IDA 2010 Documentary Awards Noms: Sweetgrass, Steam of Life and Waste Land Among Five Noms

The International Documentary Association has announced the nominees for the 2010 IDA Documentary Awards and the voting members have a strong fivesome to choose from in: Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop, Laura Poitras’ The Oath, Joonas Berghaell and Mika Hotakainen’s Steam of Life, Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor’s Sweetgrass, and Lucy Walker’s Waste Land. Awards are being handed out on the 3rd of December. Here’s the complete list in other categories.

Gist: The International Documentary Association really have their act together. Example: “this year for Distinguished Feature and Short Documentary – will be selected by IDA’s members through a process in which members who wish to participate will view all of the nominated films in these categories through a secure, password-protected online system. After viewing all of the films in their entirety, these IDA member judges will cast their votes to determine the winners.” Not bad at all. Is this a sign of the time for other award orgs?

Worth Noting: Of the five nominations we have three Sundance world premiered docs. Once again confirming that Park City excels in documentary programming.

Why Do We Care?: You won’t get any complaints out of me with this nom list. I’m especially glad that docs that challenge both the form and conventions (Exit Through The Gift Shop, Waste Land and to an extent, Sweetgrass) are well received here.