International Documentary Association Announces 2004 Award Winners

International Documentary Association Announces 2004 Award Winners BORN INTO BROTHELS and FAHRENHEIT 9/11 Take Top Honors LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced today that BORN INTO BROTHELS, FAHRENHEIT 9/11, MIGHTY TIMES VOL. 2: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH, THE NEW AMERICANS, AMERICAN MASTERS, OIL ON ICE, and IMELDA took top honors in the 20th annual IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards competition. The award presentations will be made on December 10 during the IDA Awards Gala Benefit at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theatre in Hollywood. BORN INTO BROTHELS and FAHRENHEIT 9/11 shared top honors in the Feature competition. BORN INTO BROTHELS follows a group of resilient children from Calcutta's red light district trying to escape a doomed future. They embark on a transformational journey with New York-based photographer Zana Briski. The film was co-directed by Briski and Ross Kauffman. FAHRENHEIT 9/11 is director-producer Michael Moore's examination of the Bush administration's actions in the wake of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. During its opening weekend, FAHRENHEIT 9/11 became the highest-grossing documentary of all time. MIGHTY TIMES VOLUME 2: THE CHILDREN'S MARCH took top honors in the Short category (films under 40-minutes). This film was co-directed and co-produced by Robert Hudson and Bobby Houston. It revisits 1963 when intense intimidation by civic authorities in Birmingham, Alabama left the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King floundering until thousands of children and students joined the fight. THE NEW AMERICANS, executive produced by Steve James and Gordon Quinn, won the Limited Series competition for segments of a series with a specific continuing theme or subject. This series follows immigrants and refugees from countries such as Nigeria, India, and Mexico through their first years in America. AMERICAN MASTERS won the Continuing Series competition for documentaries that are part of an ongoing series. Launched in 1984 by executive producer Susan Lacy, this series explores the lives of America's most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers. OIL ON ICE, from directors-producers Bo Boudart and Dale Djerassi, earned the 2004 Pare Lorentz Award. The award is presented to one or more individuals whose work best represents the democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision of the legendary documentarian. OIL ON ICE examines the battle over oil development within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. IMELDA took top honors in the IDA/ABCNEWS VideoSource competition, which recognizes filmmakers who make the best use of historic news footage to tell a non-fiction story. In IMELDA, director-producer Ramona S. Diaz explores the complex persona of former Philippines First Lady Imelda Marcos. This is the second year the IDA will present the Jacqueline Donnet Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award to an individual who has made at least one documentary and shows great promise. The jury selected both Jonathan Caouette and Jehane Noujaim as recipients this year. Caouette was selected for his debut feature TARNATION. Noujaim's credits include STARTUP.COM, Born Rich, and Control Room. IDA has some 3,000 members in 50 countries today. For more a complete list of nominees and/or more information about the 2004 IDA Awards and DocuFest visit www.documentary.org or call 213-534-3600, ext 0. Source: International Documentary Association CONTACT: Sally Christgau or Lisa Muldowney, both of CCS PR, +1-760-438-5250, CCSPR@aol.com, for International Documentary Association Web site: http://www.documentary.org/ ------- Profile: International Entertainment