2023 IDA Documentary Award Winners

The IDA Documentary Awards are dedicated to the documentary genre, celebrating the best nonfiction films and programs of the year. It seeks to represent excellence in the documentary field from around the world by emerging and established documentarians.

Best Feature
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
Directors: Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp
National Geographic Documentary Films
(Uganda)

Best Short
Incident
Hypnotic Pictures
(United States)

Best Director
Asmae El Moudir
The Mother of All Lies
Arizona Distribution
(Morocco)

Best Cinematography
Ants Tammik
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Greenwich Entertainment
(Estonia, France, Iceland)

Best Editing
Carolina Siraqyan
The Eternal Memory
MTV Documentary Films
(Chile, USA)

Best Original Music Score
Leonard Küssner
Anselm
Sideshow Pictures
(Germany)

Best Writing
Four Daughters
Kino Lorber
(France, Tunisia, Germany)

Best TV Feature or Mini-Series
Mariupol: The People’s Story
Director: Robin Barnwell
BBC
(UK)

Best Curated Series
POV
PBS
(USA, Denmark, Brazil)

Best Episodic Series
Our Planet II
Netflix
(USA, UK)

Best Music Documentary
Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes
PBS, American Masters
(USA)

Best Multi-Part Documentary
Dear Mama
Director: Allen Hughes
FX
(USA)

Best Short-Form Series
POV Shorts
American Documentary
(USA)

Best Standalone Audio Documentary
This Coal Life
Host: Lesedi Mogoatlhe
Reporter: Siyabonga Mokoena
(South Africa)

Best Multi-Part Audio Documentary or Series
You Didn’t See Nothin
Host: Yohance Lacour
The Invisible Institute, USG Audio
(USA)

David L. Wolper Student Documentary
Lettre à Elie (Letter to Elie)
Alexis Grigorieff
National Film and Television School
(UK)