“Dina” receives top honors at IDA Documentary Awards

December 9, 2017 (Los Angeles, CA)—The 33rd Annual IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by Iranian-American actor and comedian Maz Jobrani, took place earlier tonight at the Paramount Theatre. The evening’s top honors went to Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s “Dina” for Best Feature, and Laura Checkoway’s “Edith+Eddie” for Best Short.

"The Best Feature and Best Short award winners both represent unlikely love stories, each one tender, tragic, and ultimately life-affirming,” said IDA Executive Director Simon Kilmurry. “Dina and ‘Edith+Eddie’ are both distinguished by their unforgettable lead characters and their sensitive elicitation of universal truth.”

Winners included Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin’s “LA 91” for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ Independent Lens for Best Curated Series, HBO’s “The Defiant Ones” for Best Limited Series, BBC’s “Planet Earth II” for Best Episodic Series, “The New York Times Op-Docs” for Best Short Form Series, and Joe Fe’s “Man on Fire” for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award.

The Career Achievement Award was presented to Lourdes Portillo in recognition of Portillo’s body of work which spans nearly forty years and features award-winning films about Latin American, Mexican, and Chicano/a experiences and social justice issues. The award was presented by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Pena.

IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award—which is given from time to time to a filmmaker who demonstrates extraordinary courage in pursuit of the truth—was presented for the first time to a group of filmmaking teams and the films’ subjects. Kathryn Bigelow presented the award to “City of Ghosts”, “Cries from Syria”, “Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS”, and “Last Men in Aleppo.”

Documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson and Chief Creative Officer of Fork Films, Gini Reticker, presented award-winning filmmaker, philanthropist, the CEO and president of Fork Films, and a mother of four, Abigail Disney, with the IDA’s Amicus Award in recognition of her work in support of peacebuilding and advancing women’s roles in the public sphere.

Yance Ford, whose cinematic memoir “Strong Island” received a Special Jury Award for Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, was awarded with the Emerging Filmmaker Award by veteran filmmaker Charles Burnett.

During the ceremony, IDA also announced a $600,000 investment from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation to support the International Documentary Association, including IDA’s Enterprise Documentary Fund and Getting Real ’18, filmmaker-to-filmmaker conference. As part of this initiative, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation will provide four grants of $25,000 each to emerging women filmmakers of color.

The complete list of winners is below.

Best Feature

Dina
Directors/Producers: Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles
The Orchard

Best Short

Edith+Eddie
Director: Laura Checkoway
Producer: Thomas Lee Wright 
Kartemquin Films

Creative Recognition Award Winners

Best Cinematography
Machines
Cinematography by: Rodrigo Trejo Villanueva 
Kino Lorber

Best Editing
Dawson City: Frozen Time
Edited by: Bill Morrison
Kino Lorber

Best Music
Brimstone and Glory
 Original Score by: Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin
Oscilloscope Laboratories 

Best Writing
Donkeyote
Written by: Chico Pereira, Manuel Pereira and Gabriel Molera
Scottish Documentary Institute

Pare Lorentz Award

Watani: My Homeland (Recipient)
Director: Marcel Mettelsiefen

Intent to Destroy (Special Mention)
Director: Joe Berlinger

ABC News VideoSource Award

LA 92
Directors: Dan Lindsay & TJ Martin
National Geographic

Best Curated Series Award

Independent Lens
Executive Producers: Lois Vossen and Sally Jo Fifer
PBS

Best Limited Series

The Defiant Ones
Executive Producers: Allen Hughes, Doug Pray, Andrew Kosove, Broderick Johnson, Laura Lancaster, Jerry Longarzo, Michael Lombardo, and Gene Kirkwood
HBO

Best Episodic Series Award

Planet Earth II
Executive Producer: Michael Gunton
BBC AMERICA/BBC Worldwide

Best Short Form Series Award

The New York Times Op-Docs
Executive Producer: Kathleen Lingo
The New York Times

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award

Man on Fire
Director: Joel Fendelman
Producer: James Chase Sanchez
University of Texas, Austin