Pennebaker and Hegedus to Receive IDA Career Achievement Award

Pennebaker and Hegedus to Receive IDA Career Achievement Award

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus will receive the International Documentary Association (IDA) 2005 Career Achievement Award. The husband and wife who frequently collaborate on non-fiction film projects will be feted during the 21st Annual IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards Benefit Gala here on December 9 at the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theater.

"D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus richly deserve this recognition from their peers," says IDA Executive Director Sandra Ruch. "They are principled, dedicated and talented storytellers whose films have made a positive difference in our world."

Pennebaker and Hegedus have collaborated on such award-winning films as THE WAR ROOM, ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY and JIMI PLAYS MONTEREY. Their other joint credits include TOWN BLOODY HALL, DELOREAN, ROCKABY, DEPECHE MODE 101, WOODSTOCK DIARY, MOON OVER BROADWAY and DOWN FROM THE MOUNTAIN. He has compiled more than 30 credits as a director, cinematographer, editor and producer. She has collected more than 20 credits as a director, cinematographer and occasional sound person.

Their other collaborations include DELOREAN, a profile of the automobile entrepreneur John DeLorean; ROCKABY, a document of the staging and performance of Samuel Beckett's play; and DANCE BLACK AMERICA, a record of a four-day festival celebrating African-American dance. THE WAR ROOM, a behind-the-scenes look at Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign, received a 1994 Academy Award(R) nomination for Best Documentary and won the National Board of Review's D.W. Griffith Award. The New York Times cited their 1998 film, MOON OVER BROADWAY, about Carol Burnett's return to the stage as the Best Documentary of the Year.

In 2002, Hegedus was awarded the prestigious Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary for STARTUP.COM, which was produced by Pennebaker and co-directed with Jehane Noujaim. The film was also awarded the IDA's Distinguished Documentary Award.

Last year, their film ELAINE STRITCH AT LIBERTY premiered on HBO. It earned three Emmy(R) Awards including Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special and Outstanding Direction for a Variety, Music or Comedy Program.

Pennebaker and Hegedus, who have been married since 1982, join a prestigious group of previous IDA Career Achievement Award recipients, including Ken Burns, Frederick Wiseman, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Charles Guggenheim, David Wolper, Michael Apted, Walter Cronkite, Bill Moyers, Fred Friendly, Sheila Nevins and Ted Turner.

Eastman Kodak Company has sponsored the annual IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards since their inception in 1984.

"We are proud to be supporters of this great organization for over 20 years," says Michael Zakula, IDA trustee and Kodak executive. "It's been exciting to watch the recent growth in popularity of this genre among moviegoers."

For additional information about the IDA, visit www.documentary.org.

Source: International Documentary Association

CONTACT: Sally Christgau, or Lisa Muldowney, +1-760-438-5250, or fax, +1-760-438-5230, CCSPR@aol.com, both for International Documentary Association

Web site: http://www.documentary.org/

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