MUMBAI: The nominees for the 21st Annual
International Documentary Association (IDA) Distinguished Documentary Achievement Awards competition were announced. The winners will be feted at the IDA Awards Benefit Gala on 9 December 2005 in Los Angeles.
 
 

IDA executive director Sandra Ruch says, "All of these films tell compelling stories about important subjects. They were chosen by a jury of peers out of hundreds of artfully crafted films from every part of the world. The purpose of the IDA Awards is to celebrate and recognize their successful quests for excellence."

The four Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award categories are Feature, Short, Limited Series (series of episodes with specific continuing theme) and Continuing Series (four individual programmes that best represent series). The 13 film documentaries that have been nominated include Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room. It deals with the accounting scandal.

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a multidimensional study of one of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history, in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country walked away with over one billion dollars, leaving investors and employees with nothing.
 
 

CNN's documentary series CNN Presents has been nominated in the continuing category along with US broadcaster PBS' Nova. IDA will also present The ABCNEWS VideoSource Award to the documentary filmmaker whose work best utilises television news footage as an integral
component of the work. The Pare Lorentz Award will be given to the film that best represents the activist spirit and lyrical vision of Pare Lorentz, who was the first recipient of an IDA Career Achievement Award.