Bobi Wine: The People’s President won the top prize of best feature at the 2023 International Documentary Awards on Tuesday night.
The film follows music star, activist and opposition leader Bobi Wine amid Uganda’s 2021 presidential election.
Accepting the award during the International Documentary Association virtual awards show, co-director Moses Bwayo said, “The awareness this film has brought to world audiences has arguably kept Bobi Wine alive and out of prison for now.”
Other winners include ‘The Mother of All Lies,’ ‘Four Daughters’ and ‘Dear Mama.’
Asmae El Moudir won best director for The Mother of All Lies, in which El Moudir creates a replica of the Casablanca neighborhood where she grew up, allowing her to reconnect with her past.
Incident, which reconstructs a Chicago police shooting in 2018 from various viewpoints, won best short documentary award. POV and POV Shorts won best curated series and best short-form series, respectively, both for the second year in a row.
Other noteworthy winners include Smoke Sauna Sisterhood‘s Ants Tammik (best cinematography), Anselm‘s Leonard Küssner (best original music score), Four Daughters‘ Kaouther Ben Hania (best writing), Our Planet II (best episodic series) and Dear Mama (best multi-part documentary).
The 39th IDA Documentary Awards, hosted by KCRW DJs Tyler Boudreaux and Raul Campos, saw winners accept their awards from cities around the world.
“While we are speaking from Los Angeles, our thoughts are with the people living in the midst of war around the globe,” IDA board co-presidents Grace Lee and Chris Perez said at the top of the show. “The loss of lives, friendships and the inability to listen has been heartbreaking. And yet, as a community, we are storytellers of the world we live in and know that our work can not only capture history but change minds. To the thousands of IDA members who live in 76 countries and voted for the winners of the best feature and best short documentary categories, thank you for investing your time and for your inspired choices!”
“In the wake of devastating events unfolding in the world and the grief our staff, board, community, and humanity at large are experiencing, we have decided to forego an in-person party,” IDA interim executive director Ken Ikeda said in a statement. “We know that stories have the power to encourage compassion, understanding and peace. We are committed to preserving space for stories to be shared. Our wish is to recognize and celebrate the nominees and winners together, as a global documentary community.”
“In the coming years, across all that IDA does, our task is to become as international as we can be,” Willsdon said. “You see it already. Look at this year’s award nominees, who works at IDA, who’s on the board now, this year’s grant recipients, and who’s contributing to the magazine.”
