Nominees Announced for 19th Annual International Documentary Association Awards

LOS ANGELES, October 9, 2003--The International DocumentaryAssociation (IDA) has announced that 28 documentaries will vie for tophonors in four categories of the organization's 19th AnnualDistinguished Documentary Achievement Awards competition. Winners willbe named at the IDA Awards Benefit Gala on December 12 at the DirectorsGuild of America Theatre in Hollywood.

"Documentary filmmakers are the storytellers of our times," says IDAPresident Michael Donaldson. "Each of them had to overcomeextraordinary odds to enlighten the public about an important issue.The purpose of this celebration is to recognize their successful questsfor excellence. They deserve to be in the limelight."

Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards will be presented inthe Feature, Short, Limited Series (series of episodes with specificcontinuing theme, topic or subject) and Continuing Series (a singleprogram in an on-going series) categories.

Two winners will be chosen in the Feature competition. Out of thenearly 300 films entered in this category, the following 13documentaries received nominations: Balseros; BERGA: Soldiers oFAnother War; Capturing the Friedmans; Das Leben Geht Weiter (Life GoesOn); The Day I Will Never Forget; Every Child is Born a Poet: The Life& Work of Piri Thomas; Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine; LostBoys of Sudan; Lost in La Mancha; My Flesh And Blood; Tupac:Resurrection; The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, and The WeatherUnderground. HBO led this category with five nominations.

The five documentaries competing in the Short category are ChavezRavine: A Los Angeles Story; Flip Flotsam; Foo-Foo Dust; Mighty Times:The Legacy of Rosa Parks; and Ocularist.

Dominating the Continuing Series category is WGBH, PBS' AmericanExperience with three nominations and Thirteen/WNET New York's AmericanMasters with two nominations. The nominated programs from AmericanExperience are The Murder of Emmett Till, Seabiscuit, and Tupperware!.The AMERICAN MASTERS programs are Joni MitchelL: Woman of Heart andMind and Robert Capa: in Love and War.

Limited Series nominees are AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: Jimmy Carter;Becoming American: The Chinese Experience; The Perilous Fight:America's World War II in Color; The Long Grey Line: The Spirit of WestPoint; and The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow.

The IDA Awards selection process began with peer group juries whoviewed all submissions to select nominees in each category for finalreview by a blue-ribbon panel.

"We received hundreds of outstanding entries from every part of theworld," says IDA Executive Director Sandra Ruch. "The high quality ofthe films submitted was heartening for all of us committed toencouraging the production and distribution of documentaries."

Kodak has sponsored the IDA Awards since their inception in 1984."Kodak has been a loyal friend of IDA and its members," says Ruch. "Weare very thankful for their unfailing support of our organization forover 20 years."

For more information about IDA or to purchase tickets to the 2003IDA Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards, visit www.documentary.org or call 213-534-3600.