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IDA Documentary Awards Shortlists Announced, You Can See Everything Among Contenders
· Confirmed
In Short: The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced its shortlists for the 42nd annual IDA Documentary Awards on Tuesday, boosting Oscar prospects for a select group of feature films and shorts.
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced its shortlists for the 42nd annual IDA Documentary Awards on Tuesday, boosting Oscar prospects for a select group of feature films and shorts.
The shortlists include five nominees for Best Feature and Best Short categories, with nominations set to be announced on November 17. The awards will be presented on December 4 at The Ebell of Los Angeles.
Among the standout titles on the shortlist is 'You Can See Everything,' a meta-documentary film by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. The film has set a new record for documentary openings with $15.6 million, raising speculation about its potential Best Picture nomination.
The shortlist also includes 'Free Joan Little' directed by Yoruba Richen and 'Maybe Tomorrow' co-directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Wafa Mustafa. Additionally, 'They're Here,' directed by Oscar winner Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Mueller, made the cut.
The IDA received 650 entries across all categories this year from a record 95 countries. The nonprofit IDA said in a release, 'At a time when filmmakers face critical distribution and funding challenges, IDA looks forward to gathering and uplifting this irrepressible global community and introducing their work to new audiences.'
IDA members from 100 countries will view and vote for the Best Feature and Best Short category winners until voting closes on November 29.
The success of 'You Can See Everything' has sparked discussions about its classification and eligibility for Best Picture at the Oscars. Critics and viewers are questioning whether it should be considered a true documentary or a different genre altogether.
The film's unconventional narrative and blend of documentary and comedy have raised questions about where the documentary genre ends and other genres begin.
Some critics note that 'You Can See Everything' is already domestically the highest-grossing non-concert, non-political, non-nature documentary ever made, surpassing 'Won't You Be My Neighbor?'
What this adds
WarpBeat previously reported that 'You Can See Everything' had set a new record for documentary openings with $15 million.
Background
You Can See Everything, a meta-documentary film by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim, has set a new record for documentary openings with $15.6 million, raising speculation about its potential Best Picture nomination.
The International Documentary Association (IDA) announced its shortlists for the 42nd annual IDA Documentary Awards on Tuesday, boosting Oscar prospects for a select group of feature films and shorts.
You Can See Everything is a 2026 American meta-documentary film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. It follows Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the defunct health technology company Theranos, and her partner Billy Evans, who invited a film crew to document them beginning in the weeks before Holmes began serving a United States federal prison sentence for defrauding investors.
To Hold a Mountain is a 2026 documentary film directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić. Set in the remote highlands of Montenegro, it follows a shepherd mother and daughter who proudly defend their ancestral mountain from the threat of becoming a NATO military training ground.
What's confirmed
- The International Documentary Association has announced its shortlists for Best Feature Documentary and Best Short Documentary at the 42nd annual IDA Documentary Awards.
- Winners in more than a dozen other categories, including Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Writing, and Best Music Documentary, will be chosen by a jury of more than 200 documentary professionals from over 60 countries.
- The 16 features and 12 shorts include top Oscar contenders You Can See Everything, Nuisance Bear, and Rehearsals for a Revolution.
What's still developing
- The shortlist selection committee favored some comparatively obscure titles, like Concrete Land, directed by Asmahan Bkerat; Filthy, directed by Bàrbara Mestanza and Marc Pujolar; Silver, directed by Natalia Koniarz, and The Fabulous Time Machine, directed by Eliza Capai.
- That timely documentary, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival, examines the deadly ICE occupation of Minneapolis, MN.
- But even if it passes all those other movies, it might still fall short of the documentary that remains far and away the biggest box office hit for a doc ever, Michael Moore ‘s 2004 film “Fahrenheit 9/11,” Moore’s scathing takedown of President Bush and the Iraq War as released in the heat of a massive election year.
- If we want to put a bunch of really dumb caveats and qualifiers on it, “You Can See Everything” is already domestically the highest-grossing non-concert, non-political, non-nature docs ever made, a made-up distinction previously held, by my count, by “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (sorry Mister Rogers).
- It’s too early to say if Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s “ You Can See Everything ” will win Oscars or have a direct impact on history as it pertains to Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, but it does feel like a movie that journalists are going to be referencing for a long time as a significant benchmark for documentary films at the box office.
- Even then, Lions Gate co-president Tom Ortenberg was predicting that the film was going to disrupt distribution and set the record as the biggest documentary ever.
- That makes a $24 million start a lot easier to swallow.
- You Can See Everything from Fielder & Lance Oppenheim expanded its run into 2,655 theaters this week (up from 855) and it grossed another $19.5 million, a 25% increase from last week.
- For all the grief we’ve heard about people not coming back to theaters, please take a moment to relish that we are now talking about audiences flocking to see a three-hour Nathan Fielder documentary.
- Both will be outgrossed by the documentary that is already amongst the highest-grossing ever for its category and will continue to be talked about beyond the numbers.
- Disney famously blocked Harvey and Bob Weinstein’s Miramax from releasing “Fahrenheit 9/11,” leading the Weinsteins to buy the film back and then partner with Lions Gate and IFC Films to get the movie into theaters.
- Moore was already a firebrand with instant name recognition thanks to “Bowling for Columbine,” which was previously among the highest-grossing documentaries ever.