Sarah Polley, Seaworld and 'The Act of Killing' Top the IDA Nominees

The International Documentary Association (IDA) aren’t necessarily the most indicative of where the Academy’s documentary branch will go, but they’re important and prestigious so it’s always good to see where their members go. This year’s selection of nominees is quite a highbrow collection with a heavy slant towards politics and activism with three very high profile contenders battling it out against a pair of smaller-scale, yet mightily intimidating, documentaries about prejudice some 30 years apart.

Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Let the Fire Burn
The Square (NYFF review)
Stories We Tell

I am a big fan of Jehane Noujaim’s up-to-the-minute look at the Egyptian democracy crisis, The Square, Gabriela Cowperthwaite’s disturbing look at SeaWorld’s animal cruelty, Blackfish, and Sarah Polley’s fragmented family tree, Stories We Tell, but the other two – sadly, two I have not yet had the chance to catch  are perhaps the most acclaimed of the IDA nominees. It will be interesting to see where this organisation goes when they announce their winners. They can go super mainstream (last year’s Searching for Sugarman) or super arthouse (Nostalgia for the Light in 2011). I’d put my money on Joshua Oppenheimer’s Indonesian genocide doco The Act of Killing, but with so many strong contenders who can tell?

'Blackfish' not 'Rust and Bone'

It is worth noting that all five nominees are on that epic 151 title-long list of Oscar-eligible docs along with contenders from two other IDA categories as well as the recipient of the special “Pare Lorentz Award”.

Humanitas Award
Anton's Right Here
Blood Brother (Director’s interview)
Let the Fire Burn
The Square

Pare Lorentz Award
A Place at the Table

ABCNews Videosource Award
All the President's Men Revisited
Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
Let the Fire Burn
The Trials of Muhammad Ali
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks

The only titles listed that aren’t eligible for Oscar are All the Presidents Men Revisited and Anton’s Right Here, neither of which I had heard of before today. Furthermore, I can’t say I’m a fan of Steve Hooper’s Blood Brother, but it showed up in the right category at least. This year has been a rather incredible one for documentaries – although maybe it’s just because I’ve been exposed to so many more now living in New York City – so I’m not surprised to see the year’s highest grossing doc, the feel-good 20 Feet to Stardom, not get a citation. I’ve long suspected the Academy will follow suit.

One last factoid: the only of the IDA’s documentary shorts to cross over with the Academy’s shortlist is Joshua Izenberg’s Slomo. Could certainly do worse than chalking that one up for a nomination at this stage.

Comments

[will h]

Oh, man. You don't need me to tell you that you need to see The Act of Killing, but, ya know, you need to see The Act of Killing. Haven't seen anything like it. Disturbing.

[NATHANIEL R]

every day brings me one day closer to finally watching STORIES WE TELL. what's the hold up? I mean besides too little time in the world to see everythign.

[CMG]

The selections seem right but I have an uneasy sense that Blackfish is going to sweep its category a la Searching for Sugarman.

There was a good panel about docs/non-fiction films. It made me wonder about how critics look at advocacy docs like Blackfish and sometimes tying personal feelings about a hot-button issue as opposed to what that doc is doing formally or structurally.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/do-critics-understand-documentaries

I really like The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell because of their structure and the way the present the documentary form in different but specific ways that to me a doc like Blackfish is far too tied down to remedial basics.

[Jordan]

Nathaniel, it's my favorite film of the year thus far. You must watch!

[Ryan T.]

Recently saw STORIES WE TELL and I love it so.

[Evan]

Nathaniel, Stories We Tell is about an actress. Need I say more?

[Glenn]

Will, I've been waiting for it play at a better cinema than the one it played at here in New York. It's at MoMA in a few weeks so I'll be there.

I agree that BLACKFISH could prove the popular middle. I mean, it'll be hard to get people to watch the 3-hour foreign documentary about war crimes, but everybody can have an easy opinion on BLACKFISH.