IDA is thrilled to present the Awards Campaign Access Initiative (ACAI) for FallDocs 2024. Throughout the award season, we combine films and their creators with industry insiders and film enthusiasts.
- What are ACAI screenings?
The initiative supports independent filmmakers from historically excluded communities who are pursuing a film awards campaign. Our goal is to minimize the financial burdens related to their campaign. During the 2023 events season, we hosted ten virtual screenings with advertising support for independent filmmakers.
Please note that FallDocs - Awards Campaign Access Initiative (ACAI) has no connection to the IDA Documentary Awards. These two programs are separate and run by different departments at IDA.
- What’s FallDocs?
FallDocs is a curated screening series featuring many of the year's most acclaimed documentary films. It is attended exclusively by IDA, AMPAS, and other professional guild members. Each film is presented in person and streamed for one week online via IDA's Eventive virtual platform.
- Consideration
IDA team regularly attends major international and regional film festivals around the world and monitors new documentary releases. FallDocs 2024 ACAI program will be by invitation from our team. We welcome suggested titles to consider including in this program. If there are any films you would like to put on our radar for consideration, please email screenings@documentary.org with film details, logline, premiere information, and a link to a website.
- Eligibility
Suggested titles must be eligible for a 97th Academy Award but demonstrate financial need (films without distribution or with a self-financed awards campaign). Please reference the 97th Academy Awards Rules & Eligibility (see rule 12) here.
Only individual documentary works are eligible. This excludes from consideration such works as multi-part or limited series, episodes extracted from a more extensive series, segments are taken from a single “composite” program, and alternate versions of ineligible works.
2023 IDA Screening Series Selected ACAI applicants:
Feature films selected through the ACAI program include:
- While We Watched | Dir. Vinay Shukla | Prod: Vinay Shukla, Luke W Moody, Khushboo Ranka
- Against The Tide | Dir. Sarvnik Kaur | Prod: Koval Bhatia, Sarvnik Kaur
- Queendom | Dir. Agniia Galdanova | Prod: Agniia Galdanova, Igor Myakotin
- What These Walls Won't Hold | Dir. Adamu Chan | Prod: Pete Nicks, Christian Collins
- unseen | Dir. Set Hernandez | Prod: Set Hernandez, Day Al-Mohamed, Félix Endara
- King Coal | Dir. Elaine McMillion Sheldon | Shane Boris, Diane Becker, Peggy Drexler, Elaine McMillion Sheldon
- Another Body | Dir. Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn | Prod: Elizabeth Woodward, Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn
- Subject | Dir. Jennifer Tiexiera, Camilla Hall | Prod: Camilla Hall, Jennifer Tiexiera, Joe Caterini, Margie Ratliff
- Incompatible with Life | Dir. Eliza Capai | Prod: Mariana Genesca
Short films selected through the ACAI program include:
- Can I Hug You? | Dir. Elahe Esmaili | Prod: Elahe Esmaili, Hossein Behboudi Rad
- Mãri hi - The Tree of Dream | Dir. Morzaniel Ɨramari | Prod: Eryk Rocha, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha
- Between Earth & Sky | Dir. Andrew Nadkarni | Exec Prod: Su Kim | Prod: Swetha Regunathan, Katie Schiller, Andrew Nadkarni
- Relighting Candles: The Tim Sullivan Story | Zeberiah Newman & Michiel Thomas | Exec Prod: Ben Falcone, Melissa McCarthy | Prod: Zeberiah Newman
- Waorani: Guardians of the Amazon | Dir: Luisana Carcelén, Jamaicanoproblem | Prod: Luis Felipe Fernández Salvador, Manuel Cardenal, Xavier Guerrero, Lily Van Ghemen, Debbie Vandermeulen
2022 IDA Screening Series Selected ACAI applicants:
- Beba | Dir. Rebeca Huntt | Prod: Sofia Geld, Rebeca Huntt
- Hidden Letters | Dir. Violet Du Feng, Zhao Qing | Prod: Violet Du Feng, Mette Cheng Munthe-Kaas, Jean Tsien, Su Kim
- I Didn't See You There | Dir. Reid Davenport | Prod: Keith Wilson
- Lakota Nation vs. United States | Dir: Jesse Short Bull, Laura Tomaselli | Prod: Benjamin Hedin
- Let the Little Light Shine | Dir. Kevin Shaw | Prod: Kevin Shaw, Rachel Dickson
- Punch 9 for Harold Washington | Dir. Joe Winston | Prod: Joe Winston, Raymond Lambert, Sonya Jackson
- Sansón and Me | Dir. Rodrigo Reyes | Prod: Su Kim, Rodrigo Reyes
- Sirens | Dir. Rita Baghdadi | Prod: Rita Baghdadi, Camilla Hall
- What We Leave Behind | Dir. Iliana Sosa | Prod: Emma D. Miller, Iliana Sosa