No Other Land was the big winner at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Awards last night. The film won three IDA Awards including Best Feature Documentary. The longitudinal portrait of the genocide in Palestine, viewed through the lens of residents resisting forcible displacement, also won Best Director for the Palestinian-Israeli collective of Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, and Rachel Szor. No Other Land also scored the Pare Lorentz Award for films that illuminate urgent issues. Even though No Other Land is among the most widely acclaimed documentaries of 2024, it has yet to land a distributor.
Also scoring three IDA Awards was Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’État. It won prizes for writing, editing, and its use of archival footage. The doc is a multi-layered essay about the collision between African politics and American jazz. It opens theatrically in Toronto in January.
The IDA Awards threw the first big twist of awards season, though, as Sugarcane, which dominated the nominations, left empty handed. The doc by Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat was the only film so far to hit all the precursors to position itself as the Oscar frontrunner: the IDA Awards, CinemaEye Honors, DOC NYC Shortlist, and Critics Choice Awards. (The latter of which shut out No Other Land entirely from their nominations.) With voting for the Oscar shortlists opening December 9, it remains a relatively open and competitive race.
The winners at this year’s IDA Awards are as follows:
Best Feature Documentary
No Other Land (Palestine, Norway, USA | Director: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham | Producer: Fabien Greenberg & bård Kjøge Rønning)
Best Director
Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor & Yuval Abraham, No Other Land (Palestine, Norway, USA)
Best Cinematography
Ruslan Fedotov, Queendom (Greenwich Entertainment | USA, France)
Best Editing
Rik Chaubet, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (Kino Lorber | Belgium, France, Netherlands)
Best Original Music Score
Víctor Hernández Stumpfhauser, Frida (Amazon MGM Studios | USA)
Best Writing
Johan Grimonprez, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État (Kino Lorber | Belgium, France, Netherlands)
Best Music Documentary
Omar & Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird (Oscilloscope Laboratories | USA | Director: Nicolas Jack Davies | Producers: Johann Scheerer)
Best Short Documentary
Instruments of a Beating Heart (Japan | The New York Times Op-Docs | Director: Ema Ryan Yamazaki | Producer: Eric Nyari)
Best TV Feature Documentary
Two American Families: 1991-2024 (PBS | USA | Directors: Tom Casciato, Kathleen Hughes | Producers: Tom Casciato, Kathleen Hughes, Frank Koughan, Nina Chaudry)
Best Curated Series
Independent Lens (PBS | USA | EPs: Lois Vossen, Carrie Lozano)
Best Episodic Series
We’re Here (HBO | Max | USA | Director: Peter LoGreco | Producers: Erin Haglund, Kimberly Greenhut | EP: Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Johnnie Ingram, Stephen Warren, Peter LoGreco, Erin Gamble)
Best Limited Series
A Town Called Victoria (PBS | USA | Director: Li Lu | Producers: Li Lu, Anthony Pedone | EPs: Deniese Davis, Hunter Arnold, Lois Vossen, Rachel Raney, Royd Chung, Donald Young, Stephen Gong, Li Lu)
Best Audio Documentary
“What’s Up, Michael Freeman?” (Ear Hustle and Radiotopia from PRX | USA | Host: Earlonne Woods, Nigel Poor | Engineers: Earlonne Woods, Fernando Arruda, Harry Culhane | USA | Producers: Amy Standen, Bruce Wallace, Rahsaan Thomas)
David L. Wolper Student Documentary
Her Name Was Zehava (NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute | USA, Israel | Director: Tamar Baruch | Producer: Tamar Baruch)
Pare Lorentz Award
No Other Land
ABC NewsSource Award
Soundtrack to a Coup d’État
