‘Boys State,’ ’76 Days,’ ‘Truffle Hunters’ Shortlisted for IDA Documentary Awards

The heavily international list also includes “Gunda,” “MLK/FBI” and “Welcome to Chechnya”

By Steve Pond

The International Documentary Association has announced a shortlist of 30 films from which it will choose its nominations for the 2020 IDA Documentary Awards, with a list that includes “76 Days,” “Boys State,” “Crip Camp,” “MLK/FBI,” “The Reason I Jump,” “The Truffle Hunters,” “Time” and “Welcome to Chechnya.”

The list also included a generous helping of foreign-made docs, including “Notturno,” “Acasa, My Home,” “Collective,” “The Earth Is Blue as an Orange,” “Gunda,” “Me and the Cult Leader,” “A Metamorfose dos Passaros,” “Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” and “Softie.”

The rest of the list: “City Hall,” “Disclosure,” “The Forbidden Reel,” “I Walk on Water,” “The Mole Agent,” “Reunited,” “Self Portrait,” “Stray,” “‘Til Kingdom Come,” “To See You Again,” “Unapologetic,” “The Viewing Booth” and “Wintopia.”

The shortlisted films present a dramatically different view of the year in nonfiction filmmaking than the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, which were announced on Monday. Only three films — “Crip Camp,” “Gunda” and “Time” – were among the 30 docs shortlisted by the IDA and the 14 nominated in the top category by the Critics Choice voters.

The 11 films that were nominated by Critics Choice but not shortlisted by the IDA include “Dick Johnson Is Dead,” “The Fight,” “The Social Dilemma,” “The Painter and the Thief” and “Athlete A,” while both organizations bypassed the high-profile docs “All In: The Fight for Democracy,” “The Dissident,” “Totally Under Control” and “The Way I See It.”

Netflix, Magnolia, POV and the National Film Board of Canada each placed two films on the shortlist. No other company had more than one, although HBO and HBO Europe each had one.

The IDA also announced a 15-film shortlist devoted to documentary shorts, including three from New York Times Op-Docs: “Huntsville Station,” “Hysterical Girl” and “The Lost Astronaut.”

The shortlist is compiled by committees in the IDA, an organization that was founded in 1982 to support nonfiction filmmaking. Additional committee will select up to 10 films from the shortlists to become IDA Documentary Award nominees.

The nominations will be announced on Nov. 24, with select honorees announced prior to that, on Nov. 10. The winners will be announced at a virtual ceremony on an unspecified date in January.

The shortlists:

IDA Documentary Awards 2020 Features Shortlist

“76 Days” (USA, China / MTV Documentary Films. Directors: Anonymous, Weixi Chen. Director/Producer: Hao Wu. Producer: Jean Tsien)

“Acasa, My Home” (Romania, Germany, Finland / Manifest Film, HBO Europe. Director: Radu Ciorniciuc. Producer: Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan)

“Boys State” (USA / Apple, A24. Directors/Producers: Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss)

“City Hall” (USA / Zipporah Films, Inc. Director: Frederick Wiseman. Producer: Karen Konicek)

“Collective” (Romania / Magnolia Pictures, Participant. Director/Producer: Alexander Nanau. Producer: Bianca Oana)

“Crip Camp” (USA / Netflix. Directors/Producers: Jim LeBrecht, Nicole Newnham. Producer: Sara Bolder)

“Disclosure” (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Sam Feder. Producer: Amy Scholder)

“The Earth is Blue as an Orange” (Ukraine, Lithuania / TVP. Director: Iryna Tsilyk. Producers: Anna Kapustina, Giedre Zickyte)

“The Forbidden Reel” (Canada / National Film Board of Canada. Director: Ariel Nasr. Producers: Kat Baulu, Sergeo Kirby)

“Gunda” (Norway, USA / NEON. Director: Victor Kossakovsky. Producer: Anita Rehoff Larsen)

“I Walk on Water” (USA / Grasshopper Film. Director: Khalik Allah. Producers: Sofian Khan, Vikki Tobak)

“Me and the Cult Leader” (Japan. Director/Producer: Atsushi Sakahara. Producers: Pearl Chan, Matsuo Etsuko)

“A Metamorfose dos Passaros” (Portugal / Portugal Film – Portuguese Film Agency. Director: Catarina Vasconcelos. Producers: Pedro Fernandes Duarte, Joana Gusmão)

“MLK/FBI” (USA / IFC Films. Director: Sam Pollard. Producer: Benjamin Hedin)

“The Mole Agent” (Chile, Germany, USA / POV, Hulu, Gravitas Ventures. Director: Maite Alberdi. Producer: Marcela Santibanez)

“Notturno” (Italy, France, Germany. Director/Producer: Gianfranco Rosi. Producers: Camille Laemle, Serge Lalou, Orwa Nyrabia, Donatella Palermo, Eva-Maria Weerts)

“Once Upon a Time in Venezuela” (Venezuela, UK, Brazil / Cargo Film Releasing. Director: Anabel Rodríguez Ríos. Producer: Sepp Brudermann)

“The Reason I Jump” (USA, UK / Kino Lorber. Director: Jerry Rothwell. Producers: Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee, Al Morrow)

“Reunited” (Denmark. Director: Mira Jargil. Producer: Kirstine Barfod)

“Self Portrait” (Norway. Directors: Katja Hogset, Margreth Olin, Espen Wallin. Director/Producer: Margreth Olin)

“Softie” (Kenya / POV. Director/Producer: Sam Soko. Producer: Toni Kamau)

“Stray” (USA / Magnolia Pictures. Director/Producer: Elizabeth Lo. Producers: Shane Boris, Ceylan Carhoglu, Ina Fichman)

“‘Til Kingdom Come” (Israel, UK, Norway / IPBC Kan, NDR. Director/Producer: Maya Zinshtein. Producers: John Battsek, Abraham (Abie) Troen)

“Time” (USA / Amazon Studios, Concordia Studio, The New York Times. Director/Producer: Garrett Bradley. Producers: Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn)

“To See You Again” (Mexico. Director: Carolina Corral Paredes. Producer: Magali Rocha Donnadieu)

“The Truffle Hunters” (USA / Sony Pictures Classics. Directors/Producers: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw)

“Unapologetic” (USA. Director/Producer: Ashley O’Shay. Producer: Morgan Elise Johnson)

“The Viewing Booth” (Israel, USA / ro*co films, Temple University, Channel 8 (Israel). Director/Producer: Ra’anan Alexandrowicz. Producer: Liran Atzmor)

“Welcome to Chechnya” (USA / HBO. Director: David France. Producers: David France and Alice Henty)

“Wintopia” (Canada / National Film Board of Canada. Director: Mira Burt-Wintonick. Producers: Annette Clarke, Bob Moore)

IDA Documentary Awards 2020 Shorts Shortlist

“Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa” (USA / Woman Make Movies. Directors/Producers: Barbara Attie, Mike Attie, Janet Goldwater)
“All That Perishes at the Edge of Land” (Pakistan. Director/Producer: Hira Nabi. Producer: Till Passow)
“Call Center Blues” (USA, Mexico / TOPIC. Director: Geeta Gandbhir. Producer: Jessica Devaney)
“Eddy’s World” (USA. Director/Producer: Lyn Goldfarb. Producers: Jannat Gargi, Daniel Zimbaldi)
“Huntsville Station” (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Directors/Producers: Chris Filippone, Jamie Meltzer)
“Hysterical Girl” (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Director: Kate Novack. Producer:` Andrew Rossi)
“John Was Trying to Contact Aliens” (USA / Netflix. Director/Producer: Matthew Killip)
“The Lost Astronaut” (USA / NY Times Op-Docs. Director: Ben Proudfoot. Producers: Abby Lynn Kang Davis, Gabriel Berk Godoi)
“Mizuko” (USA, Japan. Directors/Producers: Kira Dane, Katelyn Rebelo)
“Racially Charged: America’s Misdemeanor Problem” (USA. Director: Robert Greenwald. Producers: Casey Cooper Johnson, Jim Miller)
“song o day” (USA / University of California, Santa Cruz. Director/Producer: Melanie Ho)
“To Calm the Pig Inside” (Ang Pagpakalma sa Unos) (Philippines. Director/Producer: Joanna Vasquez Arong)
“Tutwiler”(USA / Frontline, PBS, The Marshall Project, American Documentary, WORLD Channel. Director: Elaine McMillion Sheldon. Producer: Alysia Santo)
“Unforgivable” (El Salvador. Director/Producer: Marlen Vinayo. Producer: Carlos Martinez)
“Virtually Free” (USA. Director: Andre Robert Lee. Producers: Alexandra Blaney, Susan MacLaury)