Laura Poitras’ Edward Snowden documentary “CitizenFour” and John Maloof’s and Charlie Siskel’s investigation into a neglected photographer, “Finding Vivian Maier,” are among the five nominees for the year’s best documentary at the International Documentary Associations IDA Awards, the IDA announced on Wednesday.
Also nominated were Marshall Curry’s portrait of an American filmmaker who fought and was imprisoned in Libya, “Point and Shoot”; Wim Wenders’ and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado’s look at Salgago’s photographer father, “The Salt of the Earth”; and Nick Broomfield’s “Tales of the Grim Sleeper,” the British documentarian’s investigation of a series of murders in South Central Los Angeles over a 25-year period.
Also read: Edward Snowden Doc Director on Taking ‘Staggering’ Risks, Angering Powerful People
The nominations were made by a jury, after screening panels had narrowed down about 250 qualifying films to a couple dozen finalists. The number of eligible films tops the Oscar-qualifying slate by about 100 docs.
Missing from the top feature category were a number of the year’s lighter, more crowd-pleasing documentaries, including Steve James’ Roger Ebert memoir, “Life Itself,” as well as the music-themed films “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me” and “Keep On Keepin’ On.” The last of those films was, however, nominated for the Humanitas Award.
“Finding Vivian Maier” also won the award for Best Writing, one of the four Creative Recognition awards announced on Wednesday. Others went to “Elevator” for cinematography, “Last Days in Vietnam” for editing and “Alfred and Jakobine” for music.
Also read: Rory Kennedy: ‘We Haven’t Learned the Lessons From Vietnam’
Short film nominations went to Kelly Hucker’s and James Fleming’s “Ghost Train,” Tomasz Sliwinski’s “Our Curse,” Edgar Barens’ “Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall,” Andrew Hinton’s and Johnny Burke’s “Tashi and the Monk” and Manuel Abramovich’s “The Queen.”
In the television categories, nominations included “COSMOS,” “The Sixties” and “Years of Living Dangerously” in the Best Limited Series category, “Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown,” “Morgan Spurlock Inside Man” and “VICE” for Best Episodic Series and “A Short History of the Highrise” and “Op-Docs” for Best Short Form Series.
The IDA Documentary Awards are one of the main honors given to non-fiction filmmaking; most years, two of the IDA’s five nominees go on to receive Oscar nominations.
Also read: Oscar’s Love Affair With Feel-Good Documentaries: Is it Healthy?
In recent nominations for the Gotham Awards, “CitizenFour” and “Point and Shoot” were joined by “Actress,” “Manakamana” and “Life Itself.”
Nominations for the Cinema Eye Honors, the other top award for non-fiction filmmaking, will be announced on Nov. 12.
The IDA Documentary Awards will take place on Friday, Dec. 5 at the Paramount Theater on the Paramount Studios lot in Los Angeles.
The nominations:
BEST FEATURE AWARD
“Citizenfour”
Director: Laura Poitras
RADiUS-TWC, Participant Media, and HBO Documentary Films
“Finding Vivian Maier”
Directors: John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
Sundance Selects
“Point and Shoot”
Director: Marshall Curry
The Orchard
“The Salt of the Earth”
Directors: Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
Sony Pictures Classics
“Tales of the Grim Sleeper”
Director: Nick Broomfield
HBO and SKY ATLANTIC
BEST SHORT AWARD
“Ghost Train”
Directors: Kelly Hucker, James Fleming
Premium Films (France)
“Our Curse”
Director: Tomasz Śliwiński
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall”
Director: Edgar Barens
HBO Documentary Films
“Tashi and the Monk”
Directors: Andrew Hinton & Johnny Burke
“The Queen”
Director: Manuel Abramovich
BEST CURATED SERIES AWARD
“American Experience”
Executive Producer: Mark Samels
Senior Producer: Sharon Grimberg
PBS
“American Masters”
Executive Producer: Susan Lacy
PBS
“Independent Lens”
Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer
Deputy Executive Producer: Lois Vossen
Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with PBS
“POV”
Executive Producer: Simon Kilmurry
Series Producer: Chris White
POV/ PBS
“Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel”
Executive Producer: Rick Bernstein
HBO Sports
BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD
“Chicagoland”
Executive Producers: Mark Benjamin, Marc Levin, Laura Michalchyshyn, Robert Redford
CNN/ BCTV and Sundance Productions
“COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey”
Executive Producers: Brannon Braga, Mitchell Cannold, Ann Druyan, Seth MacFarlane
FOX/ National Geographic Channel
“The Sixties”
Executive Producers: Gary Goeztman, Tom Hanks, Mark Herzog
CNN/ Playtone and Herzog & Co
“Time of Death”
Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Alexandra Lipsitz, Jane Lipsitz
Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood
Showtime
“Years of Living Dangerously”
Executive Producers: Daniel Abbasi, Joel Bach, James Cameron, David Gelber, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jerry Weintraub
Showtime
BEST EPISODIC SERIES AWARD
“Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown”
Executive Producer and Host: Anthony Bourdain
Executive Producers: Chris Collins, Lydia Tenaglia, Sandra Zweig
CNN
“Morgan Spurlock Inside Man”
Executive Producer and Host: Morgan Spurlock
Executive Producers Jeremy Chilnick, Mathew Galkin
Warrior Poets/CNN
“Oprah’s Master Class”
Executive Producers: Jon Kamen, Jonathan Sinclair, Justin Wilkes, Oprah Winfrey
OWN/ Harpo Studios
“Our America with Lisa Ling”
Executive Producers: Amy Bucher, Gregory Henry, Lisa Ling, David Shadrack Smith
OWN
“VICE”
Executive Producer: BJ Levin, Bill Maher, Eddy Moretti, Shane Smith
HBO
BEST SHORT FORM SERIES AWARD
“A Short History of the Highrise”
Executive Producers: Jason Spingarn-Koff, Silva Basmajian
National Film Board of Canada and The New York Times
“Last Chance High”
Executive Producer: Jason Mojica
VICE News
“Op-Docs”
Executive Producer: Jason Spingarn-Koff
The New York Times
“Planet Money Makes a T-shirt”
Executive Producer: Alex Blumberg
NPR
“Russian Roulette”
Executive Producers: Jason Mojica, Kevin Sutcliffe
VICE News
HUMANITAS AWARD
“How I Got Over”
Director: Nicole Boxer
“Keep On Keepin’ On”
Director: Alan Hicks
RADiUS-TWC
“Limited Partnership”
Director: Thomas G. Miller
PBS / Independent Lens
DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD
“Cast in India”
Director: Natasha Raheja
New York University
“Evaporating Borders”
Director: Iva Radivojevic
CUNY – Hunter College
“Hotel 22”
Director: Elizabeth Lo
Stanford University
“My Dad’s a Rocker”
Director: Zuxin Hou
University of Southern California
“Solitary Plains”
Director: J. Christian Jensen
Stanford University
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD
“1971”
Director: Johanna Hamilton
Independent Lens/ PBS
“The Assassination of President Kennedy”
Executive Producers: Gary Goeztman, Tom Hanks, Mark Herzog
CNN/ Playtone and Herzog & Co
“Captivated The Trials of Pamela Smart”
Director: Jeremiah Zagar
HBO Documentary Films
“Concerning Violence”
Director: Göran Hugo Olsson
Kino Lorber
“The Joe Show”
Director: Randy Murray
Investigation Discovery/ Film Buff
CREATIVE RECOGNITION AWARDS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY presented by Canon
“Elevator”
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY: Hatuey Viveros Lavielle
BEST EDITING
“Last Days in Vietnam”
EDITING BY: Don Kleszy
BEST MUSIC
“Alfred and Jakobine”
MUSIC BY: Nick Urata
BEST WRITING
“Finding Vivian Maier”
WRITTEN BY: John Maloof & Charlie Siskel
PARE LORENTZ AWARD
“Tashi and the Monk”
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
EMERGING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AWARD sponsored by Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm
Darius Clark Monroe
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Robert Redford
PIONEER AWARD
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
PRESERVATION AND SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Rithy Panh