IDA Awards Shortlists Released: 'Crip Camp, 'Boys State' Make Cut, but 'Dick Johnson' and More Left Out

The IDA will announce final nominees for Best Feature and Best Short on November 24

The outlook for documentary awards season has come into sharper focus with the announcement of the IDA Documentary Awards shortlists.

Thirty feature documentaries made the shortlist, including early favorites Crip Camp, Boys State (winner of the top prize for U.S. documentary at the Sundance Film Festival), and TIME, Garrett Bradley's film that won the directing prize at Sundance.

Numerous documentaries with an international dimension made the shortlist, among them Collective, the story of a deadly nightclub fire in Bucharest, Romania and its equally tragic aftermath. Alexander Nanau's film has already won a slew of awards, including prizes at the Zurich Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival and the One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. 

Gunda, a film without dialogue that examines the routines of a sow and her piglets on a farm, made the list. The Norwegian production, directed by Viktor Kosakovskiy, is executive produced by actor and animal rights advocate Joaquin Phoenix. 

The range of stories and of makers is as diverse as we have ever had.

--IDA Executive Director Simon Kilmurry on the IDA shortlist contenders

Gianfranco Rosi's Notturno, The Truffle Hunters, The Mole Agent and Once Upon a Time in Venezuela are among the other films with an international focus to make the shortlist. So too did Softie, the first Kenyan film to be accepted at Sundance. Sam Soko's documentary centers on Boniface "Softie" Mwangi, a candidate for office in Kenya who is determined to change his country's political culture despite long odds and little money.

“It is exciting to see the IDA Awards Shortlist include so many films from around the globe,” Simon Kilmurry, the IDA's executive director, noted in a statement. “The range of stories and of makers is as diverse as we have ever had. It reflects the broad range of approaches to documentary filmmaking and some of the most urgent issues of the day.”

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"I have many fears of losing him." Softie's Boniface Mwangi risks all to fight for better Kenya
​The Mole Agent: The rare film noir documentary

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The IDA features shortlist contained some shocking omissions. Failing to gain recognition was Dick Johnson Is Dead, directed by Kirsten Johnson, which earlier this week claimed five nominations for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards. Dick Johnson also won a Special Jury Award for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival.

Also snubbed was The Painter and the Thief, directed by Benjamin Ree. It was nominated for the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in two categories -- best documentary and best director.

Fifteen short documentaries earned a spot on the IDA's shortlist. Among them is John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, directed by Matthew Killip, about a man who "spent 30 years trying to contact extraterrestrials by broadcasting music millions of miles into space."

Geeta Gandbhir's Call Center Blues also made the shorts shortlist, along with Robert Greenwald's Racially Charged: America's Misdemeanor Problem. Three New York Times Op-Docs made the IDA's cut, including Huntsville Station, Hysterical Girl, and The Lost Astronaut.

All That Perishes at the Edge of Land, directed by Hira Nabi, made the shortlist too. I saw the film, which cleverly anthropomophizes an abandoned container ship, at Sundance and was wowed by its artistry. I was also greatly impressed with the aforementioned John Was Trying to Contact Aliens.
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Up to 10 features and short documentaries will earn nominations for the IDA Documentary Awards. The nominations will be announced November 24. The IDA Awards will be held as a virtual event in January 2021.

These are the films to make the IDA shortlists:

IDA Documentary Awards 2020 Features Shortlist

76 Days (USA, China / MTV Documentary Films. Directors: Anonymous, Weixi Chen. Director/Producer: Hao Wu. Producer: Jean Tsien)

Acasă, My Home (Romania, Germany, Finland / Manifest Film, HBO Europe. Director: Radu Ciorniciuc. Producer: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan)

Boys State (USA / Apple, A24. Directors/Producers: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss)

City Hall (USA / Zipporah Films, Inc. Director: Frederick Wiseman. Producer: Karen Konicek)

Collective  (Romania / Magnolia Pictures, Participant. Director/Producer: Alexander Nanau. Producer: Bianca Oana)

Crip Camp (USA / Netflix. Directors/Producers: Jim LeBrecht, Nicole Newnham. Producer: Sara Bolder)

Disclosure (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Sam Feder. Producer: Amy Scholder)

The Earth is Blue as an Orange (Ukraine, Lithuania / TVP. Director: Iryna Tsilyk. Producers: Anna Kapustina, Giedrė Žickytė)

The Forbidden Reel (Canada / National Film Board of Canada. Director: Ariel Nasr. Producers: Kat Baulu, Sergeo Kirby)

Gunda (Norway, USA / NEON. Director: Victor Kossakovsky. Producer: Anita Rehoff Larsen)

I Walk on Water (USA / Grasshopper Film. Director: Khalik Allah. Producers: Sofian Khan, Vikki Tobak)

Me and the Cult Leader (Japan. Director/Producer: Atsushi Sakahara. Producers: Pearl Chan, Matsuo Etsuko)

A Metamorfose dos Pássaros (Portugal / Portugal Film - Portuguese Film Agency. Director: Catarina Vasconcelos. Producers: Pedro Fernandes Duarte, Joana Gusmão)

MLK/FBI (USA / IFC Films. Director: Sam Pollard. Producer: Benjamin Hedin)

The Mole Agent (Chile, Germany, USA / POV, Hulu, Gravitas Ventures. Director: Maite Alberdi. Producer: Marcela Santibañez)

Notturno (Italy, France, Germany. Director/Producer: Gianfranco Rosi. Producers: Camille Laemlé, Serge Lalou, Orwa Nyrabia, Donatella Palermo, Eva-Maria Weerts)

Once Upon a Time in Venezuela (Venezuela, UK, Brazil / Cargo Film Releasing. Director: Anabel Rodríguez Ríos. Producer: Sepp Brudermann) 

The Reason I Jump (USA, UK / Kino Lorber. Director: Jerry Rothwell. Producers: Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee, Al Morrow)

Reunited (Denmark. Director: Mira Jargil. Producer: Kirstine Barfod)

Self Portrait (Norway. Directors: Katja Høgset, Margreth Olin, Espen Wallin. Director/Producer: Margreth Olin)

Softie (Kenya / POV. Director/Producer: Sam Soko. Producer: Toni Kamau)

Stray (USA / Magnolia Pictures. Director/Producer: Elizabeth Lo. Producers: Shane Boris, Ceylan Carhoglu, Ina Fichman)

‘Til Kingdom Come (Israel, UK, Norway / IPBC Kan, NDR. Director/Producer: Maya Zinshtein. Producers: John Battsek, Abraham (Abie) Troen)

Time (USA / Amazon Studios, Concordia Studio, The New York Times. Director/Producer: Garrett Bradley. Producers: Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn) 

To See You Again (Mexico. Director: Carolina Corral Paredes. Producer: Magali Rocha Donnadieu)

The Truffle Hunters (USA / Sony Pictures Classics. Directors/Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw)

Unapologetic (USA. Director/Producer: Ashley O’Shay. Producer: Morgan Elise Johnson)

The Viewing Booth (Israel, USA / ro*co films, Temple University, Channel 8 (Israel). Director/Producer: Ra'anan Alexandrowicz. Producer: Liran Atzmor)

Welcome to Chechnya (USA / HBO. Director/Producer: David France)

Wintopia (Canada / National Film Board of Canada. Director: Mira Burt-Wintonick. Producers: Annette Clarke, Bob Moore)


IDA Documentary Awards 2020 Shorts Shortlist

Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa (USA / Woman Make Movies. Directors/Producers: Barbara Attie, Mike Attie, Janet Goldwater)

All That Perishes at the Edge of Land (Pakistan. Director/Producer: Hira Nabi. Producer: Till Passow)

Tutwiler (USA / Frontline, PBS, The Marshall Project, American Documentary, WORLD Channel. Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon. Producer: Alysia Santo)

Call Center Blues (USA, Mexico / TOPIC. Director: Geeta Gandbhir. Producer: Jessica Devaney)

Eddy’s World (USA. Director/Producer: Lyn Goldfarb. Producers: Jannat Gargi, Daniel Zimbaldi)

Huntsville Station (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Directors/Producers: Chris Filippone, Jamie Meltzer)

Hysterical Girl (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Director: Kate Novack. Producer:` Andrew Rossi)

John Was Trying to Contact Aliens (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Matthew Killip)

The Lost Astronaut (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Director: Ben Proudfoot. Producers: Abby Lynn Kang Davis, Gabriel Berk Godoi)

Mizuko (USA, Japan. Directors/Producers: Kira Dane, Katelyn Rebelo)

Racially Charged: America's Misdemeanor Problem (USA. Director: Robert Greenwald. Producers: Casey Cooper Johnson, Jim Miller)

sống ở đây (USA / University of California, Santa Cruz. Director/Producer: Melanie Ho)

To Calm the Pig Inside (Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos) (Philippines. Director/Producer: Joanna Vasquez Arong) 

Unforgivable (El Salvador. Director/Producer: Marlén Viñayo. Producer: Carlos Martínez)

Virtually Free (USA. Director: André Robert Lee. Producers: Alexandra Blaney, Susan MacLaury)