IDA announces first round of nominees for 2017 awards

Limited series from embattled Weinstein Company earns recognition; so does Leah Remini's Scientology series

The International Documentary Association revealed the first batch of nominees in the running for the 33rd annual IDA Awards, widely considered among the most prestigious honors in the nonfiction film arena.

In the best limited series category, among the contenders are Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath from A&E Network, and Spike TV's TIME: The Kalief Browder Story, which explored the tragic case of Browder, a New York teenager who was arrested on a minor charge then imprisoned on Rikers Island for three years without trial.

The Browder series was produced by The Cinemart and The Weinstein Company -- currently teetering on the brink of collapse in the wake of a sexual harassment and assault scandal involving co-founder Harvey Weinstein. He was fired by the company eight days ago and on Saturday the Motion Picture Academy expelled him from the organization. But the IDA Awards nominations are just one indication of how difficult it will be -- at least in the short term -- for the entertainment industry to inoculate itself from traces of Weinstein.

From the original press release announcing the first round of nominees for the IDA Awards. Only two EP's were cited for "TIME: The Kalief Browder Story." The IDA later revised the executive producer credits, adding Jay Z and four others, but not Harvey Weinstein.

The IDA initially recognized only two executive producers in its nomination for the Browder series -- Jenner Furst and Nick Sandow. After an inquiry from Nonfictionfilm.com, the IDA sent out a revised press release, adding five additional E.P.s: Shawn "Jay Z" Carter, Julia Willoughby Nason, Michael Gasparro, Sharon Levy, and Chichi Senior. Conspicuously absent from the list was Harvey Weinstein.

IMDB credits Weinstein among the series E.P.'s, but only for two of the series' six episodes. A number of the other nominated E.P.'s, including Furst, Nason and Jay Z, are similarly credited on IMDB for just two of the episodes. The embattled Weinstein Company has dropped Harvey Weinstein's name for all of its current shows, including Project Runway. Whether that explains his absence from the list of nominees for TIME is unclear at this point.
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Weinstein and Jay Z appeared on the red carpet together for the premiere of TIME at the Sundance Film Festival last January, an event covered by Nonfictionfilm.com. 

Harvey Weinstein and Jay Z on the red carpet for the premiere of the documentary series "TIME: The Kalief Browder Story." Park City, Utah, January 25, 2017. Photo by Matt Carey

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Read: Harvey Weinstein and Jay Z hit Sundance in support of 'Kalief Browder Story'

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On the Sundance red carpet Weinstein spoke little and said nothing regarding the Browder series. Jay Z, however, expounded on its importance.

"I believe this young man, his story, will save a lot of lives. What was done to him was a huge injustice and people see his story and realize like, 'Man, this is going on,'" Jay Z told reporters.

Apart from TIME and the Leah Remini Scientology series, the other contenders for the IDA limited series honor are Daughters of Destiny, The Keepers, and Chef's Table -- all from Netflix; The Defiant Ones from HBO; The Vietnam War from Ken Burns and PBS; CNN's Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown, and two series about our solar system: MARS from National Geographic and Planet Earth II from BBC America.

Still photos from the true crime series "The Keepers." From Netflix

The IDA announced it will present its Pare Lorentz Award -- named for the pioneering American documentarian -- to Marcel Mettelsiefen, director of the Oscar-nominated short documentary Watani: My Homeland. His film captured the emotional journey of a Syrian family who lost a father to the civil war and sought refuge from the violence in Germany.

Joe Berlinger, director of the upcoming Armenian Genocide-themed documentary Intent to Destroy, earned a special mention in the Pare Lorentz category. The Academy Award-nominated filmmaker serves on the IDA board of directors.

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Related: Marcel Mettelsiefen's 'Watani' can be seen as a rebuke to Trump

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The IDA will announce nominees for best feature and best short, along with additional categories on November 1. The awards ceremony will take place December 9 on the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood [for ticket information, click here] 

These are the nominees in other categories announced Monday: 

ABC News VideoSource Award (editor's note: this award recognizes outstanding use of archival material)

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
Directors: Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin
National Geographic

Obit.
Director: Vanessa Gould
Kino Lorber

Best Curated Series Award

American Experience
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
PBS

Dokumania
Executive Producer: Anders Bruus
DR

Independent Lens
Executive Producers: Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer
PBS

POV
Executive Producers: Justine Nagan and Chris White
PBS

REEL SOUTH
Executive Producers: Rachel Raney and Amy Shumaker
UNC-TV, South Carolina ETV, NETA  and WORLD

Best Short Form Series Award

Field of Vision
Executive Producers: Laura Poitras, AJ Schnack and Charlotte Cook
Field of Vision

Shorts on Time
Executive Producers: Julie Parker Benello
Lifetime

The Guardian documentaries
Executive Producers: Charlie Phillips and Lindsay Poulton
The Guardian

The New York Times Op-Docs
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
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Believers
Director: Ray Whitehouse
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chomo
Director: Maayan Arad
National Film and Television School (United Kingdom)

How To Make A Pearl
Director: Jason Hanasik
UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism

Man on Fire
Director: Joel Fendelman
University of Texas, Austin

Room 140
Director: Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz
Stanford University

Note: this piece has been updated with the list of additional E.P.'s for TIME: The Kalief Browder Story as indicted in a revised press release from the IDA.