IDA Nominations: ‘Minding the Gap, ‘Free Solo;’ ‘RBG,’ ‘Three Identical Strangers’ snubbed

The nominations for the 34th Independent Documentary Association IDA) awards were announced today with some surprising snubs, even in a newly expanded field of nominees.

While Minding the Gap, Free Solo and Won’t You Be My Neighbor? made the 10-film cut for Best Documentary Feature, two high-profile docs didn’t: RBG and Three Identical Strangers. 

“This year’s nominees and winners of the IDA Awards reflects that 2018 has been a remarkable year for brave and bold storytelling,” said Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director of IDA. “To more fully recognize that, we have expanded the number of nominees in the Best Feature and Best Short categories to 10 films. Documentary storytelling is a vital way to explore and make sense of our world, and these nominees illustrate how vibrant and essential films are to a healthy democracy.

In the Music Doc section, the Whitney Houston doc Whitney that debuted at the Cannes Film Festival this year was nominated while the Quincy Jones film Quincy was not. 

The IDA Courage Under Fire Award will be presented to director Maing and the NYPD12 whistleblowers of Crime + Punishment. The Amicus Award will be presented to Chicken & Egg Pictures, Julia Reichert will be presented with the Career Achievement Award, and Minding the Gap‘s Bing Liu will be presented with the Emerging Filmmaker Award.

Previous winners here have been Dina (2017) and O.J.: Made in America (2017), the latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

The winners of the 2018 IDA Awards will be announced on December 8th at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles.

Here is the full list of nominations and previously announced winners:

FEATURES

Crime + Punishment (Hulu. Director/Producer: Stephen Maing. Producers: Ross Tuttle and Eric Daniel Metzgar)

Dark Money (PBS Distribution. Director/Producer: Kimberly Reed. Producer: Katy Chevigny)

Free Solo (National Geographic. Directors/Producers: E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. Producers: Evan Hayes and Shannon Dill)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Cinema Guild. Director/Producer: RaMell Ross. Producers: Joslyn Barnes and Su Kim)

Minding the Gap (Hulu/POV. Director/Producer: Bing Liu. Producer: Diane Quon)

Of Fathers and Sons (Kino Lorber. Director: Talal Derki. Producers: Ansgar Frerich, Eva Kemme, Tobias Siebert and Hans Robert Eisenhauer)

Sky and Ground (World Channel (PBS). Directors/Producers: Talya Tibbon and Joshua Bennett. Producers: Maro Chermayeff and Jeff Dupre)

The Silence of Others (Cinephil/POV. Directors/Producers: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar)

United Skates (HBO. Directors/Producers: Dyana Winkler and Tina Brown)

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features. Director/Producer: Morgan Neville. Producers: Caryn Capotosto and Nicholas Ma)

SHORTS

Black Sheep (The Guardian. Director: Ed Perkins. Producers: Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn)

Fear Us Women (RYOT. Director: David Darg. Producer: Diego Traverso)

Lifeboat (Director/Producer: Skye Fitzgerald. Producer: Bryn Mooser)

Los Comandos (World Channel. Directors/Producers: Joshua Bennett and Juliana Schatz-Preston. Producers: Jeff Dupre, Maro Chermayeff and Jessica Chermayeff)

Mosul (PBS Distribution. Director: Olivier Sarbil. Co-Director/Producer: James Jones. Producers: Dan Edge and Raney Aronson-Rath)

Sidelined (A&E IndieFilms. Director: Galen Summer. Producer: Jason Goldman.)

The Girl and the Picture (USC Shoah Foundation. Director/Producer: Vanessa Roth. Producers: Devorah Palladino and Stephen D. Smith)

We Are Not Done Yet (HBO. Director: Sareen Hairabedian. Producer: Jeffrey Wright and David Holbrooke)

We Became Fragments (The New York Times Op-Docs. Director/Producer: Luisa Conlon. Directors: Lacy Jane Roberts and Hanna Miller)
Zion (Netflix. Director/Producer: Floyd Russ. Producer: Carter Collins)

SERIES

Curated Series
American Masters (PBS. Executive Producer: Michael Kantor)
Doc World (WORLD Channel. Executive Producer: Christopher Hastings)
Independent Lens (ITVS & Independent Lens / PBS. Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer and Lois Vossen)
POV (POV/American Documentary. Executive Producers: Justine Nagan and Chris White)
Why Slavery? (The Why Foundation. Executive Producers: Mette Hoffmann Meyer and Nick Fraser)

Episodic Series
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown (CNN. Executive Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Christopher Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig, Jared Andrukanis, Amy Entelis and Lizzie Fox)
Christiane Amanpour: Sex & Love Around the World (CNN. Executive Producers: Anthony Bourdain, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Joe Caterini, Anna Chai, Amy Entelis and Lizzie Fox)
ESPN Films: Enhanced (ESPN. Executive Producers: Gentry Kirby, Alex Gibney, Brad Hebert, Stacey Offman, Libby Geist and Connor Schell)
Last Chance U (Netflix. Executive Producers: Greg Whiteley, Joe LaBracio, Dawn Ostroff, James D. Stern and Lucas Smith)
The Confession Tapes (Netflix. Executive Producers: Philip David Segal, Sarah Whalen, Jeff Bumgarner, Steven Robillard, Kelly Loudenberg, James Graves and Devin Griffin)
The Trade (Showtime. Executive Producers: Matthew Heineman and Pagan Harleman)

Limited Series
Best Shot (YouTube. Director/Executive Producer: Michael John Warren. Executive Producers: LeBron James, Maverick Carter, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard and Jordan Wynn)
Bobby Kennedy for President (Netflix. Director/Executive Producer: Dawn Porter. Executive Producers: Laura Michalchyshyn, Jon Kamen, Justin Wilkes, Dave Sirulnick, Nestan Berhrans and Gunnar Dedio)
Flint Town (Netflix. Directors/Executive Producers: Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper and Jessica Dimmock. Executive Producers: David Pritikin, Steve Golin and P.G. Morgan)
November 13: Attack on Paris (Netflix. Directors/Executive Producers: Jules Naudet and Gédéon Naudet. Executive Producer: Paul Barrois)
Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story (Paramount Network. Directors/Executive Producers: Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason. Executive Producers: Mike Gasparro, Shawn Carter, David Glasser, Chachi Senior, Nick Sandow, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton)
Wild Wild Country (Netflix. Directors: Chapman Way and Maclain Way. Executive Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Josh Braun and Dan Braun)

Short Form Series
Guardian Documentaries (The Guardian. Executive Producers: Charlie Phillips and Lindsay Poulton)
Life Underground (Doc & Film international. Executive Producer: Laurence Milon)
MEL Films (Executive Producer: David Freid)
The New York Times Op-Docs (The New York Times. Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo)
VICE News on HBO (HBO. Executive Producers: Shane Smith, Tim Clancy and Subrata De)

MUSIC DOCUMENTARY

A Modern Man (Rise and Shine World Sales. Director: Eva Mulvad. Producers: Sigrid Dyekjær and Sidsel Lønvig Siersted)
Bathtubs Over Broadway (Director/Producer: Dava Whisenant. Producers: Amanda Spain and Susan Littenberg)
MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (Abramorama. Director/Producer: Steve Loveridge. Producers: Lori Cheatle, Paul Mezey and Andrew Goldman)
Mr. SOUL! (Director/Producer: Melissa Haizlip. Co-Director: Samuel D. Pollard)
Whitney (Roadside Attractions. Director: Kevin Macdonald. Producers: Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Lisa Erspamer)

CREATIVE RECOGNITION

Best Cinematography
Winner: Distant Constellation (Cinematographer: Shevaun Mizrahi)
Crime + Punishment (Cinematographer: Stephen Maing)
Free Solo (Cinematographer: Jimmy Chin, Clair Popkin and Mikey Schaefer)
Taste of Cement (Cinematographer: Talal Khoury)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (Cinematographer: Simon Lereng Wilmont)

Best Editing
Winner: Minding the Gap (Editors: Bing Liu and Joshua Altman)
Distant Constellation (Editors: Shevaun Mizrahi and Shelly Grizim)
Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle (Editors: Raúl de Torres and Daniel Urdiales)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Editor: RaMell Ross)
The Stranger (Editor: Rasmus Stensgaard Madsen)

Best Writing
Winner: The Other Side of Everything (Writers: Mila Turajlic)
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun? (Writer: Travis Wilkerson)
Of Fathers and Sons (Writer: Talal Derki)
People’s Republic of Desire (Writer: Hao Wu)
Wild Relatives (Writer: Jumana Manna)

Best Music Score
Winners: Bisbee ’17 (Composer: Keegan DeWitt) and Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Composers: Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers)
Bathtubs Over Broadway (Composer: Anthony DiLorenzo)
The Distant Barking of Dogs (Composers: Uno Helmersson and Erik Enocksson)
MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (Composers: Dhani Harrison and Paul Hicks)

SPONSORED SPECIAL AWARDS

ABCNews VideoSource Award Nominees
Jane Fonda in Five Acts (HBO. Director/Producer: Susan Lacy. Producer: Emma Pildes and Jessica Levin)
John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls (HBO. Directors/Producers: Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt and Teddy Kunhardt)
Love Means Zero (Showtime. Director/Producer: Jason Kohn. Producers: Amanda Branson Gill, Anne White, Jill Mazursky and David Styne)
Mercury 13 (Netflix. Directors/Producers: David Sington and Heather Walsh)
Studio 54 (Zeitgeist Films. Director: Matt Tyrnauer. Producer: Corey Reeser, Matt Tyrnauer and John Battsek)

Pare Lorentz Award
Winner: The Silence of Others (Cinephil/POV. Directors/Producers: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar)
Honorable Mention: The Distant Barking of Dogs (Cinephil. Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont. Producer: Monica Hellstrøm)

DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT AWARDS

Abrázame (National Film and Television School. Director: Jas Doyle Pitt)
Circle (National Film and Television School. Director: Jayisha Patel)
Forced (UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Director: Grace Oyenubi and Nani Walker)
Palenque (Northwestern University School of Communication. Director: Sebastián Pinzón Silva)
Walker’s (University of North Carolina Wilmington Department of Film Studies. Director: Kyle Myers-Haugh)