Award-winning film American Factory 美国 工厂(Sundance ‘19). Shyne was the recipient of the 2021 Artist Disruptor Award from the Center of Cultural Power.
Pioneer Award: Impact Partners
Established in 2001 and given occasionally by the IDA Board of Directors, IDA’s Pioneer Award is presented to individuals or institutions who have not only made extraordinary contributions to advancing the nonfiction form but have also generously donated their time, vision, and leadership to the community. Some past recipients of this honor were Jean Tsien in 2021, Ted Sarandos in 2015, Agnès Varda in 2022, and Firelight Media in 2020.
Impact Partners is a Brooklyn-based film fund dedicated to supporting independent documentary storytelling that entertains audiences, engages with pressing social issues, and propels the art of cinema forward. In 2007, Impact Partners pioneered a unique model of funding that brings together a community of investors with filmmakers to tell powerful stories about critical issues facing our world. Over the span of 18 years, Impact Partners has been involved in the financing of over 150 films including: Academy Award ® winners and nominees like Icarus, Sugarcane, Of Fathers And Sons, How To Survive A Plague, and Hell And Back Again; Peabody Award winners Aftershock, Immigration Nation, Audrie & Daisy and The Newburgh Sting; Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and IDA Best Documentary Feature winner Dina, and Independent Spirit Award winner Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Recent releases include Apocalypse In The Tropics, Folktales, Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, Mistress Dispeller, and Songs From The Hole.