IDA Announces 37th Annual IDA Documentary Awards Winners

Los Angeles, CA (March 4, 2022) - The International Documentary Association (IDA) handed out the 37th Annual IDA Documentary Awards tonight during an online ceremony hosted by filmmakers Kate Amend, Jerry Henry, Pedro Kos, and Renee Tajima-Peña. The digital ceremony featured a musical performance by Mehandis Geleto, featured in Faya Dayi. The awards ceremony takes place as IDA marks the 40th anniversary of its founding. 

FLEE, directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and produced by Monica Hellstrӧm, Signe Byrge Sørensen, and Charlotte De La Gournerie, was voted Best Feature by IDA members. A Broken House, directed and produced by Jimmy Goldblum and produced by Matt Weaver, former Representative Richard Gephardt and Harrison Nalevansky, was named Best Short. The Best Director award went to Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson for Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), which also took home awards for Best Music Documentary and Best Editing.

Hulu and Searchlight ended the night with three wins for Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised). HBO Max was the distributor for two winners, Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground and Exterminate All the Brutes, and POV distributed winners North By Current and A Broken House as well as Seahorse, distributed by POV Shorts.

Richard Ray (“Rick”) Pérez, IDA’s Executive Director, commented, “This year’s IDA Documentary Awards celebrate thematic depth and creativity of the best documentary storytelling of the last year. As the documentary community and the world still grapple with the effects of a global epidemic, IDA is honored to recognize the outstanding nominees in all categories, and we congratulate the winners for their incredible contributions to helping us understand the world around us.”

2021 IDA Documentary Awards Winners

Best Feature 
FLEE (Denmark, France, Norway / NEON, Participant. Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Producers: Monica Hellstrӧm,Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie)

Best Director
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson (Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (USA / Hulu, Searchlight Pictures)

Best Short
A Broken House (USA, Lebanon / Condé Nast Entertainment, The New Yorker, POV. Director/Producer: Jimmy Goldblum. Producer: Matt Weaver, former Representative Richard Gephardt and Harrison Nalevansky)

Best Curated Series
Independent Lens (USA / Independent Lens, PBS. Executive Producers: Lois Vossen, Sally Jo Fifer)

Best Episodic Series
My Love: Six Stories of True Love (USA / Netflix. Executive Producer: Mo-young Jin, Andrew Fried, Dane Lillegard and Jordan Wynn)

Best Multi-Part Documentary 
Exterminate All the Brutes (USA, France / HBO, HBO Max. Director/Executive Producer: Raoul Peck. Producers: Daniel Delume. Executive Producers: Rémi Grellety, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller, Jamie Morris, Jack Oliver and Poppy Dixon)

Best Short-Form Series 
Viral Dreams (Germany, Israel / ZDF Arte. Producer: Georg Tschurtschenthaler. Executive Producers: Christian Beetz)

Best Stand-Alone Audio Documentary 
VICE News Reports: Monaea, A 2020 Diary (USA / VICE News, iHeartRadio. Reporters: Monaea Upton and Jen Kinney. Producers: Jen Kinne, Ashley Cleek, Adizah Eghan and Adreanna Rodriguez. Executive Producer: Kate Osborn)

Best Multi-Part Audio Documentary or Series 
"Suave" from Futuro Studios and PRX (USA / Futuro Studios, PRX. Reporters: Maggie Freleng and Julieta Martinelli. Producers: Maria Hinojosa, Maggie Freleng, Julieta Martinelli, Marlon Bishop, Audrey Quinn and Stephanie Lubow. Executive Producer: Maria Hinojosa)

Best Music Documentary 
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (USA / Hulu, Searchlight Pictures. Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Producers: Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, David Dinerstein)

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award 
Seahorse (Germany / Film Academy Baden-Württemberg. Director/Producer: Nele Dehnenkamp. Producer: Christine Duttlinger)

Best Cinematography 
Faya Dayi (Ethiopia, USA, Qatar / Janus Films. Cinematographer: Jessica Beshir)

Best Editing 
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (USA / Hulu, Searchlight Pictures. Editor: Joshua L. Pearson)

Best Music Score
Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground (USA / HBO Max. Composer: Roman GianArthur)

Best Writing 
North By Current (USA / POV, PBS. Writer: Angelo Madsen Minax)

ABC News VideoSource Award 
Whirlybird (USA / Greenwich Entertainment, A&E IndieFilms. Director: Matt Yoka. Producer: Matt Yoka, Diane Becker)

Pare Lorentz Award 
The First Wave (USA / National Geographic. Director/Producer: Matthew Heineman. Producers: Jenna Millman and Leslie Norville)
HONORABLE MENTION: Tigre Gente (USA. Director/Producer: Elizabeth Unger. Producer: Joanna Natasegara)

Career Achievement Award
Roger Ross Williams

Pioneer Award
Jean Tsien

Truth to Power Award
Ronan Farrow 

Courage Under Fire Award
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award
Cecilia Aldarondo

The 2021 IDA Documentary Awards is sponsored by Netflix, Showtime, Participant Media, HBO Max, Archibald Family Charitable Foundation, AppleTV+, ABC News Videosource, Hulu, and Onyx, with Media Partner Variety and Official Accessibility Partner Rev.

For quick reference, all winners, nominees, and honorees will be updated at this link: https://www.documentary.org/awards2021