On December 7, the DGA's Los Angeles theater complex was the site of the International Documentary Association's (IDA) 28th Annual IDA Documentary Awards. The evening honors the year’s best in documentary filmmaking and the DGA is a sponsor of the event.

Hosted by illusionist, comedian Penn Jillette, this year’s ceremony included the presentation of the “Best Limited Series Award” to DGA member and 2008 IDA Career Achievement Award honoree Werner Herzog for his Investigation Discovery series On Death Row.

Other 2012 IDA award-winners included the Best Feature Award to Malik Bendjelloul for Searching for Sugar Man, the Best Short Award to Daniel Junge for Saving Face, the Humanitas Documentary Award to Micha X. Peled for Bitter Seeds, and the David L. Wolper Student Documentary Award to Mark Kendall for La Camioneta. Also during the ceremony, director Jon Shenk accepted the IDA’s Pare Lorentz Award, which recognizes exemplary filmmaking focusing on the appropriate use of the natural environment, justice for all and the illumination of pressing social problems, for his feature The Island President. This year’s Jacqueline Donnet Award for a filmmaker who has made a significant impact at the beginning of his or her career in documentary film went to David France, director of the stirring How to Survive a Plague. The ceremony closed with the presentation of the Career Achievement Award, given to a filmmaker who has made a major impact on the documentary genre through a long and distinguished body of work, to Oscar and Emmy Award-winner Arnold Shapiro, the mind behind 33 series, and more than 90 documentaries and specials including Scared Straight!, Rescue 911, and Big Brother.