IDA Documentary Awards

NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT by Patricio Guzman was the top winner at the International Documentary Association Documentary Awards this week. The film, a French/Chile/German co-production, is set in Chile’s Atacama Desert, where astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life, while nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet’s regime. The film, which won the European Film Academy Award for Best Documentary last year, has been a favorite on the international film festival circuit playing at over 40 events. POSTER GIRL, produced by HBO Documentary Films, won the Best Short Documentary prize, while veteran documentarian Les Blank was honored with a Career Achievement Award for a career that spans five decades of short films and features with a particular regional twang. Danfung Dennis, the director of TO HELL AND BACK, was honored with the Emerging Filmmaker Award. The full list of honorees is listed below.

2011 IDA DOCUMENTARY AWARDS

• BEST FEATURE AWARD: NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (Patricio Guzmán, France/Chile/Germany)
• BEST SHORT AWARD: POSTER GIRL (Sara Nesson, USA)
• BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD: BOOMTOWN (Discovery Channel)
• BEST CONTINUING SERIES AWARD: POV (Public Broadcasting Service)
• DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD: GUAÑAPE SUR
• HUMANITAS DOCUMENTARY AWARD: POSITION AMONG THE STARS (Leonard Retel Helmrich, The Netherlands)
• ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD: THE PRUITT-IGOE MYTH (Chad Freidrichs)
• PARE LORENTZ AWARD: THE LAST MOUNTAIN (Bill Haney)
• BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: IL CASTELLO (Massimo D’Anolfi)
• BEST EDITING: SENNA (Chris King & Gregers Sall)
• BEST MUSIC: BETTER THIS WORLD (Paul Brill)

FFT Webmaster

The FFT Webmaster use displays whenever an article has multiple authors. It also pops up on articles from old versions of Film Festival Today. The original author byline might be missing! In that case, if you are the author of such an article and see this bio instead of your own, please send us an email. Some of our contributors that might be missing bylines are: Brad Balfour, Laura Blum, and Sandy Mandelberger, among others.