The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced top honorary awards for the 2015 IDA Documentary Awards. The 31st Annual IDA Documentary Awards will be held on Saturday, December 5, in the Paramount Theatre at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
The IDA will present its prestigious 2015 Career Achievement Award to Gordon Quinn, founder and artistic director of Kartemquin Films. He has produced, directed and/or been cinematographer on over 55 films across five decades, garnering many awards, including three Emmy Awards, two Peabody Awards, the IDA Award for Best Limited Series (The New Americans, 2004), the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary (Vietnam: Long Time Coming, 1998) and an Oscar® nomination and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Hoop Dreams (1994). His recent films include The Interrupters (2011), The Trials of Muhammad Ali (2013), Life Itself (2014), The Homestretch (2014), On Beauty (2014), Almost There (2014), Saving Mes Aynak (2014), In The Game (2015) and the six-part series Hard Earned (2015). A longtime activist for public and community media, Quinn was integral to the creation of ITVS, public access television in Chicago; in developing the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practice in Fair Use; and in forming the Indie Caucus to support diverse independent voices on Public Television. Over 50 years at Kartemquin, Quinn has inspired and guided an immeasurable number of media makers whose films have left a lasting impact on millions of viewers.
The IDA Career Achievement Award is given to a filmmaker who has made a major impact on the documentary genre through a long and distinguished body of work. In previous years, the IDA has bestowed its Career Achievement Award on documentary luminaries such as Robert Redford, Alex Gibney, Barbara Kopple, Errol Morris, Sheila Nevins, Michael Moore and Werner Herzog.
The organization’s Pioneer Award will be presented to Ted Sarandos, chief content officer at Netflix, in recognition of the company’s game-changing and unwavering support of creating and showcasing nonfiction programming. Sarandos has led content acquisition for Netflix since 2000. With more than 20 years’ experience in home entertainment, he is recognized in the industry as an innovator in film acquisition and distribution. Before Netflix, Sarandos was an executive at video distributor ETD and Video City / West Coast Video. He serves on the board of Exploring The Arts, a non-profit focused on arts in schools. He also serves on the Film Advisory Board for Tribeca and Los Angeles Film Festival, is an American Cinematheque board member, an executive committee member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and is a trustee of the American Film Institute.
The Pioneer Award is presented by the IDA to acknowledge extraordinary contributions to advancing the nonfiction form and providing exceptional vision and leadership to the documentary community. Past recipients of IDA’s Pioneer Award include the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program, Alan and Susan Raymond, Rob Epstein, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey, Mel Stuart and Paula Apsell.
Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation will receive the IDA’s Amicus Award in recognition of their work supporting the essential needs of the non-fiction media landscape. Many years ago, Tabatznik fell in love with documentary film and how it can effectively inspire audiences to make a difference. When he founded the Bertha Foundation in 2009, the vision was to connect activists, lawyers and storytellers to fight for fundamental social and economic change. The Bertha Foundation’s Media Program specifically aims to nurture global talent, expose relevant stories and connect them to audiences for powerful, positive social impact. Since its inception the foundation has supported over 200 films, including the Oscar®-winning film Citizenfour (2014) and the Oscar®-nominated films Virunga (2014), Dirty Wars (2013) and The Square (2013).
The IDA Amicus Award acknowledges friends of the documentary genre who have contributed significantly to our industry. This significant award has been given only four other times in the 31-year history of the IDA Documentary Awards to: Geralyn Dreyfous, Michael Donaldson, John Hendricks and Steven Spielberg.
“This year we are excited to honor three individuals who have helped expand the global reach of the documentary industry,” said IDA executive director Simon Kilmurry. “Their passion and generous support for films and filmmakers give a voice to people telling some of the most important stories of our time, bringing them to audiences around the world.”
Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe, directors of (T)ERROR, 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. (T)ERROR received a grant from IDA’s Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund in 2013.
A full list of nominees for the IDA Documentary Awards will be announced in early November with winners announced on December 5 at the IDA Documentary Awards ceremony.
