40th IDA Documentary Awards: ‘No Other Land’ Wins Best Feature Documentary and Best Director

Self-distributed Palestine doc takes top prizes, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat wins two

The film set in the occupied West Bank won Best Feature Documentary at the 40^th IDA Documentary Awards from the International Documentary Association in Los Angeles tonight and it also won the Best Director prize for the work of its quartet of filmmakers Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, and Yuval Abraham. They also received the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award, a previously announced honor recognizing the difficult and dangerous conditions in which the film was made.

No Other Land is off to a strong start this awards season. On Monday, it won Best Documentary at the Gotham Awards, and on Tuesday, the New York Film Critics Circle named it the best documentary of the year. It won the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award on Wednesday; Sugarcane won the NBR’s prize for Best Documentary.

Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat won two awards on the night: Best Writing for writer-director Johan Grimonprez, and Best Editing, recognizing the work of Rik Chaubet. Best Cinematography went to Ruslan Fedotov who shot Queendom, about the Russian-born drag performance artist Jenna Marvin. Best Original Music Score went to Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser, composer of Frida, the documentary about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

At the ceremony at the Orpheum Theater in downtown Los Angeles last night, filmmaker Dawn Porter received the Career Achievement Award, and Black Box Diaries director Shiori Ito received the Emerging Filmmaker Award.

“I’m very excited,” Itō told Deadline about receiving the award. “Being here in front of all these amazing filmmakers who have been my textbook, it’s just a surreal feeling. So, I’m very happy.”

“IDA received 700+ entries in all categories from 77 countries, an increase over last year both in the total number of entries and the countries represented,” the org said. “IDA Documentary Awards entries were reviewed by blue-ribbon jurors consisting of 300 documentary professionals from 40+ countries.” IDA members voted to determine the winners in the Best Feature and Best Short categories; winners in other categories were chosen by blue-ribbon panels.

Here is the complete list of winners.

Best Feature Documentary

Agent of Happiness
Black Box Diaries
Dahomey
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
No Other Land – WINNER
Queendom
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Seeking Mavis Beacon
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Sugarcane

Best Short Documentary

Amma ki Katha
Enchunkunoto (The Return)
Instruments of a Beating Heart – WINNER
The Medallion
A Move
A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas
Modern Goose
Nine Easy Dances
The Poem We Sang
Until He’s Back

Best Director

Shiori Ito, Black Box Diaries
Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham, No Other Land – WINNER
Agniia Galdanova, Queendom
Johan Grimonprez, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie, Sugarcane

Best Cinematography

Arun Bhattarai, Agent of Happiness
Alix Blair, Helen and the Bear
Sareen Hairabedian, My Sweet Land
Ruslan Fedotov, Queendom – WINNER
Christopher LaMarca and Emily Kassie, Sugarcane

Best Editing

Ema Ryan Yamazaki, Black Box Diaries
Katrina Taylor, Helen and the Bear
Raphaelle Martin-Holger and Sareen Hairabedian, My Sweet Land
Rik Chaubet, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat – WINNER
Nathan Punwar and Maya Daisy Hawke, Sugarcane

Best Original Music Score

Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser, Frida – WINNER
Maxwell Sterling, Life and Other Problems
Tigran Hamasyan, My Sweet Land
Uno Helmersson, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Mali Obomsawin, Sugarcane

Best Writing

Raoul Peck, Ernest Cole, Ernest Cole: Lost & Found
Hasan Oswald, Mediha
Lea Glob and Andreas Bøggild Monies, Piece by Piece
Morgan Neville, Jason Zeldes, Aaron Wickenden, & Oscar Vasquez, Piece by Piece
Jazmin Jones, Seeking Mavis Beacon
Johan Grimonprez, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat – WINNER

Best TV Feature Documentary

The Apartheid Killer
Madu
Night Is Not Eternal
Stolen Gold
Two American Families: 1991-2024 – WINNER

Best Curated Series

30 for 30
99 – We all share 99% of the same DNA
Independent Lens – WINNER
The New York Times Op-Docs
POV

Best Episodic Series

Couples Therapy
The Negotiators
Queens
A Real Bug’s Life
We’re Here – WINNER

Best Limited Series

Choir
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial
Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning
STAX: Soulsville U.S.A.
A Town Called Victoria – WINNER

Best Music Documentary

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story
Beatles 64
Maestra
Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird – WINNER
Songs from the Hole

Best Audio Documentary

Long Shadow: In Guns We Trust
Pack One Bag
Shadowball: Rise of the Black Athlete
The Sunday Story: A Song for Grief in China
“What’s Up, Michael Freeman?” – WINNER

David L. Wolper Student Documentary

The Anarchist and the Fridge
Her Name Was Zehava – WINNER
Jerhy
Milk
The Waiter, the Scientist and Jenny

Special awards

Career Achievement Award: Dawn Porter

Emerging Filmmaker Award: Shiori Ito, Black Box Diaries

Courage Under Fire Award: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham – No Other Land