CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · Arts & Letters

International Documentary Association

non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ3504953
Source-derived summary

International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmmaker Services, Education, and Public Programs and Events.

Based in Los Angeles, the IDA has approximately 2,800 members in over 50 countries, providing a forum for supporters and suppliers of documentary filmmaking.

Awards

The IDA Documentary Awards is an annual event presented by the International Documentary Association (IDA) to recognise excellence in documentary filmmaking. The ceremony highlights significant achievements across multiple categories, including Best Feature, Best Short, Best Writing, Best Director, Best Limited Series, and other creative and technical awards.

Previous winners in the Best Feature category include Crip Camp (2020), Flee (2021), All That Breathes (2022), Bobi Wine: The People's President (2023), and No Other Land (2024).

All of these films were subsequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Advocacy

The IDA advocates for, protects and advances the legal rights of documentary filmmakers. IDA has a long history of making the case for documentary filmmaking as a vital art form, and seeking ways to ensure that the artists who make documentaries receive appropriate funding. Most recently, IDA has been vocal in confronting the non-fiction film industry, to include promoting net neutrality efforts, lobbying for the development of strong public policies for the arts, lobbying for the appropriation of increased public funding for the arts, promoting fair use practice, and protecting the first amendment rights of filmmakers.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “International Documentary Association” is non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through International, Documentary and Association, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 2020, 2021, 2022—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982-01-01. For this dossier, International, Documentary and Association is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3504953. VIAF identifies the subject as 155408498. The Library of Congress control number is n85080741. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “International Documentary Association”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow International Documentary Association primary sources, International Documentary Association archive and International research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “International Documentary Association”?
  2. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
  3. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from International Documentary Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.