‘Cove’ misses out on IDA Awards nod

A couple of things struck me as noteworthy on the list of nominees revealed yesterday by the International Documentary Association, which Kris mentioned briefly in this morning’s round-up.

The five films nominated by the IDA for Best Documentary Feature include “Afghan Star,” “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” “Diary of a Times Square Thief,” “Food, Inc.” and “Mugabe and the White African.”

Having admittedly only seen three of the five, I’d call that a pretty respectable list. Still, notably absent from the list is the film that many see as the prohibitive favorite for the Oscar: Louie Psihoyos’s environmental doc “The Cove.” (Certainly, when offering your own predictions earlier this week, only four of you bet on anything else.)

In a year that has lacked a crossover documentary phenomenon on the scale of last year’s “Man on Wire,” it’s been widely presumed that “The Cove”‘s vastly sympathetic cause and high-profile champions would be enough to seal the deal, particularly when Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story” failed to catch on.

But the IDA snub does raise the question of how respected Psihoyos’s film is by industry peers. (It did, however, receive a nod for the IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award, which recognizes “activist spirit.”)

Of course, the IDA Awards are hardly a reliable indicator of which way the Academy might vote, not least because films actually have to be entered for IDA consideration. (“The Cove” was entered, however.) Last year, the IDA and the Academy agreed on “Man on Wire” — as did virtually every precursor — though it had to share the IDA prize with “Waltz With Bashir.” And 2007 Oscar winner “Taxi to the Dark Side” was nominated by the IDA.

Still, neither of the previous two Oscar champs, “March of the Penguins” and “An Inconvenient Truth,” netted a top nod from the IDA, though the latter carried home the aforementioned Lorentz Award. Given that “The Cove” has more in common with these two films — being arguably more of a populist statement than an artistic one — that may even bode well for the film’s chances.

Meanwhile, I was very interested to see two outstanding British-produced docs, “Afghan Star” and “Mugabe and the White African,” make the IDA’s cut — and I wonder whether pundits are underestimating the chances of an Oscar nod.

As I wrote last month, “Afghan Star” is in the unusual situation of being both a documentary contender and Britain’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. (British readers, by the way, can watch the film for free on Channel 4’s online 4OD service.)

It may be something of a long shot in the latter race, but its accessible combination of political currency and entertainment value (it examines Afghanistan’s current political landscape through the lens of their local TV franchise of “American Idol”) might well appeal to voters seeking a quirkier alternative. Alongside “The Cove,” it won the Audience Award in its category at Sundance.

“Mugabe and the White African,” which also netted a British Independent Film Award nomination last month, might be a harder sell, but anyone who sits through it can hardly fail to be moved by its devastating story of a 74 year-old Zimbabwean farmer clinging to his land in the face of president Robert Mugabe’s heinous “land reform” policy.

Head and shoulders the best doc I’ve seen this year, and gearing some striking parallels to my favorite fiction film of the year “White Material,” it also stands to benefit from the current wave of interest in Southern African-themed cinema, which I discussed earlier this week. Watch this one.