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THE SQUARE and Spurlock's INSIDE MAN Take Top Honors at 2013 IDA Documentary Awards

By IDA Editorial Staff

Winners in the 2013 IDA Documentary Awards were announced during tonight's program at the Directors Guild of America, giving Jehane Noujaim's The Square top honors with the Best Feature Award. The first major film acquisition by Netflix, The Square follows a group of Egyptian activists as they battle leaders and regimes, and risk their lives to build a new society of conscience.

Also announced in the ceremony was the Best Short Award, which honored Slomo, directed by Josh Izenberg. An inspirational portrait of neurologist turned rollerblader, Dr. John Kitchin, Slomo has been an audience favorite at festivals around the world garnering a number of audience and jury awards.

During the ceremony, which was hosted by comedian and award-winning stage and screen actor, Paul Provenza, two series awards were also presented. The Best Continuing Series Award went to the PBS series Independent Lens. Now in its 12th season, the weekly series features original documentary films made by some of the best independent filmmakers working today. The Best Limited Series Award went to the CNN Original Series Inside Man, hosted by Oscar®-nominated documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock.

IDA’s Career Achievement Award was presented to Academy Award®– and Emmy Award-winning director, producer and writer Alex Gibney whose body of work includes Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (2012), Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (2010) and Taxi to the Dark Side (2007), which won an Oscar® for Best Documentary Feature. This year saw the release of Gibney’s latest films We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks and The Armstrong Lie. Producers Matthew Tolmach and Frank Marshall (The Armstrong Lie) presented the Career Achievement Award to Gibney.

Presented for just the fourth time in the 29-year history of the Awards, the IDA Amicus Award went to Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn Dreyfous, who also founded the Utah Film Center. Dreyfous’ executive producing and producing credits include the Academy Award®-winning Born Into Brothels, The Invisible War, as well as 2013's The Square and The Crash Reel. Presented by Academy Award®-winning actor and advocate Geena Davis, the IDA Amicus Award recognizes friends of the documentary community who have contributed significantly to the field.

Filmmaker Laura Poitras received IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award, in recognition of "conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth." Along with Glenn Greenwald, Poitras broke the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealing the PRISM program. Poitras is working on a trilogy of films about America post 9/11, which includes My Country, My Country (2006) and The Oath (2010). Poitras is currently in Berlin editing the third film of the trilogy, a documentary about NSA surveillance, and accepted the award via live remote. Presenting the award to Poitras in Los Angeles was William Binney, who worked at the National Security Agency for over 30 years before resigning in protest over the agency’s data mining programs.

The Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film, was presented to Zachary Heinzerling. Cutie and the Boxer, Heinzerling’s feature documentary debut, premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival, receiving the US Documentary Directing Award.

A complete list of nominees and winners can be found on the IDA Awards page.