‘Citizenfour’ Wins Best Feature Award from International Documentary Association
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Laura Poitras’ Edward Snowden documentary “Citizenfour” has won the International Documentary Association’s award for best feature.
Poitras received the award Friday night in ceremonies at the Paramount lot.
“What he did was probably the most extraordinary act I’ve ever seen so we could know more as citizens,” Poitras said in her acceptance.
Poitras met Snowden while working on a documentary about governmental surveillance in the post-9/11 era. She began receiving emails from “citizenfour,” who wrote, “I am a senior government employee in the intelligence community. I hope you understand that contacting you was extremely high-risk.”
Poitras and reporter Glenn Greenwald journeyed to Hong Kong to meet with the person she had been corresponding with, who turned out to be Snowden. Snowden ultimately handed over top-secret documents that revealed covert surveillance programs run by the NSA.
“Citizenfour” won over “Finding Vivian Maier,” “Point and Shoot,” “The Salt of the Earth” and “Tales of the Grim Sleeper.”
“Citizenfour,” which is on the short list of films for the Oscar, won the Gotham Award this week for best documentary, just hours after winning the New York Film Critics Award.
The best short award went to “Tashi and the Monk,” directed by Johnny Burke and Andrew Hinton. It also won the Pare Lorentz Award, which recognizes films focusing on environmental and social issues. The film explores the relationship of Buddhist monk Lobsang Phuntsok and his 5-year-old charge Tashi Drolma.
Carol Leifer is getting big laughs as MC at the IDA awards; advises no thanking of agents, kids and God
— Dave McNary (@Variety_DMcNary) December 6, 2014
Carol Leifer hosted the event, which included presentation a career achievement award to Robert Redford presented to Barbara Kopple — who recalled that she had served on the initial documentary jury at he Sundance Film Festival.
Redford noted that there was initial opposition to docs screening at Sundance. “Nobody votes for a new idea; you have grind it out,” he added.
Redford said that documentaries contain the value of providing a calm counterpoint amid “so much anger and fear,” adding that their value was demonstrated by “Snowden reaching out to Laura Poitras to tell his story.”
'Where do you find the truth? That's where documentaries come in' – Robert Redford #IDA
— Dave McNary (@Variety_DMcNary) December 6, 2014
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, founders of World of Wonder Productions, were presented with the IDA’s pioneer award. Monica Lewinsky, the subject of their film 2002 “Monica in Black and White,” presented the trophy and said the duo manged to gain her trust at a time when she trusted few people.
Rithy Panh, the co-founder of the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and the director of “The Missing Picture,” received the preservation and scholarship award for his efforts to illuminate the genocide in his nation during the late 1970s.
“I don’t know if documentary film can change the world but it can offer that possibility,” he told the audience.
The IDA had held the ceremonies at the Directors Guild of America in recent years.
Festive setting for the International Documentary Association Awards show at Paramount #IDA pic.twitter.com/A5ZoTg134v
— Dave McNary (@Variety_DMcNary) December 6, 2014
2014 IDA Documentary Awards Honorees and Winners
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Robert Redford
PIONEER AWARD
Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato
PRESERVATION AND SCHOLARSHIP AWARD
Rithy Panh
EMERGING DOCUMENTARY FILMMAKER AWARD sponsored by Red Fire Films and Modern VideoFilm
Darius Clark Monroe
BEST FEATURE AWARD
CITIZENFOUR
Director: Laura Poitras
RADiUS-TWC, Participant Media, and
HBO Documentary Films
BEST SHORT AWARD
TASHI AND THE MONK
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
HBO Documentary Films
BEST CURATED SERIES AWARD
INDEPENDENT LENS
Executive Producer: Sally Jo Fifer
Deputy Executive Producer: Lois Vossen
Independent Television Service (ITVS) in association with PBS
BEST LIMITED SERIES AWARD
TIME OF DEATH
Executive Producers: Cynthia Childs, Dan Cutforth, Casey Kriley, Jane Lipsitz, Alexandra Lipsitz
Co-Executive Producer: Miggi Hood, Sandy Shapiro
Showtime
BEST EPISODIC SERIES AWARD
OUR AMERICA WITH LISA LING
Executive Producers: Amy Bucher, Gregory Henry, Lisa Ling, David Shadrack Smith
OWN
BEST SHORT FORM SERIES AWARD
PLANET MONEY MAKES A T-SHIRT
Executive Producer: Alex Blumberg
NPR
DAVID L. WOLPER STUDENT DOCUMENTARY AWARD
MY DAD’S A ROCKER
Director: Zuxin Hou
University of Southern California
HUMANITAS DOCUMENTARY AWARD
LIMITED PARTNERSHIP
Director: Thomas G. Miller
PBS / Independent Lens
PARE LORENTZ AWARD
TASHI AND THE MONK
Directors: Andrew Hinton, Johnny Burke
HBO Documentary Films
ABCNEWS VIDEOSOURCE AWARD
1971
Director: Johanna Hamilton
Independent Lens/ PBS
CREATIVE RECOGNITION AWARD WINNERS
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY presented by Canon
ELEVATOR
Cinematography By: Hatuey Viveros Lavielle
BEST EDITING
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM
Editing By: Don Kleszy
BEST MUSIC
ALFRED AND JAKOBINE
Music By: Nick Urata
BEST WRITING
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
Written By: John Maloof & Charlie Siskel
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