'Minding the Gap' Wins Top Honor at IDA Documentary Awards

AWARDS BEAT

“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu’s film about working-class Illinois skateboarders whose raucous lifestyle hides brutal family stories, has been named the best nonfiction film of 2018 at the International Documentary Association’s IDA Documentary Awards, which took place on the Paramount Studios lot on Saturday night.

Liu also received the Emerging Filmmaker Award, and he and Joshua Altman won the award for best editing.

Other craft awards went to “Distant Constellation” cinematographer Shevaun Mizrahi, “The Other Side of Everything” writer Mila Turajlić and, in a tie, “Bisbee ’17” composer Keegan DeWitt and “Hale Country This Morning, This Evening” composers Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers.

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Film Review: Powerful Doc Depicts Skateboarders In Transition to Adulthood

The award for the best music documentary also ended in a tie, between Steve Loveridge’s “Matangi/Maya/M.I.A.” and Melissa Haizlip’s “Mr. Soul!”

In its first year, the Best Audio Documentary category was won by the New York Times’ “Caliphate.”

Floyd Russ’ “Zion,” a character study of a high school wrestler born without legs, won the award as the year’s best documentary short.

In the television categories, “POV” won for curated series, “The Trade” for episodic series, “Wild Wild Country” for limited series and “MEL Films” for short-form series.

Also Read: No, Really: There's a 'Wild Wild Country' and 'Up and Vanished' Connection (Podcast)

The ABC News VideoSource Award, which goes to a feature that makes good use of archival news footage, was given to the HBO doc “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls.” The Pare Lorentz Award, which is given to films that demonstrate “exemplary filmmaking while focusing on environmental and social issues,” was given to Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar’s “The Silence of Others,” with honorable mention to Simon Lereng Wilmont’s “The Distant Barking of Dogs.”

Jayisha Patel’s “Circle” won the award as the best student documentary.

Chicken & Egg Pictures, a Brooklyn-based company that has given more than $6 million in grants to women nonfiction filmmakers in the last 12 years, received the Amicus Award, which is given for support to the doc community. Pioneering feminist filmmaker Julia Reichert received the Career Achievement Award.

The ceremony, one of the top awards given to documentary films, was hosted by Ricki Lake. Presenters included director Barry Jenkins, actresses Kathy Bates and Emily Deschanel and director and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, many of whom spoke about the value of nonfiction films in creating empathy.

Also Read: 'Minding the Gap' Leads All Films in Nominations for Cinema Eye Honors

2018 IDA Documentary Awards winners:

Best Feature: “Minding the Gap”
Best Short: “Zion”

Best Curated Series: “POV”
Best Episodic Series: “The Trade”
Best Limited Series: “Wild Wild Country”
Best Short Form Series: “MEL Films”

Best Music Documentary: (TIE) “MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A.” and “Mr. SOUL!”
Best Audio Documentary: “Caliphate”

Creative Recognition Awards
Best Cinematography: “Distant Constellation,” Shevaun Mizrahi
Best Editing: “Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu and Joshua Altman
Best Writing: “The Other Side of Everything,” Mila Turajlić
Best Music Score: (TIE) “Bisbee ’17,” Keegan DeWitt and “Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” Scott Alario, Forest Kelley and Alex Somers

Sponsored Special Awards
ABC News VideoSource Award: “John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls”
Pare Lorentz Award: “The Silence of Others”
Honorable Mention: “The Distant Barking of Dogs”
David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award: “Circle”

15 Top Grossing Documentaries at the Box Office, From 'An Inconvenient Truth' to 'Fahrenheit 9/11' (Photos)

Documentaries are rarely big money makers, but they can have the power to influence change and motivate people to action in a way narrative films cannot. So when a documentary does make a splash at the box office, it's an even bigger surprise. This list of the top-15 grossing documentaries ever is an interesting mix of political, nature and concert docs, and several of them likewise went on to win Oscars and critical acclaim. All numbers are domestic totals via Box Office Mojo.
Warner Bros./National Geographic Films/Paramount Classics
15. "They Shall Not Grow Old" (2018) - $17.9 million

Director Peter Jackson went to painstaking lengths to digitally restore and transform 100-year-old archival footage for his powerful documentary on World War I. Jackson restored color and sound to the Great War, something that was previously only known through black and white silent film. The documentary performed well in part because of a release that even transformed the footage into 3D.
Warner Bros.
14. "Oceans" (2010) - $19.4 million

You'll see a lot of Disneynature documentaries on this list. Pierce Brosnan narrates this 2010 documentary filmed across the world's oceans.
Disneynature
13. "Bowling for Columbine" (2002) - $21.5 million

Michael Moore's provocative documentary about American gun violence (and one of his best) won the Oscar for Best Documentary and broke international box office records for a documentary in 2002.
United Artists
12. "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" (2018) - $22.8 million

Morgan Neville's portrait of Fred Rogers and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" proved to be a crowd-pleasing hit in the summer of 2018 because of the absolute niceness at its heart. Neville in his film explains that Fred Rogers was the rare person who really did not have a dark side, and in "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" it shows.
Jim Judkis / Focus Features
11. "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006) - $24.1 million

Davis Guggenheim's documentary spotlighting former Vice President Al Gore's plea to alert the world to the effects of global warming and climate change went on to win two Oscars and earn a sequel.
Paramount Classics
10. "Sicko" (2007) - $24.5 million

Another Michael Moore movie to crack the list, "Sicko" was Moore's look at the healthcare industry in America compared to other nations, with Moore sailing sick veterans down to Cuba to receive the care they couldn't have had at home.
Lionsgate
9. "Katy Perry: Part of Me" (2012) - $25.3 million

This 2012 concert movie followed Katy Perry on her California Dreams World Tour.
Paramount Pictures
8. "One Direction: This Is Us" (2013) - $28.8 million

"Super Size Me" filmmaker Morgan Spurlock directed this concert doc about the then wildly popular British boy group.
TriStar
7. "Chimpanzee" (2012) - $28.9 million

Tim Allen narrated this Disneynature doc about a three-month old chimp separated from his flock and adopted by another grown male.
Disneynature
6. "Earth" (2007) - $32 million

The first of Disneynature's documentaries, "Earth" was a theatrical version of the popular "Planet Earth" miniseries from 2006. "Earth" was finally given a stateside theatrical release in 2009.
Disneynature
5. "2016: Obama's America" (2012) - $33.4 million

Dinesh D'Souza's anti-Obama documentary speculated about where the country would be if Obama won a second term in office in 2012.
Getty Images
4. "Michael Jackson's This Is It" (2009) - $72 million

The footage in "This Is It" comes from a behind-the-scenes look at preparation for Michael Jackson's 50 shows at London's O2 Arena. It wasn't originally meant to be made into a film, but it provided an intimate look at Jackson in his final days.
Getty Images
3. "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" (2011) - $73 million

The Biebs holds the spot for the highest-grossing concert film ever and the documentary with the biggest opening weekend of all time.
Paramount Pictures
2. "March of the Penguins" (2005) - $77.4 million

People sure love penguins. Morgan Freeman narrates the nature documentary that opened on just four screens but soon spread into a nationwide hit.
National Geographic Films
1. "Fahrenheit 9/11" (2004) - $119.1 million

Michael Moore's scathing documentary about President George W. Bush and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks is the highest-grossing documentary of all time and it isn't even close. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Opening at over $23 million, the movie at the time opened higher than any other documentary had ever grossed in its lifetime. Moore followed up the film with a documentary about the 2016 election and Donald Trump, titled "Fahrenheit 11/9," which refers to the day after he was elected.
Miramax

1 of 16

Michael Moore, Disneynature and several concert films top the list

Documentaries are rarely big money makers, but they can have the power to influence change and motivate people to action in a way narrative films cannot. So when a documentary does make a splash at the box office, it's an even bigger surprise. This list of the top-15 grossing documentaries ever is an interesting mix of political, nature and concert docs, and several of them likewise went on to win Oscars and critical acclaim. All numbers are domestic totals via Box Office Mojo.

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