International Documentary Association (IDA) announces Leah Remini as Truth to Power winner and more

Truth to Power Honoree – Leah Remini

ABC News VideoSource Award Winner – Mike Wallace is Here

Host – Willie Garson

The International Documentary Association (IDA) has announced that Leah Remini will be honored with the Truth to Power Award and Willie Garson will host the 35th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. Additionally, the IDA announced the ABC News VideoSource Award nominees and the winner, Mike Wallace is Here from director Avi Belkin.

Remini created, produced and hosted the Emmy Award, Producers Guild and Television Critics Association Award-winning A&E documentary series Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath.

“This year, the IDA launches the new Truth to Power Award to honor those who show immense bravery in holding the powerful to account regardless of the consequences,” said Simon Kilmurry, Executive Director of the IDA. “We are thrilled to honor Leah Remini who, for the past three seasons in Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, stood strong in the face of untold backlash, harassment and personal attacks as she exposed the truth behind Scientology. IDA honors Leah for her unflinching bravery.”

Lean Remini said, “I am extremely honored to be the inaugural recipient of the Truth to Power Award and I thank the IDA for recognizing our work on The Aftermath. It’s really the courageous contributors who have appeared on three seasons of Scientology and the Aftermath who are the brave ones. To hold powerful people and organizations accountable is not easy and we’ve faced many challenges along the way. Receiving this award strengthens our resolve to continue the fight and encourages us to continue to hold those corrupt organizations accountable for their ongoing abusive practices. I share this honor with our brave contributors who, despite ongoing risk and repercussion, spoke out and told their stories and continue to speak truth to power.” 

The 35th IDA Documentary Awards will be hosted by actor Willie Garson. Garson has appeared in over 300 episodes of television and more than 70 films. He is best known for his long-running roles on TV, as Mozzie on White Collar, Stanford Blatch on Sex and the City, and Henry Coffield on NYPD Blue. Other regular appearances include Ask Harriet, John from Cincinnati, Supergirl, and Hawaii Five-0.

Garson said, “I’m excited and honored to be asked by the IDA to help honor the amazing accomplishments of these driven documentary filmmakers, who mostly work with no budgets in difficult situations, with the express purpose of telling the truth. They immerse themselves (and us) in stories of joy or darkness, made exclusively to discover, inform, enlighten, and inspire. They are heroes.

The ABC News VideoSource Award Nominees & Winner announced today:

WINNER: 
Mike Wallace is Here (USA / Magnolia Pictures. Director: Avi Belkin. Producers: Rafael Marmor, John Battsek, Peggy Drexler, Avi Belkin and Christopher Leggett)
NOMINEES:
Halston (USA / 1091. Director: Frédéric Tcheng. Producers: Roland Ballester, Frédéric Tcheng, Stephanie Levy and Paul Dallas)
Meeting Gorbachev (Germany, UK, USA / 1091. Directors: Werner Herzog and André Singer. Producers: Lucki Stipetic and Svetlana Palmer)
Where’s My Roy Cohn? (USA / Sony Pictures Classics. Director: Matt Tyrnauer. Producers: Matt Tyrnauer, Corey Reeser, Marie Brenner, Joyce Deep and Andrea Lewis)

The 2019 Awards will be presented during a ceremony at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles on Saturday, December 7.

The 2019 IDA Documentary Awards are sponsored by Netflix, National Geographic Documentary Films, SHOWTIME® Documentary Films, ABC News VideoSource, HBO, A&E Indie Films, Participant, and XTR. The official Media Sponsor of the Awards is The Hollywood Reporter.