We’ve officially landed three amazing personalities from the world of non-fiction to host this prestigious fundraising event. Representing the dizzying diversity of documentary filmmaking, filmmakers Josh Fox and Tiffany Shlain and IDA Board President Eddie Schmidt will each bring their own unique flavor to the events of the night. Accompanying the MC responsibilities will be Oscar®- nominated documentary filmmaker, Lucy Walker, who be spinning live during the show.
Emmy Award-winning and Academy Awards-nominated filmmaker Josh Fox is also the founder and Artistic Director of International WOW Company, a film and theater company that works closely with actors and non actors from diverse cultural backgrounds. Fox’s work is known for its mix of gripping narrative, heightened imagery and its commitment to socially conscious themes and subjects. With International WOW Company, Fox has received a Drama Desk Nomination, an Otto Award, five grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and five prestigious MAP Fund Grants, an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship among many other awards and honors. Fox’s film work includes the Emmy Award winning, and Academy Award® nominated, documentary Gasland and Memorial Day.
Honored by Newsweek as one of the “Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is a filmmaker, founder of The Webby Awards, co-founder of The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences and a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Her work in film & technology has received 48 awards and distinctions and her last four films premiered at Sundance, including The Tribe and Connected: An Autoblogography About Love, Death & Technology. A celebrated thinker and speaker, she is a visiting professor at The University of Wales, is on the advisory board of M.I.T.’s Geospatial Lab, has advised Secretary Clinton and presented the 2010 Commencement Address at UC Berkeley.
Eddie Schmidt is an Oscar®-nominated filmmaker, writer/producer, and commentator, as well as the Board President of the International Documentary Association (IDA). He produced four feature documentaries that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, including This Film is Not Yet Rated, and Twist of Faith. For television, Schmidt has directed, produced, and written documentary and comedy specials and series for the likes of HBO, IFC, Lionsgate, PBS, A&E, E!, Current, and GSN. This year, he appeared throughout Current’s 50 Documentaries to See Before You Die, and was one of six experts consulted on the series. Since 2009, Schmidt has served as President of the IDA, a nonprofit community and resource for documentary filmmakers.
Lucy Walker is an Academy Award® and Emmy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker, whose directing credits include the Oscar-®nominated Waste Land, Countdown to Zero, and Devil’s Playground. Lucy has won many festival and critical accolades for her films. Her television credits include Nickelodeon’s Blue’s Clues, for which she was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Direction in a Children’s Series, and several award-winning narrative short films. As a film student at NYU'S Graduate Film program, Lucy moonlighted as a musician and DJ – hence our choice for Ms. Walker’s spinning skills at the Awards!
The 27th Annual IDA Documentary Awards will be held on Friday, December 2nd at the Director’s Guild in Los Angeles.
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