Laura Poitras’ documentary about Edward Snowden and NSA spying, “Citizenfour,” has been named the best non-fiction film of 2014 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards.
The film won in a category whose other nominees were “Finding Vivian Maier,” “Point and Shoot,” “The Salt of the Earth” and “Tales of the Grim Sleeper.” All of the films except “Point and Shoot” are on the 15-film Oscar shortlist for documentary features.
In her speech, Poitras mentioned that a year ago, when she was still working on “Citizenfour” under conditions of utmost secrecy, she opted not to attend the IDA Awards despite being given the Courage Under Fire Award.
“Last year there was a lot of uncertainty and, I’ll admit, there was a lot of fear,” she said. “To be on the other side of that fear is nice.”
Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton won the Best Short Film award for “Tashi and the Monk,” which also became the rare short to win the Pare Lorentz Award, given to films on environmental and social issues.
Showtime’s “Time of Death” won in the Best Limited Series category, while three new categories honored the PBS series “Independent Lens” (Best Curated Series), OWN’s “Our America With Lisa Ling” (Best Episodic Series) and NPR’s “Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt” (Best Short Form Series).
Previously announced craft awards went to the writing of “Finding Vivian Maier,” the editing of “Last Days in Vietnam,” the cinematography of “Elevator” and the music of “Alfred and Jakobine.”
Robert Redford was given the IDA’s Career Achievement Award, both for his own work on non-fiction films and his founding of the Sundance Institute and its Documentary Film Program.
In his speech, he talked about how seeing the 1964 documentary “Point of Order” had been a transforming experience in realizing the power of documentary filmmaking, and how that filmmaking could play a crucial role in revealing the truth in times like today, when “there is so much anger and … misperception and misinformation.”
The value of docs, he said, was aptly illustrated by “Snowden reaching out to Laura Poitras to tell his story.”
The Pioneer Award was given to Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato of World of Wonder Productions, and awarded to them by Monica Lewinsky, the subject of their film “Monica in Black and White.”
The Preservation and Scholarship Award went to Cambodian director Rithy Panh, who made last year’s Oscar-nominated film “The Missing Picture” and has founded the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center to preserve audio and video records of Cambodia, as well as offering vocational training in film and media.
Darius Clark Monroe, who documented his own journey from convicted bank robber to filmmaker in “Evolution of a Criminal,” was given the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.
The show, the 30th from the IDA, took place on the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount Pictures lot, and was hosted by comedian Carol Leifer.
The winners:
BEST FEATURE: “Citizenfour”
Director: Laura Poitras
RADiUS-TWC, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films
BEST SHORT: “Tashi and the Monk”
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
HBO Documentary Films
BEST CURATED SERIES: “Independent Lens”
Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer
Deputy Executive Producer: Lois Vossen
Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with PBS
BEST LIMITED SERIES: “Time of Death”
Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Alexandra Lipsitz
Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood, Sandy Shapiro
Showtime
BEST EPISODIC SERIES: “Our America With Lisa Ling”
Executive Producers: Amy Bucher, Gregory Henry, Lisa Ling, David Shadrack Smith
OWN
BEST SHORT FORM SERIES:
“Planet Money Makes a T-Shirt”
Executive Producer: Alex Blumberg
NPR
DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD:
“My Dad’s a Rocker”
Director: Zuxin Hou
University of Southern California
HUMANITAS DOCUMENTARY AWARD:
”Limited Partnership”
Director: Thomas G. Miller
PBS / Independent Lens
PARE LORENTZ AWARD: “Tashi and the Monk”
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
HBO Documentary Films
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD:
“1971″
Director: Johanna Hamilton
Independent Lens/ PBS
CREATIVE RECOGNITION AWARD WINNERS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Hatuey Viveros Lavielle, “Elevator”
BEST EDITING: Don Kleszy, “Last Days in Vietnam”
BEST MUSIC: Nick Urata, “Alfred and Jakobine”
BEST WRITING: John Maloof & Charlie Siskel, “Finding Vivian Maier”
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Robert Redford
PIONEER AWARD:
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
PRESERVATION AND SCHOLARSHIP AWARD:
Rithy Panh
EMERGING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AWARD:
Darius Clark Monroe