IDA Documentary Awards: 'For Sama' Wins Best Feature; 'American Factory's' Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert Win Directing Award

Honeyland, Beyoncé's Homecoming, Leaving Neverland among other winners. Full list below.

Edward Watts and Waad al-Kateab (center) accept the Best Feature Award at the IDA Documentary Awards in Hollywood Saturday night. At left is presenter Frances Fisher. December 7, 2019. Photo by Matt Carey

For Sama continued its impressive awards run Saturday night, winning Best Feature at the IDA Documentary Awards in Hollywood. Overseas in Berlin on Saturday, the film directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts also won the top European Documentary honor at the European Film Awards.

"Ohmygod. Thank you so much, IDA," al-Kateab said, as she accepted the IDA Award, praising the other filmmakers nominated in the category. At a loss for words, she quickly turned the spotlight over to Watts, who added, "We're just so humbled, to be honest... Everyone's saying it's a dark time in the world but I look out in this room and the filmmakers that we've met and I think about documentary right now and I just feel hope things are going to get better thanks to a lot of people in this room and people like this amazing woman," he said, referring to al-Kateab.

I’m just one person standing here but there’s millions of Syrian people who are fighting every day for our freedom and for a free country.

​--For Sama director Waad al-Kateab, accepting the IDA's Courage Under Fire Award

For Sama is a chronicle of al-Kateab's experience in Aleppo, Syria as her city was systematically destroyed in bombing raids launched by Syrian government forces and their Russian allies on civilian targets. The documentary takes the form of a love letter to her baby daughter Sama, to whom al-Kateab gave birth in the midst of the siege.

Earlier this week For Sama won the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review. Among its many prizes are best documentary honors at film festivals around the world including Cannes, SXSW, Traverse City, Galway, Ireland, Guanajuato, Mexico, RiverRun in North Carolina and HotDocs in Toronto.

Earlier in the evening al-Kateab received a standing ovation as she accepted the IDA's Courage Under Fire Award, recognizing her bravery in making the documentary. 

"Today there was another attack in Syria… There was more than 20 people who were killed," she noted as she accepted the award. "We’re just like used to see[ing] that everyday, but we need to find a way to stop that. I hope this award… will also shed the light about what’s happening. This is not just for me. I’m just one person standing here but there’s millions of Syrian people who are fighting every day for our freedom and for a free country."

"For Sama" director Waad al-Kateab accepts the IDA's Courage Under Fire Award Saturday in Hollywood. December 7, 2019. Photo by Matt Carey

The IDA spread the love among many other films, filmmakers and series on Saturday. Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert were named Best Director for their work on American Factory, the story of what happened when a Chinese auto glass giant set up a factory on the grounds of an old GM plant in Dayton, Ohio. Bognar and Reichert were similarly honored with the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl), directed by Carol Dysinger, won Best Documentary Short. Dysinger's film focuses on a school in Kabul that offers Afghan girls, who are often deprived of an education, the opportunity to learn to read, write and skateboard. 

"I've been filming in Afghanistan since the year 2005," Dysinger commented from the podium. "I've seen a lot of awful things, but the one thing I always love most about that country is the girls, who get so little but are so bright and so insane and so lovely."

Best Multi-part Documentary went to Leaving Neverland, Dan Reed's searing two-part film about two men--James Safechuck and Wade Robson--who say they were sexually abused as boys by entertainer Michael Jackson. Reed thanked HBO for standing behind the film despite a lawsuit filed by Jackson's estate claiming the documentary violated a non-disparagement agreement between Jackson and HBO related to a concert film decades ago.

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Related:
>Leaving Neverland paints devastating portrait of Michael Jackson as serial pedophile
>Director Waad al-Kateab on facing death as she made For Sama: 'All the time what's going on in my mind was, 'This is the last minute, this is the last video, this is the last story'

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In something of a surprise, Beyoncé's Homecoming won Best Music Documentary over stiff competition, including Amazing Grace--the long-delayed film surrounding the recording of Aretha Franklin's 1972 gospel album. The Apollo, The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash, and Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men were also nominated in that category, a new one introduced by the IDA this year.

Honeyland, the tale of a wild beekeeper in North Macedonia, took Best Cinematography honors for DP's Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma. They won that award as well at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Fejmi Daut (left) and Samir Ljuma accept the cinematography award at the Sundance Film Festival for "Honeyland." Park City, Utah, February 2, 2019. Photo by Matt Carey

Leah Remini, star of Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, won the inaugural Truth to Power Award. Her A&E Series, now in its third season, documents what she and other former members of the Church of Scientology have gone through after daring to leave the church. On stage, Remini praised participants in the show.

"Our documentary series became a platform and an inspiration for many great people to come forward to expose abuses, but they pay a price for doing so," Remini said. "Scientology policy demands that for speaking out and speaking up they are to be publicly attacked. It is required that their family and friends shun them and that their lives be destroyed through Scientology "Fair Game" directives. Even though they know the consequences they step forward willingly. They spoke the truth simply because it was the right thing to do.

Leah Remini, star of "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath." Photo courtesy A&E

This is the full list of winners from Saturday's ceremony at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood:

Best Feature
For Sama (Syria, UK / PBS Distribution, Channel 4, FRONTLINE. Director/Producer: Waad al-Kateab. Director: Edward Watts)

Best Director
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert (American Factory. USA / Netflix)

Best Short
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (if you're a girl) (Afghanistan, UK, USA / Lifetime Films, A&E IndieFilms. Director: Carol Dysinger. Producer: Elena Andreicheva)

Best Curated Series
Dokumania (Denmark / Danish Broadcasting Corporation. Executive Producer: Anders Bruus)

Best Episodic Series
Abstract: The Art of Design (USA / Netflix. Executive Producers: Scott Dadich, Morgan Neville, Dave O'Connor, Justin Wilkes and Jon Kamen)

Best Multi-Part Documentary
Leaving Neverland (USA / HBO. Director/Producer: Dan Reed. Executive Producers: Nancy Abraham and Lisa Heller)

Best Short Form Series
A Moment in Mexico — The New York Times Op-Docs (Mexico, USA / The New York Times. Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo. Coordinating Producer: Lindsay Crouse)

Best Audio Documentary
A Sense of Quietness (UK / BBC Radio 4. Producer: Eleanor McDowall. Executive Producers: Alan Hall and Rachel Hooper)

Best Music Documentary
Homecoming: A Film by Beyoncé (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter. Director: Ed Burke. Producers: Steve Pamon and Erinn Williams)

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award
Brewed in Palestine (USA, Israel, Palestine / UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Director/Producer: Emma Schwartz)

Best Cinematography
Honeyland (Macedonia / NEON. Cinematographers: Fejmi Daut and Samir Ljuma)

Best Editing
Midnight Family (Mexico, USA / 1091. Editor: Luke Lorentzen. Co-Editor: Paloma López Carrillo)

Best Music Score
The Raft (Denmark, Sweden, USA / Metrograph Pictures. Composer: Hans Appelqvist)

Best Writing
The Cave (Denmark, Syria, USA / National Geographic. Writers: Alisar Hasan and Feras Fayyad)

Pare Lorentz Award
Honeyland (Macedonia / NEON. Director: Tamara Kotevska. Director/ Producer: Ljubomir Stefanov. Producer: Atanas Georgiev)

Honorable Mention: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch (Canada / Kino Lorber. Directors: Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky. Producer: Nadia Tavazzani)

ABCNEWS VideoSource Award
Mike Wallace Is Here (USA / Magnolia Pictures. Director/Producer: Avi Belkin. Producers: Rafael Marmor, John Battsek, Peggy Drexler and Christopher Leggett)

2019 IDA Documentary Awards Honorary Awards
Amicus Award: Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press 
Career Achievement Award: Freida Lee Mock (Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, Anita) 
Courage Under Fire Award: Waad al-Kateab (For Sama) 
Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Rachel Lears (Knock Down The House, The Hand That Feeds)
Pioneer Award: Cinereach 
Truth to Power Award: Leah Remini