33rd Annual IDA Documentary Awards Winners: Dina, LA 92 and Edith+Eddie
Dina won the top prize, Best Feature, from the International Documentary Association (IDA) this week, against very stiff competition. The film beat out City of Ghosts, Faces Places, LA 92 and Strong Island, all of which are on the Oscar shortlist for Documentary Feature. Dina, ironically is not, despite winning the Documentary prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival early this year.
Oscar contenders City of Ghosts and Last Men in Aleppo also received the Courage Under Fire Award, and LA 92 won the ABC News VideoSource Award.
Winners in television included the Jimmy Iovine/Dr. Dre series The Defiant Ones, which beat out Ken Burns’ The Vietnam War. Planet Earth II won Episodic Series against the likes of Anthony Bourdain, Chef’s Table and Emmy-winner Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.
Here is the full list of the 33rd Annual IDA Documentary Awards Nominees and Winners.
Best Feature
City Of Ghosts
Director/Producer: Matthew Heineman
AMAZON STUDIOS
Dina (Winner)
Directors/Producers: Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles
THE ORCHARD
Faces Places
Directors: Agnès Varda and JR
COHEN MEDIA GROUP
LA 92
Directors: Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin
Producers: Jonathan Chinn, Simon Chinn and Sarah Gibson
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Strong Island
Director/Producer: Yance Ford
Producer: Joslyn Barnes
NETFLIX
Best Short
Edith+Eddie (Winner)
Director: Laura Checkoway
Producers: Laura Checkoway, Thomas Lee Wright
KARTEMQUIN FILMS
The Fight
Directors/Producers: Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw
THE GUARDIAN
Heaven Is A Traffic Jam On The 405
Director/Producer: Frank Stiefel
Long Shot
Director/Producer: Jacob LaMendola
Producers: Mary Beth Minthorn, Milos S. Silber and Todd Wiseman Jr.
NETFLIX
Mr. Connolly Has ALS
Director/Producer: Dan Habib
IMPACT MEDIA PARTNERS
The Rabbit Hunt
Director: Patrick Bresnan
Producers: Maida Brankman, Ivete Lucas
TOPIC STUDIOS
Best Curated Series Award
American Experience
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
PBS
Dokumania
Executive Producer: Anders Bruus
DR
Independent Lens (Winner)
Executive Producers: Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer
PBS
REEL SOUTH
Executive Producers: Rachel Raney and Amy Shumaker
UNC-TV, SOUTH CAROLINA ETV, NETA AND WORLD
POV
Executive Producers: Justine Nagan and Chris White
PBS
Best Limited Series Award
Daughters of Destiny
Executive Producer: Vanessa Roth
NETFLIX
The Defiant Ones (Winner)
Executive Producers: Allen Hughes, Doug Pray, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Laura Lancaster, Michael Lombardo, Gene Kirkwood and Jerry Longarzo
HBO
The Keepers
Executive Producers: Jessica Hargrave, Ryan White and Josh Braun
Netflix
The Vietnam War
Executive Producer: Ken Burns
PBS/WETA
TIME: The Kalief Browder Story
Executive Producers: Jenner Furst, Nick Sandow, Julia Willoughby Nason, Michael Gasparro, Shawn “JAY Z” Carter, Chachi Senior, and Sharon Levy
SPIKE
Best Episodic Series Award
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown
Executive Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia and Sandra Zweig
CNN
Chef’s Table
Executive Producers: David Gelb, Matthew Weaver, Brian McGinn, Andrew Fried, and Dane Lillegard
NETFLIX
Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath
Executive Producers: Leah Remini, Aaron Saidman, Alex Weresow, Devon Graham Hammonds, Elaine Frontain Bryant and Amy Savitsky
A&E
MARS
Executive Producers: Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Michael Rosenberg, Dave O’Connor, Jon Kamen, Tommy Turtle, David Sirulnick, Jonathan Silberberg, Everardo Gout, Justin Wilkes, Tim Pastore, Matt Renner, and Robert Palumbo
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Planet Earth II (Winner)
Executive Producer: Michael Gunton
BBC AMERICA/BBC WORLDWIDE
Best Short Form Series Award
Field of Vision
Executive Producers: Laura Poitras, AJ Schnack and Charlotte Cook
FIELD OF VISION
Shorts on Time
Executive Producer: Jenni Wolfson
LIFETIME
The Guardian documentaries
Executive Producers: Charlie Phillips and Lindsay Poulton
THE GUARDIAN
The New York Times Op-Docs (Winner)
Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Secret Life of Muslims
Executive Producers: Joshua Seftel and Reza Aslan
VOX
David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award
THIS AWARD RECOGNIZES EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN NON-FICTION FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL AND BRINGS GREATER PUBLIC AND INDUSTRY AWARENESS TO THE WORK OF STUDENTS IN THE DOCUMENTARY FIELD.
Believers
Director: Ray Whitehouse
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
Chomo
Director: Maayan Arad
Producer: Khaled Gad
NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL (UNITED KINGDOM)
How To Make A Pearl
Director: Jason Hanasik
UC BERKELEY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM
Man on Fire (Winner)
Director: Joel Fendelman
Producer: James Sanchez
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUSTIN
Room 140
Director: Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
ABC News VideoSource Award
THIS AWARD IS GIVEN EACH YEAR FOR THE BEST USE OF NEWS FOOTAGE AS AN INTEGRAL COMPONENT IN A DOCUMENTARY.
Blood On The Mountain
Directors: Mari-Lynn Evans and Jordan Freeman
VIRGIL FILMS/NETFLIX
Elián
Directors: Tim Golden and Ross McDonnell
GRAVITAS VENTURES, CNN FILMS
Icarus
Director: Bryan Fogel
NETFLIX
LA 92 (Winner)
Directors: Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Obit.
Director: Vanessa Gould
KINO LORBER
Pare Lorentz Award Winner
THE PARE LORENTZ AWARD RECOGNIZES FILMS THAT DEMONSTRATE EXEMPLARY FILMMAKING WHILE FOCUSING ON THE APPROPRIATE USE OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT, JUSTICE FOR ALL AND THE ILLUMINATION OF PRESSING SOCIAL PROBLEMS.
Watani: My Homeland (Recipient)
Director: Marcel Mettelsiefen
Intent to Destroy (Special Mention)
Director: Joe Berlinger
Creative Recognition Award Winners
Best Cinematography
Machines
Cinematography by: Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva
KINO LORBER
Best Editing
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Edited by: Bill Morrison
KINO LORBER
Best Music
Brimstone & Glory
Original Score by: Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin
OSCILLOSCOPE LABORATORIES
Best Writing
Donkeyote
Written by: Chico Pereira, Manuel Pereira and Gabriel Molera
SCOTTISH DOCUMENTARY INSTITUTE
Honorees
Lourdes Portillo – Career Achievement Award
Abigail Disney – Amicus Award
Yance Ford – Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award
Courage Under Fire Award
Over the years, IDA presents a Courage Under Fire Award to a documentarian for “displaying conspicuous bravery in pursuit of the truth”. We recognize that both filmmakers and their subjects often take incredible personal risks to bring us essential stories. This year the traumatic conflict in Syria which has been documented by several teams of extraordinarily brave filmmakers, and in light of their contributions to the documentary field IDA has decided to honor four filmmaking teams along with the subjects of their films for bringing us the stories of the Syrian war.
The filmmaking teams and the subjects who are being honored with the 2017 IDA Courage Under Fire Awards are: “Cries from Syria”, “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS”, “Last Men in Aleppo”, and “City of Ghosts”. Their brave filmmaking and journalism along with the courage of those who shared their stories in these films shed light on a conflict that touches all of humanity.
City of Ghosts
Cries From Syria
Hell On Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS
Last Men In Aleppo
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) - November 21, 2024
- 2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards - November 21, 2024
- Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives - November 21, 2024
2025 Oscar Predictions: SUPPORTING ACTOR (November) 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 72 – ‘Three Colours: Blue’ (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1993) 
2025 Oscars: Eligibility Lists for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and International Feature Film for the 97th Academy Awards 
Nava Mau, Sean Wang Among 2024 BAFTA Breakthroughs Championing New ‘Must-Watch’ Creatives