The International Documentary Association (IDA) aren’t necessarily the most indicative of where the Academy’s documentary branch will go, but they’re important and prestigious so it’s always good to see where their members go. This year’s selection of nominees is quite a highbrow collection with a heavy slant towards politics and activism with three very high profile contenders battling it out against a pair of smaller-scale, yet mightily intimidating, documentaries about prejudice some 30 years apart.
Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Let the Fire Burn
The Square (NYFF review)
Stories We Tell
I am a big fan of Jehane Noujaim’s up-to-the-minute look at the Egyptian democracy crisis, The Square, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s disturbing look at SeaWorld’s animal cruelty, Blackfish, and Sarah Polley’s fragmented family tree, Stories We Tell, but the other two – sadly, two I have not yet had the chance to catch are perhaps the most acclaimed of the IDA nominees. It will be interesting to see where this organisation goes when they announce their winners. They can go super mainstream (last year’s Searching for Sugarman) or super arthouse (Nostalgia for the Light in 2011). I’d put my money on Joshua Oppenheimer’s Indonesian genocide doco The Act of Killing, but with so many strong contenders who can tell?
'Blackfish' not 'Rust and Bone'
It is worth noting that all five nominees are on that epic 151 title-long list of Oscar-eligible docs along with contenders from two other IDA categories as well as the recipient of the special “Pare Lorentz Award”.
Humanitas Award
Anton's Right Here
Blood Brother (Director’s interview)
Let the Fire Burn
The Square
Pare Lorentz Award
A Place at the Table
ABCNews Videosource Award
All the President's Men Revisited
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
Let the Fire Burn
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks
The only titles listed that aren’t eligible for Oscar are All the Presidents Men Revisited and Anton’s Right Here, neither of which I had heard of before today. Furthermore, I can’t say I’m a fan of Steve Hooper’s Blood Brother, but it showed up in the right category at least. This year has been a rather incredible one for documentaries – although maybe it’s just because I’ve been exposed to so many more now living in New York City – so I’m not surprised to see the year’s highest grossing doc, the feel-good 20 Feet to Stardom, not get a citation. I’ve long suspected the Academy will follow suit.
One last factoid: the only of the IDA’s documentary shorts to cross over with the Academy’s shortlist is Joshua Izenberg’s Slomo. Could certainly do worse than chalking that one up for a nomination at this stage.