Call For Entries For Best Audio Documentary (Radio/Podcast) are now open! In recognition of the continued expansion of the nonfiction form, we are introducing two new categories for the 34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. As radio storytelling and podcasting have staked out bold artistic territories, we are debuting the award for Best Audio Documentary. And, as the community has witnessed an impressive body of adventurous work in music documentaries over the past few years, IDA will create a special category devoted exclusively to this genre. "The IDA is proud to support the documentary

Ken Jacobson recently departed IDA, having served just over three years as its inaugural director of educational programs and strategic partnerships. In that short tenure, he added significant value and visibility to the organization, expanding its programming to include intensive master classes and enhancing the profile of the "Conversations with…" series by securing TCM host Ben Mankiewicz to commandeer the evenings. And then there was Getting Real, the groundbreaking filmmaker-to-filmmaker event--developed and produced by Jacobson, Execeutive Directors Michael Lumpkin and Simon Kilmurry and

Hillary got it wrong. Her campaign slogan, "Stronger Together," embossed on a sea of campaign signs at the Democratic convention and emblazoned across banner ads in The New York Times, has the right idea, but, in my mind, puts the two words in reverse order. At least that's the argument I began constructing when I realized that the slogan we coined months ago for the Getting Real 2016 documentary film conference was almost identical to hers. "Together. Stronger." That's our slogan. Of course, the two messages are so similar, why quibble? The difference is subtle, but for those of you not that

"We are standing here to prove that Ukraine is a European country." Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see Winter on Fire on Saturday, February 27 at 10:30p at the Writers Guild of America Theater as part of DocuDay LA. Over the course of just 93 days in 2014, what began as peaceful student demonstrations in Ukraine morphed into a violent revolution. Filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky was on the

"The more people see of me, the more they'll realize that all I'm good for is making music." Editor's note: Over the next few weeks, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the films that have been honored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with an Oscar® nomination in the documentary category. You can see Amy on Saturday, February 27 at the Writers Guild of America Theater as a part of DocuDay. On September 21, 2015, the IDA screened filmmaker Asia Kapadia's shattering and affecting Amy as a part of the IDA Documentary Screening Series. Now an Oscar-nominee about the

Back in the fall of 2014, the IDA held the first Getting Real Documentary Film Conference. We had no idea of the impact it would make in the field nor the depth of conversations it would spur. The conference aimed, of course, to gather filmmakers, industry professionals, academics, and students who could confront the critical issues facing the documentary community. The three-day conference, held in Los Angeles in partnership with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, succeeded in building a sense of community and pushed the conversation forward on key issues within the field. This

We are thrilled to announce that Grammy-nominated comedian Tig Notaro will host the 2015 IDA Documentary Awards ceremony. The subject of Tig, the Netflix Original documentary chronicling her life after it famously fell apart, Notaro has recently teamed up with Diablo Cody, Nicole Holofcener and Louis CK on a semi-autobiographical pilot for Amazon. The comedian and writer also stars in her first HBO stand-up special, Boyish Girl Interrupted, which is out now. The IDA is also excited to announce that in an unprecedented move, the 2015 edition of the Awards will highlight six films in Best

We are excited to announce the 3rd Annual Documentary Screening Series will begin September 17 with a screening of Fox Searchlight's He Named Me Malala. A Q&A with the film’s director, Davis Guggenheim, moderated by Indiewire’s Editor in Chief, Dana Harris, will take place following the screening. Now in its third year, the IDA Documentary Screening Series brings a curated program of some of the year's most anticipated non-fiction films to an enthusiastic audience of documentary supporters, industry, guild, and IDA members. Screenings conclude with a filmmaker Q&A moderated by journalists and

With the premiere event in our new Conversation Series just one week away, we're getting excited about the stellar lineup of seasoned documentary filmmakers we've hand-picked to bring to the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood over the next few months. The Series, which kicks off on the evening of Tuesday, July 21 with Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering ( The Hunting Ground, The Invisible War), will be hosted by Ben Mankiewicz, whose turns on Turner Classic Movies and What the Flick?! have afforded him the opportunity to interact with the art and culture of movies on an almost daily basis. We wanted to

Just four days after the theatrical premiere of perhaps the most Gen X biodoc to ever grace the screens of your local multiplex, filmmaker Brett Morgen was still riding the high from Cobain: Montage of Heck's opening weekend success. So when Morgen told us he had the time to sit down with Sundance Film Festival's Trevor Groth to have a conversation about his career in front of members of the IDA community, we couldn't have been more thrilled. The filmmaker and Groth wove their way through Morgen's career, starting with his feature debut On the Ropes and moving through The Kid Stays in the