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Ava DuVernay and honoree Norman Lear at the 2016 IDA Documentary Awards

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2015 host Tig Notaro

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Jane Fonda and Andie MacDowell at the 2006 IDA Documentary Awards

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Barbara Kopple and Robert Redford at the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards

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Morgan Freeman at the 2006 IDA Documentary Awards

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Werner Herzog presents Career Achievement Awards to Les Blank at the 2011 Documentary Awards

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2017 host Maz Jobrani

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34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards Honorees

Julia Reichert

Career Achievement Award

Bing Liu

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award

Chicken & Egg Pictures

Amicus Award

Stephen Maing & NYPD 12

Courage Under Fire Award

The Courage Under Fire Award—which is given from time to time to a filmmaker who demonstrates extraordinary courage in pursuit of the truth—will be presented to director Stephen Maing and all the NYPD12 whistleblowers of Crime + Punishment. Amidst a landmark lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment intimately observes the real lives and struggles of a group of black and Latino whistleblower cops and the young minorities they are pressured to arrest and summons in New York City. Over four years of rare access, the film cinematically documents our nation’s largest policing institution from the inside through the efforts of a brave group of officers who decide to sue the department and became known as the NYPD12.


Award Nominees & Winners


Best Feature

Crime + Punishment
Director/Producer: Stephen Maing
Producers: Ross Tuttle and Eric Daniel Metzgar
Hulu

 

Dark Money
Director/Producer: Kimberly Reed
Producer: Katy Chevigny
PBS Distribution

Free Solo
Directors/Producers: E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
Producers: Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill
National Geographic

 

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Director/Producer: RaMell Ross
Producers: Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim
Cinema Guild

Minding the Gap (winner)
Director/Producer: Bing Liu
Producer: Diane Quon
Hulu/POV

 

Of Fathers and Sons
Director: Talal Derki
Producers: Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias Siebert and Hans Robert Eisenhauer
Kino Lorber

Sky and Ground
Directors/Producers: Talya Tibbon and Joshua Bennett
Producers: Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre
World Channel (PBS)

 

The Silence of Others
Directors/Producers: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar
Cinephil/POV

United Skates
Directors/Producers: Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown
HBO

 

Won't You Be My Neighbor?
Director/Producer: Morgan Neville
Producers: Caryn Capotosto and Nicholas Ma
Focus Features


Best Short

Black Sheep
Director: Ed Perkins
Producers: Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn
The Guardian

 

Fear Us Women
Director: David Darg
Producer: Diego Traverso
RYOT

Lifeboat
Director/Producer: Skye Fitzgerald
Producer: Bryn Mooser
RYOT/Spin Film

 

Los Comandos
Directors/Producers: Joshua Bennett and Juliana Schatz-Preston
Producers: Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff and Jessica Chermayeff
World Channel

Mosul
Director: Olivier Sarbil
Co-Director/Producer: James Jones
Producers: Dan Edge and Raney Aronson-Rath
PBS Distribution

 

Sidelined
Director: Galen Summer
Producer: Jason Goldman
A&E IndieFilms

The Girl and the Picture
Director/Producer: Vanessa Roth
Producers: Devorah Palladino and Stephen D. Smith
USC Shoah Foundation

 

We Are Not Done Yet
Director: Sareen Hairabedian
Producer: Jeffrey Wright and David Holbrooke
HBO

We Became Fragments
Director/Producer: Luisa Conlon
Directors: Lacy Jane Roberts and Hanna Miller
The New York Times Op-Docs

 

Zion (winner)
Director/Producer: Floyd Russ
Producer: Carter Collins
Netflix


Best Audio Documentary

30 for 30 Podcasts: Bikram
Producers: Julia Lowrie Henderson, Jody Avirgan, Erin Leyden and Ryan Ross Smith
Executive Producers: Connor Schell and Libby Geist
ESPN Films

 

Caliphate (winner)
Reporters: Rukmini Callimachi and Andy Mills
Producers: Andy Mills, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr and Asthaa Chaturvedi
The New York Times

Heavyweight-Episode: Jesse
Producers: Jonathan Goldstein, Kalila Holt and Kaitlin Roberts
Gimlet Media

 

Latino USA - Episode: The Quevedos
Producer: Sayre Quevedo
Executive Producer: Maria Hinojosa
FUTURO MEDIA

Slow Burn Season 2
Producers: Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons
The Slate Podcast Network


Best Curated Series

American Masters
Executive Producer: Michael Kantor
PBS

 

Doc World
Executive Producer: Christopher Hastings
WORLD Channel

Independent Lens
Executive Producers: Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer
ITVS & Independent Lens / PBS

 

POV (winner)
Executive Producers: Justine Nagan and Chris White
POV/American Documentary

Why Slavery?
Executive Producers: Mette Hoffmann Meyer and Nick Fraser
The Why Foundation

 

 


Best Episodic Series

Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Executive Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig, Jared Andrukanis, Amy Entelis and Lizzie Fox
CNN

 

Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World
Executive Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Joe Caterini, Anna Chai, Amy Entelis and Lizzie Fox
CNN

ESPN Films: Enhanced
Executive Producers: Alex Gibney, Brad Hebert, Stacey Offman, Libby Geist and Connor Schell
ESPN

 

Last Chance U
Executive Producers: Greg Whiteley, Joe LaBracio, Dawn Ostroff, James D. Stern and Lucas Smith. Co-Executive Producers: Dane Lillegard and Andrew Fried
Netflix

The Confession Tapes
Executive Producers: Kelly Loudenberg, Philip David Segal, Sarah Whalen, Jeff Bumgarner, Steven Robillard, James Graves and Devin Griffi
Netflix

 

The Trade (winner)
Executive Producers: Matthew Heineman and Pagan Harleman
Showtime


Best Limited Series

Best Shot
Director/Executive Producer: Michael John Warren
Executive Producers: LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard and Jordan Wynn
Youtube

 

Bobby Kennedy for President
Director/Executive Producer: Dawn Porter
Executive Producers: Laura Michalchyshyn, Jon Kamen, Justin Wilkes, Dave Sirulnick, Nestan Berhrans and Gunnar Dedio
Netflix

Flint Town
Directors/Executive Producers: Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper and Jessica Dimmock
Executive Producers: David Pritikin, Steve Golin and P.G. Morgan
Netflix

 

November 13: Attack on Paris
Directors/Executive Producers: Jules Naudet and Gédéon Naudet
Executive Producer: Ben Silverman, Howard Owens, Erik Barmack, Jennifer Breslow, Damien Couvreur
Netflix

Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story
Directors/Executive Producers: Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason
Executive Producers: Mike Gasparro, Shawn Carter, David Glasser, Chachi Senior, Nick Sandow, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton
Paramount Network

 

Wild Wild Country (winner)
Directors: Chapman Way and Maclain Way
Producer: Juliana Lembi
Executive Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Josh Braun and Dan Braun
Netflix


Best Short Form Series

Guardian Documentaries
Executive Producers: Charlie Phillips and Lindsay Poulton
The Guardian

 

Life Underground
Director: Hervé Cohen
La Huit production/Bellemoon Productions

MEL Films (winner)
Executive Producer: David Freid

 

The New York Times Op-Docs 
Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo
The New York Times

VICE on HBO
Executive Producers: Shane Smith, Tim Clancy, Subrata De, Jonah Kaplan and Josh Tyrangiel
HBO

 

 


Best Music Documentary

A Modern Man
Director: Eva Mulvad
Producers: Sigrid Dyekjær and Sidsel Lønvig Siersted
Rise and Shine World Sales

 

Bathtubs Over Broadway
Director/Producer: Dava Whisenant
Producers: Amanda Spain and Susan Littenberg
Focus Features

MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. (winner)
Director/Producer: Steve Loveridge
Producers: Lori Cheatle, Paul Mezey and Andrew Goldman
Abramorama

 

Mr. SOUL! (winner)
Director/Producer: Melissa Haizlip
Co-Director: Samuel D. Pollard

Whitney
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Producers: Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Lisa Erspamer
Roadside Attractions

 

 


ABC News VideoSource Award

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

Jane Fonda in Five Acts
Director/Producer: Susan Lacy
Producer: Emma Pildes and Jessica Levin
HBO

 

John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls  (winner)
Directors/Producers: Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt
HBO

Love Means Zero
Director/Producer: Jason Kohn
Producers: Amanda Branson Gill, Anne White, Jill Mazursky and David Styne
Showtime

 

Mercury 13
Directors/Producers: David Sington and Heather Walsh
Netflix

Studio 54
Director: Matt Tyrnauer
Producer: Corey Reeser, Matt Tyrnauer and John Battsek Zeitgeist Films

 

 


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.

Abrázame
Director: Jas Doyle Pitt
National Film and Television School (United Kingdom)

 

Circle (winner)
Director: Jayisha Patel
National Film and Television School (United Kingdom)

Forced
Directors: Grace Oyenubi and Nani Walker
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

 

Palenque
Director: Sebastián Pinzón Silva
Northwestern University School of Communication

Walker's
Director: Kyle Myers-Haugh
University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of Film Studies

 

 


Pare Lorentz Award Winner

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

The Silence of Others (Recipient)
Directors/Producers: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar
Cinephil/POV

 

The Distant Barking of Dogs (Honorable Mention)
Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont
Producer: Monica Hellstrøm
Cinephil


Creative Recognition Award Nominees & Winners

 

Best Cinematography

Crime + Punishment
Cinematographer: Stephen Maing

 

Distant Constellation (winner)
Cinematographer: Shevaun Mizrahi

Free Solo
Cinematographers: Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin and Mikey Schaefer

 

Taste of Cement
Cinematographer: Talal Khoury

The Distant Barking of Dogs
Cinematographer: Simon Lereng Wilmont

 

 

Best Editing

Distant Constellation
Editors: Shevaun Mizrahi and Shelly Grizim

 

Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Editor: RaMell Ross

Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle
Editors: Raúl de Torres and Daniel Urdiales

 

Minding the Gap (winner)
Editors: Bing Liu and Joshua Altman

The Stranger
Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen

 

 

Best Music Score

Bathtubs Over Broadway
Composer: Anthony DiLorenzo

 

Bisbee '17 (winner)
Composer: Keegan DeWitt

The Distant Barking of Dogs
Composers: Uno Helmersson and Erik Enocksson

 

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (winner)
Composers: Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers

MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.
Composers: Dhani Harrison and Paul Hicks

 

 

Best Writing

Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun?
Writer: Travis Wilkerson

 

Of Fathers and Sons
Writer: Talal Derki

The Other Side of Everything (winner)
Writer: Mila Turajlic

 

People's Republic of Desire
Writer: Hao Wu

Wild Relatives
Writer: Jumana Manna