Filmmaker Garrett Bradley, producer Regina K. Scully, and intrepid journalist and “A Thousand Cuts” subject Maria Ressa are set to be recognized by the International Documentary Association (IDA). The IDA has announced the honorees for the IDA Documentary Awards, which will be presented at a virtual ceremony in January.
The IDA Documentary Awards pay tribute to “the best nonfiction films and programs of the year” and “seeks to represent excellence in the documentary field from around the world, by emerging and established documentarians.”
Bradley will be honored with the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award. She made her feature doc debut this year with “Time,” a portrait of modern-day abolitionist Fox Rich and her fight to free her incarcerated husband. Bradley previously won Sundance’s Directing Award: U.S. Documentary for the film, becoming the first Black woman to receive the prize.
“Time” has been shortlisted for the IDA Documentary Award for Best Feature.
Scully, whose 100-plus credits include “The Vow,” “On the Record,” and “Us Kids,” will receive the Amicus Award. In 2012, she received a Best Feature nod at the IDA Awards for producing “The Invisible War.”
The IDA’s Truth to Power Award, which “recognizes an individual or institution that has shown conspicuous fortitude, tenacity, and resoluteness in holding those in power to account,” will go to Ressa. As founder and chief executive of the independent news site Rappler, the Filipino-American journalist calls out the Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte and his government’s violent war on drugs and its escalating body count.
Ressa’s story is chronicled in Ramona S. Diaz’s “A Thousand Cuts,” which hit virtual cinemas this summer.
Other IDA Doc Award honorees include Firelight Media and the “Welcome to Chechnya” filmmakers. The former, a company dedicated to making docs about and by people of color, will take home the Pioneer Award. The prize “acknowledges those individuals who have made extraordinary contributions to advancing the nonfiction form and providing exceptional vision and leadership to the documentary community.”
“Welcome to Chechnya” director David France, his team, and doc subjects Olga Baranova and David Isteev will be presented with the Courage Under Fire Award. Released this year, the film follows a group of activists putting their lives on the line to fight for LGBTQ rights in Chechnya. Baranova is the director of the Moscow Community Center for LGBT+ Initiatives, and Isteev is the Crisis Response Coordinator at the Russian LGBT Network.
For more information on the IDA Documentary Awards, head over to IDA’s website.
