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The International Documentary Association on Friday announced its latest round of grant funding. It’s providing a total of $245,000 out of two funds for 15 films, many of which are investigative works. The organization also announced its first class of Documentary magazine editorial fellows for a program meant to enhance opportunities for writers from underserved and underrepresented communities.

This year, 10 projects are set to receive $15,000 each from the Ida Enterprise Documentary Fund, which supports in-depth explorations of contemporary stories that into journalistic practice into filmmaking. The fund is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.

Among them is “11 Questions,” the working title of the project from director-producer Cassandra Herrman, which is also getting funding from “Frontline.” This marks the first-ever joint-funding collaboration between Ida and the prestigious PBS series.

Herrman has been nominated for three News & Documentary Emmy Awards, most recently for...

Awards season officially comes to a close on Oscar Sunday.

The 92nd Academy Awards will be held at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on Feb. 9 and air live on ABC at 5 p.m. Pt/8 p.m. Et. Red carpet coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. Pt/6:30 p.m. Et. Viewers will be able to live-stream the awards show on abc.com or on the ABC app via DirecTV Now, Hulu, PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV.

The ceremony, which is going hostless again, will include appearances from this year’s nominees, as well as presenters Salma Hayek, Brie Larson, James Corden, Regina King, Lin-Manuel Miranda and more. Additionally, the show will feature performances from Cynthia Erivo, Idina Menzel, Elton John, Chrissy Metz, Randy Newman and five-time Grammy winner Billie Eilish.

A special tribute for Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna is scheduled to take place during the ceremony. The pair,...

“Pictures are for entertainment — messages should be delivered by Western Union.” The line has been variously attributed to half a dozen old-school Hollywood producers, from Samuel Goldwyn to Frank Capra, but no matter who said it, the sentiment captures how classic studio types endeavored to separate political statements from popular cinema. In recent years, however, pundits have been pressuring the Academy to do just the opposite — to become more activist through its awards — and rather than actually changing, the organization seems to have realized that the documentary shorts category is the easiest way to take a stand, typically awarding important messages over exceptional moviemaking. Sometimes the two coincide. , although it’s unlikely that anyone would mistake them for entertainment.

Certainly, the folks at Netflix don’t have any such illusions about John Haptas and Kristine Samuelson’s wrenching kids-in-peril short “Life Overtakes Me,” whereas the film’s “Oscar-worthiness” was almost...

When the 2020 Oscar nominations were announced, critics immediately seized upon the glaring lack of women recognized in the Best Director competition. But on the nonfiction side, it’s a completely different story.

In the Best Documentary Feature category, four of the five nominated films are directed or co-directed by women. In Best Documentary Short, it’s the same story—four of five nominees are directed or co-directed by women.

It’s also a year when Greta Gerwig was overlooked for Best Director in the fiction realm. “Narrative is so badly handling women,” comments Carol Dysinger, who earned an Oscar nomination for her short doc Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). “But in my community, documentary, we do Ok.”

Among the women documentary filmmakers recognized with an Oscar nomination this year is Syrian-born Waad Al-Kateab, who directed For Sama with Edward Watts.

“Two days before the nominations,...

As has been the case for the last few years, the 2020 Oscar nominees in the Best Documentary Short category are a remarkable bunch, and TheWrap gathered the filmmakers behind them to speak on Tuesday about the work that went into exploring such tough subjects.

Possibly the most sensitive topic touched on in this year’s field was that of Resignation Syndrome, a fairly new psychological case that has seen hundreds of traumatized refugee children become so mentally unwell that they fall into a comatose state for months or even years. In “Life Overtakes Me,” director-producers Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas managed to earn the trust of three refugee families with children in such a state and explored how they handle such a difficult situation while fighting to retain their asylum status in Sweden.

Also Read: How 'Joker' Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Used 'Macho Chords' to Get Inside the Character's Head

Samuelson...

The Oscar-nominated documentary shorts are not now, nor have they ever been, a laughing matter. But the joke that gets told most often, which has a nugget of truth in it, is that they frequently represent the grimmest category of any given year at the Academy Awards.

Recent nominees have vividly, heartbreakingly illustrated end-of-life care, the opioid crisis, the plight of refugees, systemic racism in the criminal justice system, and the Holocaust. These are not, generally speaking, films that you can idly eat popcorn to.

This year’s nominees, which occupy their own theatrical program this week via ShortsTV, also tackle heavy subjects and will also make any halfway-present audience member ponder important issues of the day. And yet, somehow, they’re a little less brain-meltingly sad than usual.

Also Read: Oscar Short Nominees Discuss Creating Fiction From Bits of Reality

Which says a little more about the nominations from...

These five Oscar-nominated documentary short films have made it to the summit of the nonfiction craft. Topics are international in scope: immigration, refugees, the personal cost of political activism, government malfeasance and girls in war-torn

Kabul skateboarding for kicks.

In the Absence

More than 300 people died when the Mv Sewol ferry sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014; most tragically, 250 were high school students who remained in their cabins per instructions, rather than attempting to escape. The accident (some of which was televised live) traumatized South Korea, says “In the Absence” producer Gary Byung-Seok Kam. It is the fourth project for Kam and director Yi Seung-Jun. The documentary combines real-time footage of the accident recorded by rescuers, the students’ own cellphone videos, news footage and later-day interviews with parents and civilian divers. “We invite [the] audience to feel something behind the footage: the absence of the country on that day to protect us,...

Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas first learned about Resignation Syndrome through an article. Samuelson explains in our recent webchat (watch the video above). Their Oscar-nominated short film, “Life Overtakes Me,” led her to travel over to Sweden to meet with several professionals, and then Haptas joined her shortly after that. Haptas elaborates that what really drew them to these stories “was that we felt that this was an example of being able to see, to have visually represented, the consequences of stress and trauma.” In addition to showing children who have completely checked out of life, Haptas hoped that this project would “make a viewer think about how trauma and stress affect refugees just about anywhere.”

SEE2020 Oscar nominations: Full list of Academy Awards nominees in all 24 categories

“Life Overtakes Me,” which is currently streaming on Netflix, examines the condition of Resignation Syndrome that has been affecting hundreds of refugee...

Filmmaker Todd Phillips' "Joker", an origin story about superhero Batman's biggest enemy Joker, led the Oscar nominations with 11 nods, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

Sam Mendes' World War drama "1917", Quentin Tarantino's ode to Los Angeles "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood", and Martin Scorsese's mob epic "The Irishman" followed close behind with 10 nods each.

Also Read:?Joaquin Phoenix's 'Joker' leads BAFTA 2020 nominations

Those films, along with "Ford v Ferrari", "Jojo Rabbit", "Little Women", "Marriage Story" and "Parasite" will compete for Best Picture, reports variety.com.

Female filmmakers were entirely shut out of the Best Director race. Along with Phillips, the nominees in the category include Scorsese for "The Irishman," Mendes for "1917", Tarantino for "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood" and Bong Joon Ho for "Parasite".

Here is the complete list of Oscar nominations 2020:

Best Film:

* "Ford v Ferrari"

* "The Irishman...

Chicago – In a sense of deja vu from the recent Golden Globe Awards, the nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards has been named on January 13th, 2020. This breaks a precedent of the last ten years, with the Oscar ceremony moved up to February 9th from it’s usual position in late February to early March.

Nine films were named in the Best Picture category, with “Little Women” and “Ford vs. Ferrari” joining the seven other films recognized by the Golden Globes (including Best Foreign Language Film Globe winner “Parasite”). “Joker” led the numbers game with 11 nominations, with 10 nods for “1917,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “The Irishman.” The Best Actress category was exactly the same as the Globes (Drama), and Leonardo Di Caprio is the only difference in the Best Actor column. As at the Golden Globes, the directing category is the same five men, again snubbing Greta Gerwig for “Little Women.

Oscar nominations for the 92nd annual Academy Awards were announced Monday morning from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Martin Scorsese’s mob epic “The Irishman,” Quentin Tarantino’s ode to Los Angeles “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” and Noah Baumbach’s drama “Marriage Story” are expected to sweep nominations. Renee Zellweger is favored to land her fourth Oscar nod, this time for her turn as Judy Garland in the biopic “Judy.” Meanwhile, Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) and Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) are the odds-on favorites among lead actors.

Other films that are anticipating recognition from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include Sam Mendes’ WWI film “1917,” Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of “Little Women” and Bong Joon Ho’s social thriller “Parasite.

The Academy Awards will air live Feb. 6 on ABC.

Here is the full list of 2020 Oscar nominations (updating life):

Best Picture:

“Ford v...

“American Factory” has been named the best documentary of 2019 at the 13th annual Cinema Eye Honors ceremony, which were presented on Monday evening in New York City.

The film, executive produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground Productions, and distributed by Netflix, is an examination of an Ohio glass factory that was taken over by a Chinese company in an uneasy cultural alliance. It prevailed in a category in which all six nominees — “American Factory,” “Apollo 11,” “For Sama,” “Honeyland,” “Midnight Family” and “One Child Nation” — are also on the Oscars shortlist for documentary features.

The “American Factory” directors, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, also won the award for Outstanding Direction. The Outstanding Production category resulted in a tie between two films set in Syria, “The Cave” and “For Sama.”

Also Read: 'For Sama' Is Named Top Doc at Ida Documentary Awards

“Honeyland” won for cinematography,...

Something peculiar is going on in Sweden, a strange phenomenon affecting children that has defied explanation by doctors and psychiatrists. In recent years hundreds of kids around the Scandinavian country have slipped into a mysterious, coma-like state lasting many months or more—transformed from bright, active youngsters into limp creatures in need of round-the-clock care. Identifying the cause has proven elusive.

“The thing we found out is that if you talk to eight experts, you get 10 opinions,” notes filmmaker John Haptas. “There really aren’t good answers.”

The Netflix documentary Life Overtakes Me, directed by the husband-and-wife filmmaking team of Haptas and Kristine Samuelson, explores this baffling scenario. It’s one of 10 short docs shortlisted for Academy Awards consideration.

The affected children all come from refugee families that have fled to Sweden after experiencing persecution of some kind. Some of the families belong to ethnic minority groups victimized in their countries of origin.

When it comes to winning your office pool on Best Documentary Short Subject, think tearjerker and you’ll be close to mark. This year, the documentary branch of the Academy has selected 10 shorts out of 96 submissions to vie for the five final slots for the Oscars.

Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by Isis; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas...

When it comes to winning your office pool on Best Documentary Short Subject, think tearjerker and you’ll be close to mark. This year, the documentary branch of the Academy has selected 10 shorts out of 96 submissions to vie for the five final slots for the Oscars.

Netflix landed four entries on the shortlist, including New Yorker Nadia Hallgren’s “After Maria,” which follows three Puerto Rican women and their families as they seek shelter in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s catastrophic destruction in 2017; Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper’s searing “Fire In Paradise,” which uses first-hand footage from residents of Paradise, Calif. to recreate the terrifying timeline of the Camp Fire on November 8, 2018 that killed 85 people and destroyed the town; “Ghosts of Sugar Land,” in which four Muslim suburban men near Houston try to make sense of the radicalization of a friend recruited by Isis; and veteran filmmakers John Haptas...

Beyonce’s “Homecoming” has landed three nominations to lead all films in the first round of noms for the Cinema Eye Honors, a New York-based awards ceremony established in 2007 to honor all aspects of nonfiction filmmaking.

In an announcement made at a luncheon in downtown Los Angeles, Cinema Eye Honors organizers unveiled nominations in seven categories, including new categories for broadcast editing and cinematography. “Homecoming” received nominations in both those new categories, as well as for the outstanding broadcast film of the year.

It faces off in that last category against “Apollo: Mission to the Moon,” “At the Heart of Gold: Inside the USA Gymnastics Scandal,” “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” “Leaving Neverland” and “The Sentence.”

Also Read: 'Homecoming' Film Review: Beyoncé's Powerful Documentary Captures Her Once-in-a-Lifetime Coachella Triumph

Other shows with multiple nominations were the broadcast series “Salt Fat Acid Heat” and “Tricky Dick,” which received two each.

By the looks of it, the Tribeca Film Festival might finally be growing out of their awkward teenage phase and moving into a new era where the nab more than just Sundance and SXSW festival rejects. Artistic Director Frederic Boyer has managed to nab some noteworthy American indie projects such as Lou Howe’s Gabriel (see pic above), Keith Miller’s Five Star, Adam Rapp’s Loitering with Intent, and Tristan Patterson’s Electric Slide.

On the docu front, we’ve got the latest from the likes of notable documentarians Marshall Curry and Jessica Yu. Think Ewan McGregor’s Long Way Round meets child solider movie for Curry’s awesomely titled Point and Shoot — where the Libyan rebel army take hold of Curry’s subject. Yu moves from water shortage in Last Call at the Oasis (read our review) to the biggest pandemic of all; Misconception looks at the consequences...

The 13th Tribeca Film Festival has announced half its slate for next month’s New York celebration, which runs April 16-27. Culled from more than 6,000 submissions, Tribeca 2014 includes 55 world premieres, 37 first-time filmmakers, and 22 female directors. “Variously inspired by individual interests and experience and driven by an intense sensibility of style, the array of new filmmaking voices in this year’s competition is especially impressive and I think memorable,” said Frederic Boyer, Tribeca’s artistic director. “The range of American subcultures and international genres represented here are both eclectic and wide reaching.”

On April 17, Gabriel will open the World Narrative competition,...

This is the third of four dispatches on some of the goods offered by the 57th London Film Festival’s ‘Experimenta’ section.

Wherever you go in the world at the moment, stray dogs are very much on the radar. First there was news that the Romanian government had passed a law to euthanize a million strays after a child died in a dog attack. Then there was the Venice Film Festival, where Taiwanese maestro Tsai Ming-liang’s Stray Dogs received the backhanded compliment of effective second prize. Though Tsai’s apparent swansong can be seen at the forthcoming Viennale as well as at Seville European Film Festival next month—with appearances at Toronto and New York already in the bag—the film was a notable absentee when the 57th BFI London Film Festival’s programme was announced. Though many rallied for its late addition, the programming gods proved stubborn.

Enter Taşkafa,...