The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s companion piece to the Oscar-nominated film The Act Of Killing, is the winner of the (International Documentary Association) 2015 IDA Best Feature Award. The other finalist for the award included “Amy” directed by Asif Kapadia, “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution” directed by Stanley Nelson, “Listen to Me Marlon” directed by Stevan Riley, “The Russian Woodpecker” directed by Chad Gracia, and “What Happened, Miss Simone?” directed by Liz Garbus.

Through Oppenheimer’s footage of perpetrators of the 1965 Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discovers how their son was murdered, as well as the identities of the killers. The documentary focuses on the youngest son, an optometrist named Adi, who decides to break the suffocating spell of submission and terror by doing something unimaginable in a society where the murderers remain in power: he confronts the men who killed his brother and, while testing their eyesight, asks them to accept responsibility for their actions. This unprecedented film initiates and bears witness to the collapse of fifty years of silence.

31st Annual IDA Awards

Best Feature Award

The Look of Silence (Winner)
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer: Signe Byrge Sørensen
DRAFTHOUSE FILMS AND PARTICIPANT MEDIA

Best Short Award

Last Day of Freedom (Winner)
Directors: Dee Hibbert-Jones and Nomi Talisman

Best Curated Series Award

Independent Lens (Winner – TIE)
Executive Producers: Sally Jo Fifer and Lois Vossen
ITVS/PBS

POV (Winner – TIE)
Executive Producers: Simon Kilmurry and Chris White
POV, PBS

Best Limited Series Award

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst (Winner)
Executive Producer: Jason Blum
Co-Executive Producer: Zac Stuart-Pontier
Produced by: Andrew Jarecki and Marc Smerling
HBO

Best Episodic Series Award

Chef’s Table (Winner)
Executive Producers: David Gelb, Andrew Fried, and Brian McGinn
NETFLIX

Best Short Form Series Award

Do Not Track (Winner)
Executive Producer: Hugues Sweeney
NATIONAL FILM BOARD OF CANADA, UPIAN, ARTE, AND BR

David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award
This award recognizes exceptional achievement in non-fiction film and video production at the university level and brings greater public and industry awareness to the work of students in the documentary field.

The Archipelago (Winner)
Director: Benjamin Huguet
THE NATIONAL FILM AND TELEVISION SCHOOL

Pare Lorentz Award
The Pare Lorentz Award recognizes films that demonstrate exemplary filmmaking while focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems.

How to Change the World
Director: Jerry Rothwell

ABC News VideoSource Award
This award is given each year for the best use of news footage as an integral component in a documentary.

Best of Enemies (Winner)
Directors: Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville
MAGNOLIA PICTURES AND INDEPENDENT LENS

Creative Recognition Award Winners

The Creative Recognition category recognizes special achievement in cinematography, editing, music and writing in films entered in the Feature Category.

Best Cinematography

The Russian Woodpecker
Cinematography by: Artem Ryzhykov

Best Editing

Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
Edited by: Joe Beshenkovsky and Brett Morgen

Best Writing

Listen to Me Marlon
Written by: Stevan Riley
Co-Writer: Peter Ettedgui

Best Music

Best of Enemies
Original Score by: Jonathan Kirkscey

31st Annual IDA Awards Honorees

Career Achievement Award

Gordon Quinn
The IDA will present its prestigious 2015 Career Achievement Award to Gordon Quinn, Founder and Artistic Director of Kartemquin Films. Quinn was integral to the creation of ITVS, public access television in Chicago, and the Documentary Filmmakers Statement of Best Practice in Fair Use; and in forming the Indie Caucus to support diverse independent voices on Public Television. Over his 50 years at Kartemquin, Quinn has produced, directed, and/or been a cinematographer for over 55 films, and inspired and guided an immeasurable number of media makers whose films have left a lasting impact on millions of viewers.

Pioneer Award

Ted Sarandos
The Pioneer Award is presented to acknowledge extraordinary contributions to advancing the nonfiction form and providing exceptional vision and leadership to the documentary community. This year, the Pioneer Award will be presented to Ted Sarandos, the Chief Content Officer at Netflix, in recognition of his leadership of Netflix’s game-changing and unwavering support of creating and showcasing nonfiction programming, which has greatly broadened its availability and popularity around the world.

Amicus Award

Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation
Tony Tabatznik and the Bertha Foundation will receive the IDA’s Amicus Award in recognition of their work supporting the essential needs of the non-fiction media landscape. Founded in 2009, the Bertha Foundation’s vision was to connect activists, lawyers and storytellers to fight for fundamental social and economic change. The Bertha Foundation’s Media Program specifically aims to nurture global talent, expose relevant stories and connect them to audiences for powerful, positive social impact.

Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award

Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe
Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe, directors of (T)ERROR, will receive IDA’s Emerging Documentary Filmmaker Award, which recognizes the achievements of a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film. (T)ERROR received a grant from IDA’s Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund in 2013.

Courage Under Fire Award

Matthew Heineman
Matthew Heineman will receive the IDA’s Courage Under Fire Award, in recognition of conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth. This award is presented to documentary filmmakers by their peers for putting freedom of speech – represented in the crafts of documentary filmmaking and journalism – above all else, even their own personal safety. Heineman’s gripping film, Cartel Land, documents two modern-day vigilante movements – Dr. José Mireles’s citizen-led uprising against a violent drug cartel wreaking havoc in Mexico and the Arizona Border Recon led by Tim “Nailer” Foley, which is working to prevent Mexico’s drug wars from crossing into the United States.