Winners in the International Documentary Association’s 2013 IDA Documentary Awards were announced during tonight’s program, giving Jehane Noujaim’s THE SQUARE top honors with the Best Feature Award. The first major film acquisition by Netflix, THE SQUARE follows a group of Egyptian activists as they battle leaders and regimes, and risk their lives to build a new society of conscience.
Also announced in the ceremony was the Best Short Award, which honored SLOMO, directed by Josh Izenberg. An inspirational portrait of neurologist turned rollerblader, Dr. John Kitchin, SLOMO has been an audience favorite at festivals around the world garnering a number of audience and jury awards.
During the ceremony, which was hosted by comedian and award-winning stage and screen actor, Paul Provenza, two series awards were also presented. The Best Continuing Series Award went to the PBS series INDEPENDENT LENS. Now in its 12th season, the weekly series features original documentary films made by some of the best independent filmmakers working today. The Best Limited Series Award went to the CNN Original Series INSIDE MAN, hosted by Oscar®-nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.
IDA’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Academy Award®- and Emmy Award-winning director, producer and writer Alex Gibney whose body of work includes Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012), Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) and Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), which won an Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature. This year saw the release of Gibney’s latest films We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks and The Armstrong Lie. Producer Matthew Tolmach (The Amazing Spider-Man, The Armstrong Lie) presented the Career Achievement Award to Gibney.
Presented for just the fourth time in the 29-year history of the Awards, the IDA Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producing and producing credits include the Academy Award®-winning Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War, as well as 2013’s The Square and The Crash Reel. Presented by Academy Award®-winning actor and advocate Geena Davis, the IDA Amicus Award recognizes friends of the documentary community who have contributed significantly to the field.
Filmmaker Laura Poitras received IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award, in recognition of “conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth.” Along with Glenn Greenwald, Poitras broke the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the PRISM program. Poitras is working on a trilogy of films about America post 9/11, which includes My Country, My Country (2006) and The Oath (2010). Poitras is currently in Berlin editing the third film of the trilogy, a documentary about NSA surveillance, and accepted the award via live remote. Presenting the award to Poitras in Los Angeles was William Binney, who worked at the National Security Agency for over 30 years before resigning in protest over the agency’s data mining programs.
The Jacqueline Donnet 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, was presented to Zachary Heinzerling. Cutie and the Boxer, Heinzerling’s feature documentary debut, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, receiving the US Documentary Directing Award.
A complete list of winners follows.
2013 IDA Documentary Awards Winners
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Alex Gibney
IDA AMICUS AWARD
Geralyn Dreyfous
COURAGE UNDER FIRE AWARD
Laura Poitras
JACQUELINE DONNET EMERGING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AWARD
Zachary Heinzerling
BEST FEATURE AWARD
THE SQUARE
Director: Jehane Noujaim
Producer: Karim Amer
Executive Producers: Geralyn Dreyfous, Mike Lerner, Sarah Johnson, Jodie Evans, Lekha Singh, Gavin Dougan, Dan Catullo III, Lisa Nishimura, Adam Del Deo,
Khalil Noujaim, Alexandra Johnes, Jeff Skoll
Noujaim Films, Netflix Originals
BEST SHORT AWARD
SLOMO
Director: Josh Izenberg
Producer: Amanda Micheli
Executive Producer: Neil Izenberg
Big Young Films, Runaway Films
BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD
INSIDE MAN
Producers: Kristen Vaurio, Lisa Kalikow, Shannon Gibson, Suzanne Hillinger, Lara Benario
Writers: Jeremy Chilnick, Morgan Spurlock
Executive Producers: Jeremy Chilnick, Matthew Galkin, Morgan Spurlock
CNN
BEST CONTINUING SERIES AWARD
INDEPENDENT LENS
Producer: Lois Vossen
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer
Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with PBS
DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD
MY SISTER SARAH
Director/Producer: Elizabeth Chatelain
University of Texas at Austin
HUMANITAS DOCUMENTARY AWARD
BLOOD BROTHER
Director: Steve Hoover
Producer: Danny Yourd
Writers: Steve Hoover, Phinehas Hodges, Tyson VanSkiver
Executive Producers: Steve Hoover, Michael Killen, Kathy Dziubek, Jim Kreitzburg, Leigh Blake, John Carlin
Independent Television Service (ITVS)
PARE LORENTZ AWARD
A PLACE AT THE TABLE
Directors/Producers: Lori Silverbush and Kristi Jacobson
Producers: Julie Goldman, Ryan Harrington
Magnolia Pictures
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD
THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI
Director: Bill Siegel
Producers: Bill Siegel, Rachel Pikelny
Executive Producers: Justine Nagan, Gordon Quinn, Leon Gast, Kat White; Sally Jo Fifer (for ITVS)
Independent Television Service (ITVS), Kartemquin Films, Kino Lorber
CREATIVE RECOGNITION AWARD WINNERS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
PABLO'S WINTER
Cinematographer: Julian Schwanitz
Director: Chico Pereira
BEST EDITING
LET THE FIRE BURN
Editor: Nels Bangerter
Director: Jason Osder
BEST MUSIC
NARCO CULTURA
Original Music By: Jeremy Turner
Director: Shaul Schwartz
BEST WRITING
HOW TO MAKE MONEY SELLING DRUGS
Writer/Director: Matthew Cooke
Rom-Com Mainstay Hugh Grant Shifts To The Dark Side and He’s Never Been Happier
After some difficulties connecting to a Zoom, Hugh Grant eventually opts to just phone instead.
"Sorry about that," he apologizes. "Tech hell." Grant is no lover of technology. Smart phones, for example, he calls the "devil's tinderbox."
"I think they're killing us. I hate them," he says. "I go on long holidays from them, three or four days at at time. Marvelous."
Hell, and our proximity to it, is a not unrelated topic to Grant's new film, "Heretic." In it, two young Mormon missionaries (Chloe East, Sophie Thatcher) come knocking on a door they'll soon regret visiting. They're welcomed in by Mr. Reed (Grant), an initially charming man who tests their faith in theological debate, and then, in much worse things.
After decades in romantic comedies, Grant has spent the last few years playing narcissists, weirdos and murders, often to the greatest acclaim of his career. But in "Heretic," a horror thriller from A24, Grant's turn to the dark side reaches a new extreme. The actor who once charmingly stammered in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and who danced to the Pointer Sisters in "Love Actually" is now doing heinous things to young people in a basement.
"It was a challenge," Grant says. "I think human beings need challenges. It makes your beer taste better in the evening if you've climbed a mountain. He was just so wonderfully (expletive)-up."
"Heretic," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of "A Quiet Place." In Grant's hands, Mr. Reed is a divinely good baddie — a scholarly creep whose wry monologues pull from a wide range of references, including, fittingly, Radiohead's "Creep."
In an interview, Grant spoke about these and other facets of his character, his journey... Read More