The International Documentary Association has announced 29 features and 17 shorts from which it will choose the nominees for the 2021 IDA Documentary Awards.
The films were chosen by IDA committees from 314 submitted features and 137 eligible short films. Additional committees will narrow the semi-finalists to as many as 10 films in each category, with the nominations being announced on Nov. 15.
The feature shortlist includes many of the year’s most-honored documentaries, including Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s “Summer of Soul,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s “Flee” and Jessica Kingdon’s “Ascension.” Three of the films – Orlando von Einsiedel’s “Convergence: Courage in a Crisis,” Nanfu Wang’s “In the Same Breath” and Yung Chang’s “Wuhan Wuhan” – deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Notable documentaries that are missing from the shortlist include “The Rescue,” “Attica,” “Becoming Cousteau,” “My Name Is Pauli Murray,” “Introducing, Selma Blair,” “The Lost Leonardo” and “Procession.”
The IDA Awards will take place on the Paramount Studios lot on Saturday, Feb. 5.
See the full lists of features and shorts below.
Features Shortlist:
“Ailey” (USA / NEON. Director: Jamila Wignot. Producer: Lauren DeFilippo.)
“Apenas el sol” (“Nothing but the Sun”) (Switzerland, Paraguay/ Film republic. Director/Producer: Arami Ullón. Producer: Pascal Trächslin.)
“Ascension” (USA. Director/Producer: Jessica Kingdon. Producers: Kira Simon-Kennedy, Nathan Truesdell.)
“Black Power: A British Story of Resistance” (United Kingdom / Amazon Studios. Director: George Amponsah. Producer: Helen Bart.)
“Can You Bring It: Bill T. Jones and D-Man in the Waters” (USA / Kino Lorber. Director: Tom Hurwitz. Director/Producer: Rosalynde LeBlanc. Producer: Duana C. Butler.)
“Charm Circle” (USA. Director/Producer: Nira Burstein. Producer: Betsy Laikin.)
“Convergence: Courage in a Crisis” (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Orlando von Einsiedel. Producers: Dan Cogan, Liz Garbus, Amy Hobby, Laura McNaught.)
“Eyes on the Prize: Hallowed Ground” (USA / HBO Max. Director: Sophia Nahli Allison.)
“Faya Dayi” (Ethiopia, USA, Qatar / Janus Films. Director/Producer: Jessica Beshir.)
“Flee” (Denmark, France, Norway / NEON. Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Producers: Monica Hellstrӧm,Signe Byrge Sørensen.)
“Fruits of Labor” (USA / Grasshopper Films, POV. Director/Producer: Emily Cohen Ibañez.)
“In the Same Breath” (USA, China / HBO, HBO Max. Director/Producer: Nanfu Wang. Producers: Jialing Zhang, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn.)
“Jacinta” (USA / Hulu, ABC News. Director: Jessica Earnshaw. Producers: Jessica Earnshaw, Holly Meehl, Nimisha Mukerji.)
“Life of Crime 1984-2020” (USA / HBO, HBO Max. Director/Producer: Jon Alpert. Producers: Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller.)
“Miguel’s War” (Lebanon, Germany, Spain. Director/Producer: Eliane Raheb.)
“North By Current” (USA / POV. Director/Producer: Angelo Madsen Minax. Producer: Felix Endara.)
“Not Going Quietly” (USA / Greenwich Entertainment. Director: Nicholas Bruckman. Producer: Amanda Roddy.)
“President” (Denmark, USA, Norway. Director: Camilla Nielsson. Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen, Joslyn Barnes.)
“Rebel Hearts” (USA / discovery+. Director: Pedro Kos. Producers: Kira Carstensen, Shawnee Isaac-Smith, Judy Korin.)
“So Late So Soon” (USA / Oscilloscope Laboratories. Director: Daniel Hymanson. Producers: Trace Henderson, Josh Penn, Kellen Quinn, Noah Stahl.)
“Storm Lake” (USA / Independent Lens. Director: Beth Levison, Jerry Risius. Producer: Beth Levison.)
“Summer of Soul” (USA / Hulu, Searchlight Pictures. Director: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson. Producers: Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent, David Dinerstein.)
“Taming the Garden” (Switzerland, Germany, Georgia. Director/Producer: Salomé Jashi. Producers: Vadim Jendreyko, Erik Winker, Martin Roelly.)
“This Stained Dawn” (Pakistan, Canada. Director/Producer: Anam Abbas.)
“Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre” (USA / History. Director/Producers: Stanley Nelson, Marco Williams. Producer: Julie Sisson.)
“Who Are You, Charlie Brown?” (USA / Apple TV+. Director: Michael Bonfiglio. Producers: Kimberly Small, Marcella Steingart.)
“Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker” (USA / Kino Lorber. Director: Chris McKim. Producers: Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey.)
“Writing With Fire” (India / ITVS, Music Box. Director/Producers: Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh.)
“Wuhan Wuhan” (USA / Starlight Media Inc., SA Inc., Kartemquin Films. Director: Yung Chang. Producers: Peter Luo, Donna Gigliotti, Diane Quon.)
Shorts Shortlist:
“A Broken House” (USA, Lebanon / Condé Nast Entertainment, The New Yorker, POV. Director/Producer: Jimmy Goldblum. Producers: Matt Weaver, Harrison Nalevansky.)
“Águilas” (USA / The New Yorker. Director/Producers: Kristy Guevara-Flanagan, Maite Zubiaurre.)
“Ain’t No Time For Women” (Canada / Travelling. Director: Sarra El Abed. Producer: Isabelle Grignon-Francke)
“Day of Rage: How Trump Supporters Took the U.S. Capitol” (USA / The New York Times. Directors: Malachy Browne, David Botti. Producers: Haley Willis, Christiaan Triebert, Evan Hill, Cora Engelbrecht, Stella Cooper.)
“E14” (United Kingdom / Fifth Season LTD. Director: Peiman Zekavat. Producer: Sanam Jehanfard.)
“Joe Buffalo” (Canada / Condé Nast Entertainment, The New Yorker. Director/Producer: Amar Chebib. Producers: Hayley Morin, Mack Stannard)
“Joychild” (USA / The New Yorker, Stanford University. Director/Producer: Aurora Brachman)
“Kalsubai” (India / Film and Television Institute of India. Director: Yudhajit Basu)
“The Last Cruise” (USA / HBO Max. Director/Producer: Hannah Olson. Producers: Shane Boris, Joe Beshenkovsky, James A Smith.)
“Open Shutters” (USA, Republic of Korea / Field of Vision. Director/Producer: Do Youjin.)
“Red Taxi” (USA, Hong Kong / Field of Vision. Director/Producer: Anonymous)
“same/different/both/neither” (Brazil / Photogram Films Distribution. Director/Producer: Adriana Barbosa, Fernanda Pessoa.)
“The Seeker” (USA / Topic. Director: Lance Edmands. Producers: Kyle Martin, Sarah Tihany.)
“Senior Prom” (USA / PBS, Independent Lens. Director/Producer: Luisa Conlon. Producer: Jessica Chermayeff.)
“Since you arrived, my heart stopped belonging to me” (“Desde que llegaste, mi corazón dejó de pertenecerme”) (USA / The New Yorker. Director/Producer: Erin Semine Kökdil)
“Status Pending” (USA / Al Jazeera English – Witness. Director: Priscilla Gonzalez Sainz. Producer: Laura Reich.)
“Takeover” (USA. Director: Emma Francis-Snyder. Producer: Tony Gerber.)