IDA Documentary Awards 2025: Complete list of winners and nominees explored

The 2025 IDA Documentary Awards wrapped up with a notable lineup of winners and nominees. The ceremony served as a space of recognition for nonfiction creators across film and television.

This year's IDA Documentary Awards took place across three days. It concluded with the official award presentation at the Los Angeles Athletic Club on Saturday. The event was hosted by former Sundance Film Festival director Tabitha Jackson.

This year's results might be significant for the documentary scene ahead of the 2026 awards season. Notably, the Oscars shortlist announcements have been officially scheduled for December 16, 2025.

Multiple of the nominated projects at the 41st IDA Documentary Awards are also contenders in the Academy Awards documentary categories. More than 550 entries were submitted from 85 countries at the IDA Awards.

An official description on IDA Documentary's website reads:

"Since 1984, the IDA Documentary Awards have recognized a diverse range of emerging and established filmmakers, and expanded to include recognition of artistic direction, audio documentaries, documentary journalism, and music documentaries, as well as individual honors such as the Courage Under Fire Award and Career Achievement Award."

It continues:

"IDA Members receive the exclusive benefit of streaming all the Best Feature and Best Short nominees from anywhere in the world, selecting their favorites through an online judging portal. If you are not already a member, join the IDA family today and become a part of the world’s most distinguished documentary awards ceremony!"

National Geographic's The Tale of Silyan was one of the most notable titles of the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards. The documentary won the award for Best Feature Documentary and also bagged Best Cinematography.

The nonfiction is directed by Tamara Kotevska. The film follows a North Macedonian immigrant. The story has also received recognition on the international circuit, including its Cinema and Arts award win at the Venice Film Festival. North Macedonia has also submitted the project for Best International Feature at the Oscars.

A complete breakdown of all nominees and winners across all categories of the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards is listed below.

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Complete list of winners and nominees at the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards

Best Feature Documentary at the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards

Winner:

The Tale of Silyan (Republic of North Macedonia, United States, United Kingdom | National Geographic | Director: Tamara Kotevska | Producers: Tamara Kotevska, Jean Dakar, Anna Hashmi, Jordanco Petkovski)

Nominees:

Apocalypse in the Tropics (United States | Netflix | Director: Petra Costa | Producers: Alessandra Orofino, Petra Costa)

Life After (United States | Multitude Films | Director: Reid Davenport | Producer: Colleen Cassingham)

Seeds (United States | Director: Brittany Shyne | Producers: Danielle Varga, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Brittany Shyne)

Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark | EPF Media | Director: Olha Zhurba | Producer: Darya Bassel)

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Best Short Documentary at the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards

Winner:

Looking for a Donkey (Mexico, Venezuela | Director: Juan Vicente Manrique | Producers: Juan Vicente Manrique, María Benítez)

Nominees:

Correct Me If I'm Wrong (Germany, United States | Director: Hao Zhou | Producer: Tyler Hill)

If a Walnut Falls (China, Hong Kong | Director: Bohao Liu | Producer: Bohao Liu)

Mama Micra (Germany | interfilm Berlin | Director: Rebecca Blöcher | Co-director: Frédéric Schuld | Producer: Fabian Driehorst)

Their Eyes (France, United States | The New York Times Op-Docs | Director: Nicolas Gourault | Producers: Yannick Beauquis, Quentin Brayer)

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Best Director

Winner:

Brittany Shyne, Seeds (United States)

Nominees:

Petra Costa, Apocalypse in the Tropics (United States | Netflix)

Reid Davenport, Life After (United States | Multitude Films)

Olha Zhurba, Songs of Slow Burning Earth (Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark | EPF Media)

Tamara Kotevska, The Tale of Silyan (Republic of North Macedonia, United States, United Kingdom | National Geographic)

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Best Cinematography

Winner:

Jean Dakar, The Tale of Silyan

Nominees:

Ben Sturgulewski, Champions of the Golden Valley

Subhadeep Dey, Mrinmoy Mondal, Rupesh Chaturbedi, Redlight to Limelight

Natalia Pietsch, Grzegorz Piekarski, The Town That Drove Away

Richard Ladkani, Yanuni

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Best Editing

Winner:

Alex Megaro, Ian Bell, WTO/99

Nominees:

Julia Loktev, My Undesirable Friends: Part I — Last Air in Moscow

Pablo Proenza, Natchez

Jason Reid, Robinson Devor, Adam Sekuler, Matt Levinthal, Suburban Fury

Daniel Claridge, Pedro Kos, Sara Newens, The White House Effect

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Best Original Music Score

Winner:

Frédéric Filiatre, The Sorcerer: Julio Zachrisson

Nominees:

Sam Slater, Divia

Mato Wayuhi, Free Leonard Peltier

Matthew Dougherty, Shuffle

Afshin Azizi, Writing Hawa

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Best Production

Winner:

Alessandra Orofino, Petra Costa, Apocalypse in the Tropics (United States | Netflix)

Nominees:

Yoni Golijov, Olivia Streisand, Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, Cover-Up

Colleen Cassingham, Life After

Danielle Varga, Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Brittany Shyne, Seeds

Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman, The Alabama Solution

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Best Sound Design

Winner:

Thomas Perez-Pape, Only on Earth

Nominees:

Yannick Dauby, Always

Alexander Dudarev, Architecton

Rico Andriolo, Manu Gerber, Song of Breath

Rubí J. Pérez, The Silence of My Hands

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Best Writing

Winner:

Petra Costa, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, David Barker, Tina Baz, Apocalypse in the Tropics

Nominees:

Bipuljit Basu, Redlight to Limelight

Sasha Wortzel, River of Grass

Cristina Costantini, Tom Maroney, Sally

Robinson Devor, Jason Reid, Bob Fink, Charles Mudede, Suburban Fury

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Best Curated Series

Winner:

99 (France | EP: Jérôme Plan)

Nominees:

Independent Lens

POV Season 38

POV Shorts Season 8

The New York Times Op-Docs

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Best Episodic Series

Winner:

Citizen Nation (United States | PBS)

Nominees:

Earnhardt

Eyes on the Prize III: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest

The Sing Sing Chronicles

Turning Point: The Vietnam War

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Best Music Documentary

Winner:

One to One: John & Yoko (United Kingdom)

Nominees:

El Canto de las Manos

Move Ya Body: The Birth of House

Selena y Los Dinos

Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)

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David L. Wolper Student Documentary

Winner:

What a day, what a life (United Kingdom)

Nominees:

Beyond Eden

Dancing in Tomorrowland

Two Days on the Interstate

Two Travelling Aunties

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ABC News VideoSource Award

Winner: Deaf President Now! (United States)

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Pare Lorentz Award

Winner: River of Grass (United States)

Congratulations to all winners of the 2025 IDA Documentary Awards!

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