The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced nominations for the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards today. This 30th edition of the world’s most prestigious awards for nonfiction filmmaking will take place on Friday, December 5th at the Paramount Theatre at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.
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 Sebastião Salgado; and TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, Nick Broomfield’s investigation of the notorious serial killer who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a twenty-five 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 Śliwiński – 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 AMERICAN 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 ABCNews 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 (Göran 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.
2014 IDA Documentary Awards Nominations and Awards
BEST FEATURE AWARD
Citizenfour
Director: Laura Poitras
RADiUS-TWC, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films
Finding Vivian Maier
Directors: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Sundance Selects
Point and Shoot
Director: Marshall Curry
The Orchard
The Salt of the Earth
Directors: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Sony Pictures Classics
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Director: Nick Broomfield
HBO and SKY ATLANTIC
BEST SHORT AWARD
Ghost Train
Directors: Kelly Hucker, James Fleming
Premium Films (France)
Our Curse
Director: Tomasz Śliwiński
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
Director: Edgar Barens
HBO Documentary Films
Tashi and the Monk
Directors: Andrew Hinton & Johnny Burke
The Queen
Director: Manuel Abramovich
BEST CURATED SERIES AWARD
American Experience
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
Senior Producer: Sharon Grimberg
PBS
American Masters
Executive Producer: Susan Lacy
PBS
Independent Lens
Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer
Deputy Executive Producer: Lois Vossen
Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with PBS
POV
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Series Producer: Chris White
POV/ PBS
Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel
Executive Producer: Rick Bernstein
HBO Sports
BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD
Chicagoland
Executive Producers: Mark Benjamin, Marc Levin, Laura Michalchyshyn, Robert Redford
CNN/ BCTV and Sundance Productions
COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey
Executive Producers: Brannon Braga, Mitchell Cannold, Ann Druyan, Seth MacFarlane
FOX/ National Geographic Channel
The Sixties
Executive Producers: Gary Goeztman, Tom Hanks, Mark Herzog
CNN/ Playtone and Herzog & Co
Time of Death
Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Alexandra Lipsitz, Jane Lipsitz
Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood
Showtime
Years of Living Dangerously
Executive Producers: Daniel Abbasi, Joel Bach, James Cameron, David Gelber, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Weintraub
Showtime
BEST EPISODIC SERIES AWARD
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Executive Producer and Host: Anthony Bourdain
Executive Producers: Chris Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig
CNN
Morgan Spurlock Inside Man
Executive Producer and Host: Morgan Spurlock
Executive Producers Jeremy Chilnick, Mathew Galkin
Warrior Poets/CNN
Oprah’s Master Class
Executive Producers: Jon Kamen, Jonathan Sinclair, Justin Wilkes, Oprah Winfrey
OWN/ Harpo Studios
Our America with Lisa Ling
Executive Producers: Amy Bucher, Gregory Henry, Lisa Ling, David Shadrack Smith
OWN
VICE
Executive Producer: BJ Levin, Bill Maher, Eddy Moretti, Shane Smith
HBO
BEST SHORT FORM SERIES AWARD
A Short History of the Highrise
Executive Producers: Jason Spingarn-Koff, Silva Basmajian
National Film Board of Canada and The New York Times
Last Chance High
Executive Producer: Jason Mojica
VICE News
Op-Docs
Executive Producer: Jason Spingarn-Koff
The New York Times
Planet Money Makes a T-shirt
Executive Producer: Alex Blumberg
NPR
Russian Roulette
Executive Producers: Jason Mojica, Kevin Sutcliffe
VICE News
HUMANITAS AWARD
How I Got Over
Director: Nicole Boxer
Keep On Keepin’ On
Director: Alan Hicks
RADiUS-TWC
Limited Partnership
Director: Thomas G. Miller
PBS / Independent Lens
DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Cast in India
Director: Natasha Raheja
New York University
Evaporating Borders
Director: Iva Radivojevic
CUNY – Hunter College
Hotel 22
Director: Elizabeth Lo
Stanford University
My Dad's a Rocker
Director: Zuxin Hou
University of Southern California
Solitary Plains
Director: J. Christian Jensen
Stanford University
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD
1971
Director: Johanna Hamilton
Independent Lens/ PBS
The Assassination of President Kennedy
Executive Producers: Gary Goeztman, Tom Hanks, Mark Herzog
CNN/ Playtone and Herzog & Co
Captivated The Trials of Pamela Smart
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
HBO Documentary Films
Concerning Violence
Director: Göran Hugo Olsson
Kino Lorber
The Joe Show
Director: Randy Murray
Investigation Discovery/ Film Buff
CREATIVE RECOGNITION AWARDS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY presented by Canon
Elevator|
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY: Hatuey Viveros Lavielle
BEST EDITING
Last Days in Vietnam
EDITING BY: Don Kleszy
BEST MUSIC
Alfred and Jakobine
MUSIC BY: Nick Urata
BEST WRITING
Finding Vivian Maier
WRITTEN BY: John Maloof & Charlie Siskel
PARE LORENTZ AWARD
Tashi and the Monk
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
EMERGING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AWARD sponsored by Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm
Darius Clark Monroe
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Robert Redford
PIONEER AWARD
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
PRESERVATION AND SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Rithy Panh
The 30th Annual IDA Documentary Awards will take place on Friday, December 5th at the Paramount Theater at Paramount Studios, 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, CA 90038, starting at 8pm. The Awards presentation will be followed by the IDA Documentary Awards After-Party, the year’s most exciting documentary celebration, on the Bronson Plaza.
For more information, tickets and sponsorship opportunities for the 2014 IDA Documentary Awards go to: documentary.org/awards.
About the IDA Documentary Awards
For thirty years, IDA has produced the annual IDA Documentary Awards, the world’s most prestigious award event solely dedicated to documentary film. In addition to honoring both individuals and organizations for outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking and contributions to the field, the IDA Documentary Awards also recognize the best documentary films and nonfiction series of the year.
About the International Documentary Association
Founded in 1982, the International Documentary Association (IDA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that provides resources, creates community, and defends rights and freedoms for documentary artists, activists, and journalists. Our major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmmaker Services, Education, and Public Programs and Events. We provide up-to-date news, information and community through our website, documentary.org, our various special events, and our quarterly publication, Documentary Magazine. Follow us at Documentary.org Twitter.com/IDAorg Facebook.com/Documentary.org
