Now in its 40th year, the International Documentary Association (IDA) announced its three honorary awards on Wednesday, which will be presented at the organization’s annual gala on Dec. 5 at the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles.
American documentary filmmaker Dawn Porter will receive the Career Achievement Award. After working as a litigator before moving into filmmaking, she has directed eight feature documentaries over the past decade, including “Gideon’s Army” and “John Lewis: Good Trouble.”
Journalist, activist and director Shiori Itō, whose recent film “Black Box Diaries” chronicled her own sexual assault investigation against a newspaper publisher in Japan, will receive the Emerging Filmmaker Award.
Additionally, the four directors of this year’s “No Other Land” — the Israeli-Palestinian collective of Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham — will be presented with the Courage Under Fire Award. The doc was filmed over a five-year period in Palestine’s West Bank. The widely acclaimed feature has been screened at film festivals in Berlin, Copenhagen, Toronto, New York and Busan.
“We are delighted to gather the documentary community and friends at the beautiful Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles to celebrate the best work we have seen this year,” said Dominic Asmall Willsdon, executive director of IDA. “And to honor with special awards the incredible Dawn Porter, Shiori Itō, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham.”
The 40th annual IDA Documentary Awards will be held on Dec. 5. The show will be streamed live on IDA’s social media channels.
