Joshua Oppenheimer‘s “The Look of Silence,” a companion piece to his Oscar-nominated 2012 documentary “The Act of Killing,” was named the best documentary of 2015 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards on Saturday night.
The film, which follows the family of a victim of the mass killings in Indonesia in the 1960s as they confront one of the perpetrators, beat a field that included “Amy,” “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution,” “Listen to Me Marlon,” “The Russian Woodpecker” and “What Happened, Miss Simone?”
“The Look of Silence” recently made the 15-film Oscar shortlist in the documentary feature category, as did “Amy,” “Listen to Me Marlon” and “What Happened, Miss Simone?,” and it is taking on the status of a slight frontrunner in a competitive field.
Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman’s animated doc “Last Day of Freedom” was named best short.
The ABC News VideoSource Award, which goes to the best use of archival footage, went to Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville‘s film about the Gore Vidal/William F. Buckley debates, “Best of Enemies.”
In television categories, Best Curated Series was a tie between “Independent Lens” and “POV,” while the Best Limited Series award went to Andrew Jarecki‘s nonfiction miniseries “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst.”
The Best Episodic Series and Best Short Form Series awards went to “Chef’s Table” and “Do Not Track,” respectively. Benjamin Huget won the student documentary award for “The Archipelago.”
Several awards had been previously announced, with “How to Change the World” winning the Pare Lorentz Award and creative recognition honors going to “The Russian Woodpecker” for cinematography, “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” for editing, “Listen to Me Marlon” for writing and “Best of Enemies” for music.
Matthew Heineman, the director of “Cartel Land,” received the Courage Under Fire Award, while “(T)ERROR” directors Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe received the Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award.
In the honorary awards, veteran documentarian Gordon Quinn was given the Career Achievement Award, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos the Pioneer Award and Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation the Amicus Award.
The ceremony took place in the Paramount Theatre on the Paramount Pictures lot and was hosted by comic Tig Notaro.
The winners:
Best Feature: “The Look of Silence,” Joshua Oppenheimer
Best Short: “Last Day of Freedom,” Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman
Pare Lorentz Award: “How to Change the World,” Jerry Rothwell
Creative Recognition Award Winners
Best Cinematography: “The Russian Woodpecker,” Artem Ryzhykov
Best Editing: “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” Joe Beshenkovsky and Brett Morgen
Best Writing: “Listen to Me Marlon,” Stevan Riley
Best Music: “Best of Enemies,” Jonathan Kirkscey
ABC News VideoSource Award: “Best of Enemies,” Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville
Best Curated Series: “Independent Lens,” Sally Jo Fifer and Lois Vossen; “POV,” Simon Kilmurry and Chris White
Best Limited Series: “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” Jason Blum, Zac Stuart-Pontier, Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling
Best Episodic Series: “Chef’s Table,” David Gelb and Andrew Fried
Best Short Form Series: “Do Not Track,” Hugues Sweeney
David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award: “The Archipelago,” Benjamin Huguet
Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award: Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe
Courage Under Fire Award: Matthew Heineman
Career Achievement Award: Gordon Quinn
Pioneer Award: Ted Sarandos
Amicus Award: Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation