IDA announces awards for Yance Ford, Abigail Disney and Lourdes Portillo

Honors will be presented at IDA Awards in Hollywood December 9

Yance Ford will earn the IDA's Emerging Documentary Filmmaker award, capping a year of multiple honors for the director of Strong Island.

The prize will be presented at the 33rd annual IDA Awards on the Paramount Studios lot December 9, "the most prestigious event dedicated to the documentary genre," according to a press release from the organization.

The IDA announced several more prizes Tuesday, including the Amicus Award for filmmaker and producer Abigail Disney, whose work includes Pray the Devil Back to Hell and The Armor of Light.

The IDA Awards reflect the very best work being done in documentary filmmaking today.

--IDA Executive Director Simon Kilmurry

"I am thrilled to be honored by the IDA,” Disney said in a statement. “Their work to build a stronger ecosystem for independent documentaries is so crucial and I know that it is changing the world for the better as we speak!"

​Filmmaker Lourdes Portillo was announced as the recipient of the IDA's career achievement award. Her work includes the 1986 film Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, which earned an Academy Award nomination. 

"Portillo... has been making award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues for nearly forty years," the IDA noted in announcing the career award.

Director Lourdes Portillo (right) stands before a poster for her 1986 film "Las Madres: The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo." Image from jaquealarte.com

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Read: Armor of Light director Abigail Disney on America's love of guns: 'It's a strange thing to me. I feel like I dropped here from another planet'

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In addition to the awards for Ford, Disney and Portillo, the IDA announced multiple recipients of its Courage Under Fire Award. It will be shared by the filmmakers and subjects of several Syria-related documentaries, including Matthew Heineman's City of Ghosts, Evgeny Afineevsky's Cries From Syria, Hell on Earth from directors Sebastian Junger and Nick Quested, and Last Men in Aleppo, directed by Firas Fayyad.

Heineman previously won the IDA's Courage Under Fire Award, in 2015, for his film Cartel Land.

Matthew Heineman talks about "Cartel Land" at a screening at CAA headquarters in Century City, California. Photo by Matt Carey

Ford's film Strong Island, which is released worldwide on Netflix this Friday, explores the death of his older brother, William Ford Jr., who was shot to death in 1992 by a white man who escaped any repercussions for the assault. The assailant wasn't even indicted.

Strong Island received a special jury award for storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival last January, where the film premiered. It has won numerous additional awards from an array of  festivals including Full Frame, Frameline, Montclair and the Sheffield International Documentary Festival.

"Strong Island" director Yance Ford photographed at Netflix headquarters in Hollywood on Tuesday, September 12, 2017. Credit: Matt Carey

Abigail Disney photographed in Beverly Hills in 2015. Credit: Matt Carey

The IDA Awards features a range of competitive categories, including outstanding documentary film. Ezra Edelman's O.J.: Made in America won the top honor from the IDA last year, before going on to claim the Oscar.

Nominees for the this year's IDA Awards will be announced in early November.