“Minding The Gap” Nabs Top Honors at IDA Documentary Awards

(LOS ANGELES, CA - December 8, 2018) Bing Liu’s Minding The Gap emerged this evening with top honors in the Best Feature category at the 34th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. Floyd Russ’s Zion was awarded Best Short. The year’s biggest night in documentary took place at the Paramount Theatre and was hosted by actor, television presenter, and producer Ricki Lake.

“Both the Best Feature and Best Short categories recognized the remarkable range of work that was produced in 2018,” said Simon Kilmurry, executive director of the International Documentary Association (IDA). “In Minding the Gap we see the emergence of Bing Liu as a fresh, bold new voice in documentary. His film sneaks up on audiences and, has a quiet and lasting power. Zion by Floyd Russ is a beautiful and touching work that does what documentaries can do better than any other form—give audiences intimate access into the experience of others, in a way that makes us better for it.”  

Liu, whose critically acclaimed Minding the Gap received a Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, was also presented with the Emerging Filmmaker Award by director Barry Jenkins and Gordon Quinn, artistic director of Kartemquin Films.

Winners included Netflix’s Wild Wild Country for Best Limited Series, HBO’s John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls for the ABC News VideoSource Award, PBS’ POV for Best Curated Series, Showtime’s The Trade for Best Episodic Series, MEL Films for Best Short Form Series, and Jayisha Patel’s Circle for the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award. Both Melissa Haizlip’s Mr. SOUL! and Steve Loveridge’s MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. were each awarded in the Best Music Documentary category, while Bisbee '17 and Hale County This Morning, This Evening were each awarded Best Music Score. The New York Times’ Caliphate won the inaugural Best Audio Documentary category.

The Career Achievement Award was presented to Julia Reichert, a three-time Academy Award® nominee and co-founder of New Day Films. Her films have given voice to women and working people, infusing their stories with urgency and dignity. The award was presented by Yvonne Welbon and Marc Weiss.

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 to director Stephen Maing and all the NYPD 12 whistleblowers of Crime + Punishment, with several of the NYPD 12 in attendance, by award-winning cinematographer and director Kirsten Johnson. Of the NYPD 12, Sergeant Edwin Raymond, Officers Felicia Whitley, Adhyl Polanco, Sandy Gonzalez, and Derick Waller, Detective Ritchie Baez, and Private Investigator Manuel Gomez were in attendance to accept the honor.

Filmmaker Dawn Porter presented the Amicus Award to Chicken & Egg Pictures, which was founded in 2005 by Julie Parker-Benello, Judith Helfand, and Wendy Ettinger, and led by Executive Director Jenni Wolfson since 2013. The award was given in recognition of the organization’s deep commitment to providing million in grants and thousands of hours of creative mentorship to over 300 women filmmakers.

The 2018 IDA Documentary Awards is sponsored by: NETFLIX, National Geographic Documentary Films, Showtime Documentary Films, A&E IndieFilms, Participant Media, ABC News VideoSource, Focus Features, HBO, CNN, RYOT, PBS, Archibald Family Charitable Foundation, Topic Studios, Hulu, World Channel and Youtube Originals. The Official Media Sponsor of the Awards is The Hollywood Reporter.

The complete list of winners is below.

2018 IDA Documentary Awards Best Feature
Minding the Gap (Hulu/POV. Director/Producer: Bing Liu. Producer: Diane Quon)

2018 IDA Documentary Awards Best Short
Zion (Netflix. Director/Producer: Floyd Russ. Producer: Carter Collins)

Best Music Documentary
MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. (Abramorama. Director/Producer: Steve Loveridge. Producers: Lori Cheatle, Paul Mezey and Andrew Goldman)

Mr. SOUL! (Director/Producer: Melissa Haizlip. Co-Director: Samuel D. Pollard)

Best Audio Documentary
Caliphate (The New York Times. Reporters: Rukmini Callimachi and Andy Mills. Producers: Andy Mills, Larissa Anderson, Wendy Dorr, and Asthaa Chaturvedi)

2018 IDA Documentary Awards Series Winners

Best Curated Series
POV (POV/American Documentary. Executive Producers: Justine Nagan and Chris White)

Best Episodic Series
The Trade (Showtime. Executive Producers: Matthew Heineman and Pagan Harleman)

Best Limited Series
Wild Wild Country (Netflix. Directors: Chapman Way and Maclain Way. Producer: Juliana Lembi. Executive Producers: Mark Duplass, Jay Duplass, Josh Braun and Dan Braun)

Best Short Form Series
MEL Films (Executive Producer: David Freid)

Creative Recognition Awards Winners

Best Cinematography
Distant Constellation (Cinephil. Cinematographer: Shevaun Mizrahi)

Best Editing
Minding the Gap (Hulu. Editors: Bing Liu and Joshua Altman)

Best Writing
The Other Side of Everything (Writer: Mila Turajlić)

Best Music Score
Bisbee '17 (Composer: Keegan DeWitt)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Cinema Guild. Composers: Scott Alario, Forest Kelley, and Alex Somers)

2018 IDA Documentary Awards Sponsored Special Awards Winners

ABC News VideoSource Award
John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls (HBO. Directors/Producers: Peter Kunhardt, George Kunhardt, and Teddy Kunhardt)

Pare Lorentz Award
Winner: The Silence of Others (Cinephil/POV. Directors/Producers: Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar)

Honorable Mention: The Distant Barking of Dogs (Cinephil. Director: Simon Lereng Wilmont. Producer: Monica Hellstrøm)

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award
Circle (National Film and Television School. Director: Jayisha Patel