Join us for the 41st IDA Documentary Awards, as we bring together nominees, honorees, peers in the field, and industry leaders. We welcome IDA Members and the general public on Friday, December 5, to celebrate all the nominees, and Saturday, December 6, for the presentation of this year’s awards. Welcome Reception: December 4, 2025 (Nominees and guests) Meet the Nominees: December 5, 2025, LA Center Studios 41st IDA Documentary Awards: December 6, 2025, Los Angeles Athletic Club Learn more about the IDA Documentary Awards and get your tickets here . Click here for Awards graphics and stills
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Congratulations to the 3 IDA grantees who have premieres at DOC NYC 2025.
Congratulations to the 7 IDA grantees who have premieres at IDFA 2025.
International Documentary Association (IDA) is proud to announce the recipients of the 2025 IDA Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund. In addition to cash grants, IDA provides artist support and professional development guidance to all grantees. Three projects were selected out of 62 applicants. Awarded projects represent six countries, including Brazil, Belgium, Mexico, Haiti, France, and the United States. The theme for the 2025 Pare Lorentz Fund is Migration in and to the Americas. IDA chose this theme to recognize and honor lives that exist across borders, and to support transnational dialogue
Welcome to IDA Member Spotlight, a monthly interview series highlighting IDA members and showcasing the depth and diversity of our community. This month, we had the pleasure of speaking with Christine La Monte, a longtime IDA member. Christine is a producer, director, writer, and former marketing executive for Universal, Disney, and Orion. She is the founder and president of La Monte Productions, where her current projects include two Oscar-qualifying feature documentaries on the awards circuit. In this interview, Christine shares insights into these projects as well as what’s next for her and
Yesterday, October 30, documentary filmmaker Giorgi Mrevlishvili was detained by authorities in Georgia. This news was reported in social media posts published by Documentary Association Georgia, one of IDA’s peer organizations.
The merger of Warner Bros. Discovery with Paramount or any other major studio or large streamer would be devastating to US documentary filmmakers, the film industry, consumers, and free speech in the United States. Documentaries have been one of the resurgent American art forms of the 21st century, and play a vital role in getting real stories to audiences around the country. Previous similar mergers stifled competition, inhibited free expression, limited the films available to audiences, and hurt film workers throughout the industry. If Paramount does buy Warner Brothers, IDA will strongly
Sara Khaki is a documentary director, producer, and editor dedicated to telling stories that promote gender equity. She is a Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Award winner, World Cinema Documentary and Visions Du Reél Audience Award winner for her feature documentary Cutting Through Rocks , which follows the first elected councilwoman of a rural Iranian village. The film has been called “a deftly shaped work of cinematic nonfiction” by Indiewire and “one of those profound vérité documentaries that are only possible through the patience and perseverance of the filmmakers” by POV Magazine. Her
International Documentary Association (IDA) announced the honorary awards to be presented at the 41 st 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
Fundraising for independent documentaries in the U.S. has always been difficult. As the manager of the IDA Fiscal Sponsorship Program, I have a unique vantage point on what’s working for the many documentary projects in our program. On average, projects have budgets between US$30k–$100k for shorts and US$250k–$1 million for features. Raising that amount often involves equity investments and non-recoupable funds—grants, donations, or crowdfunding. In 2025, the documentary fundraising landscape has become even more confusing. While we can fiscally sponsor projects worldwide, we receive most