Winners Announced in Five Categories for 2006 International Documentary Association Awards

The winners will be feted here at the 2006 IDA Awards Gala Benefit on December 8 at the Directors Guild of America West Theatre.

“Each of these documentaries tells a compelling story about an important subject in a memorable way,” says IDA President diane estelle Vicari. “They were chosen by a jury of peers out of hundreds of exceptional films submitted from every part of the world. These filmmakers have earned the respect and admiration of our members.”

American Experience, now in its 18th season, captured the IDA Award for a Continuing Series (four individual programs that best represent the series). The PBS show brings to life the incredible characters and epic stories that formed this nation. Programs included a closer look at David Vetter, a.k.a “the boy in the bubble,” playwright Eugene O’Neill, presidential couple John and Abigail Adams, and the city of Las Vegas. Mark Samels is the executive producer and Sharon Grimberg is the series producer.

The Limited Series (series of episodes with a specific continuing theme) winner is Discovery Times’ Off to War. It follows 57 men from Clarksville, Arkansas, who left their jobs and their families and went to Iraq as members of the 39th Infantry Brigade with the Arkansas National Guard. Over the course of a year, the filmmaking team of brothers Brent and Craig Renaud, born and raised in Little Rock, followed the members of the unit through their call-up, deployment and service, while simultaneously documenting the lives of their loved ones back at home.

IDA will present the ABCNEWS VideoSource Award to director/producer/executive producer Stanley Nelson for Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple. The award is given to the documentary that best utilizes television news footage as an integral component of the work. The film tells the story of the people who followed Jim Jones from Indiana to California and finally to the remote jungles of Guyana, South America, in a misbegotten quest to build an ideal society.

The IDA will present Quinn with the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which goes to an individual who has made at least one documentary and shows great promise. Quinn’s documentary GOD GREW TIRED OF US won both the grand jury prize and the audience award for documentary feature at Sundance. The film chronicles the experiences of three Sudanese lost boys as they work to adjust to a strange new world after seeking refuge in the United States.

The David L. Wolper Student Documentary Achievement Award will go to University of California, Berkeley graduate Lozano for i>Reporter Zero. The film is about journalist Randy Shilts’ groundbreaking AIDS reporting. Shilts, the nation’s first openly gay reporter at a major media outlet, reported from the frontlines of the AIDS crisis, sounding larms in the San Francisco Chronicle and in his best-selling book And the Band Played On.

The winners in the Feature and Short film categories will be announced live during the IDA Awards Benefit Gala. A list of the films nominated in these categories is available at www.documentary.org.

Eastman Kodak Company has sponsored the IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards Gala since its inception in 1984. The IDA Awards major sponsor is Netflix, and the presenting sponsor is ABCNEWS VideoSource. Supporting sponsors are Heineken, Grey Goose, Sunstone Winery, Aquarius, The Los Angeles Film & Television Office of the French Embassy, Daily Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Directors Guild of America (DGA).