The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced nominations for the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards. The five films nominated in IDA’s Feature category are: CITIZENFOUR, Laura Poitras’ portrait of whistleblowers, including Edward Snowden, and the disturbing state of surveillance of civilians in the post 9/11 age; Finding Vivian Maier, John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s accounting of the discovery in an abandoned storage locker of what would turn out to be the work of one of the 20th Century’s greatest photographers; Point And Shoot from Marshall Curry, the firsthand account of Matt Van Dyke’s personal odyssey in North Africa including fighting and imprisonment during the revolution in Libya; The Salt Of The Earth, directors Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado’s poetic examination of the life and work of photographer Sebastiรฃo Salgado; and Tales Of The Grim Sleper, Nick Broomfield’s investigation of the notorious serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a 25-year span.
The five nominated films in the Short category are Ghost Train, a film from James Fleming and Kelly Hucker about love, death, fantasy and the horror and mystery of growing old; Our Curse from director Tomasz ลliwiลski – a personal doc chronicling his family’s struggle with Ondine’s Curse; Edgar Barens’ Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, the story of Jack Hall’s final months in prison hospice being cared for by fellow inmates; The Queen from Manuel Abramovich, the portrait of 11-year-old Memi and the rigors and honor of being a Queen of the Carnival; and Tashi And The Monk from Andrew Hinton and Johnny Burke, the tale of 5-year-old Tashi who joins a community of orphaned and unwanted children founded by former Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok.
Winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories are selected by IDA’s international membership. Screening committees of industry professionals based in New York City, Washington, DC, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles determine other award categories.
“This year’s nominated and award-winning films and series are further testament to the growing importance of documentary storytelling in today’s rapidly changing and increasingly conflicted world,” said IDA executive director Michael Lumpkin. “Our expansion of awards honoring excellence in series production echoes the increased demand for nonfiction broadcast programming and online content.”
Five productions are nominated for the Curated Series Award: American Experience (PBS), American Masters (PBS), Independent Lens (ITVS/PBS), POV (American Documentary | POV) and Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel (HBO Sports).
Limited Series nominees are: Chicagoland (CNN), Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (FOX), The Sixties (CNN), Time Of Death (Showtime Networks, Inc.) and Years of Living Dangerously (Showtime Networks, Inc).
Nominees in the Episodic Series category are Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN), Morgan Spurlock Inside Man (CNN), Oprah’s Master Class (OWN), Our America With Lisa Ling (OWN) and Vice (HBO).
In the Short Form Series category, A Short History Of the Highrise (National Film Board of Canada and The New York Times), Last Chance High (VICE News), Op-Docs (The New York Times), Planet Money Makes A T-Shirt (NPR) and Russian Roulette (VICE News) are nominated.
Nominees for the Humanitas Documentary Award, given to a documentarian whose film strives to unify the human family by exploring and transcending cultural barriers, are: How I Got Over (Nicole Boxer, director), Keep On Keepin’ On (Alan Hicks, director), and Limited Partnership (Thomas G. Miller, director).
Five student films are nominated for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award: Cast In India (Natasha Raheja, director), Evaporating Borders (Iva Radivojevic, director), Hotel 22 (Elizabeth Lo, director), My Dad’s A Rocker (Zuxin Hou, director) and Solitary Plains (J. Christian Jensen, director).
Nominees for the ABC News VideoSource Award, which recognizes compelling use of news footage in documentary filmmaking, include: 1971 (Johanna Hamilton, director), Captivated: The Trials of Pamela Smart (Jeremiah Zagar, director), Concerning Violence (Goฬran Hugo Olsson, director), The Assassination of President Kennedy (Gary Goeztman, Tom Hanks, Mark Herzog, executive producers) and The Joe Show (Randy Murray, director).
The IDA Creative Recognition Awards honor excellence in cinematography, composing, editing, and writing in documentary feature films. The recipients of these awards represent the highest achievements in their respective crafts, and highlight the importance of their work in compelling documentary storytelling. Elevator (cinematography by Hatuey Viveros Lavielle) will be recognized with the Best Cinematography Award presented by Canon, Last Days In Vietnam (edited by Don Kleszy) will receive the Best Editing award; Alfred And Jakobine (music by Nick Urata) will be presented with the Best Music award, and Finding Vivian Maier (written by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel) will receive the Best Writing award.
Darius Clark Monroe, director of Evolution Of A Criminal, will receive IDA’s Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film. The winner of the Emerging Documentary Award receives $5,000 in cash and a donation of post-production services valued at $50,000, made possible by sponsors Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm.
Evolution Of A Criminal, Monroe’s feature film debut, premiered at SXSW 2014. It won the Reva and David Logan Grand Jury Award and The Center for Documentary Studies Filmmaker Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and was selected for a Spike Lee Production Fellowship and a Warner Bros. Film Award. The film has received a grant from Cinereach and other significant support. Monroe is a MFA Graduate from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He has won screenplay awards including one from the National Board of Review, and has been selected to participate in the Screenwriters Colony and as a fellow at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive.
The Pare Lorentz Award is given at the IDA Documentary Awards to recognize films that demonstrate exemplary filmmaking while focusing on environmental and social issues. This year’s Pare Lorentz Award recognizes the film Tashi And The Monk, co-directed by Andrew Hinton and Johnny Burke. Also nominated for Best Short, Tashi And The Monk tells the story of Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok and 5-year-old Tashi Drolma, the newest arrival to the community for abandoned and orphaned children that Phuntsok established in the foothills of the Himalayas.
In addition to recognizing the year’s best in documentary filmmaking and nonfiction programming, the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards will honor Robert Redford, acclaimed filmmaker and actor, ardent conservationist and environmentalist, and founder of the world-renowned Sundance Institute with its Career Achievement Award. Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, award-winning filmmakers and founders of World of Wonder, will receive the Pioneer Award and Rithy Panh, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and founder of the Bophana Audiovisual Resources Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, will receive IDA’s Preservation and Scholarship Award.
Winners of the 30th Annual IDA Documentary Awards will be announced and honored during a ceremony on Friday, December 5, at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.