The IDA Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in documentary filmmaking and three ITVS funded films received nominations for the 2011 Awards. All three nominees were originally broadcast on the award-winning PBS series POV.  See the entire list of ITVS nominees after the jump:

Best Feature Award Nomination
Better This World by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega

IDA Humanitas Award Nomination
The Learning by Ramona S. Diaz

ABC News Videosource Award Nomination
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
By Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith

Additionally, Danfung Dennis, the director of the acclaimed Hell and Back Again (coming to Independent Lens in Spring 2012) will receive the Jacqueline Donnet Award, which recognizes filmmakers who have made a significant impact in documentary film.

And POV and American Experience  both received nominations for Best Continuing Series.

Congratulations to all the nominees!

For the entire list of the 2011 IDA Award nominees, click here >>

ITVS nearly got a clean sweep in the Best Documentary category of the IFP Gotham Awards with ITVS films receiving four out of the five nominations.  Check out the list of ITVS Best Documentary nominees along with their trailers after the jump >>

Better This World 
By Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega
Aired on POV this past September
Two childhood friends from Midland, Texas fall under the sway of a charismatic revolutionary who leads them down a path that changes their lives forever.

The Woodmans
By C. Scott Willis
Airing on Independent Lens on December 22, 2011 (check local listings)
The Woodmans is an inspiring portrait of one family’s fall and redemption in the often brutal world of art.

Hell and Back Again
by Danfung Dennis
Coming to Independent Lens in Spring 2012
What does it mean to lead men in war? What does it mean to come home — injured physically and psychologically — and build a life anew?

The Interrupters
By Steve James
Coming to PBS
A look at a group of men and women — most of them former gang leaders and ex-cons — that are trying to “interrupt” shootings and protect their communities from the violence they once employed.

The Women & Girls Matter event will include a day of panels and workshops presented by Media That Matters. The summit is designed to look at the obstacles and opportunities for women and girls in filmmaking and new media, highlighting the values women bring to their work, and to open up a dialogue for ways to create new spaces for female voices in the field.

The day focuses on the needs of women in film and will conclude with concrete actions for participants to take in order to help bring the voices of women and girls out of the margins and into the mainstream.

Women & Girls Matter takes place on October 29 in New York City. For more information, click here >>

You can register for the event online at womenandgirlsmatter.eventbrite.com >>

 Join public media’s Women and Girls Lead campaign on Facebook

JoEllen Marsh is 20 years old, and has never met her father. As she goes in search of her paternity, her path to Donor 150 becomes an exploration into identity and the complex permutations of family. Her journey raises questions about what makes us who we are, what makes a family, and what the brave new world of fertility technology means for our assumptions about both.

A documentary about identity, genetic inheritance and the family of the future, Donor Unknown airs October 20 on PBS (check local listings).

In anticipation of the broadcast, we will be holding a live chat with filmmaker Jerry Rothwell and a panel of experts to discuss what it is like to be a child of an anonymous donor, what it’s like to parent donor-conceived children, and the state of the assisted fertility industry.  Join the discussion live on BTB and the Independent Lens blog on October 20th starting at at 10AM PT / 1PM ET.

Watch the  trailer below…

To bring closure to the inaugural ITVS Indies Showcase festival which just wrapped up, viewers were asked to select a favorite film for the always-coveted Audience Award. Well, the votes have been tallied and the Indies Showcase Audience Award winner is A Panther in Africa.

The documentary by filmmaker Aaron Matthews, which originally aired on POV, tells the story of  Pete O’Neal, a Black Panther living in exile in Tanzania who commits his life to activism and community service.

Congratulations to the filmmaker and thanks to everyone who voted!

Click her to watch a trailer >>

Daddy & Papa explores the personal, cultural, and political impact of gay men who are making a decision that is at once traditional and revolutionary: to raise children themselves. Taking us inside four gay male families, Daddy & Papa traces the day-to-day challenges and the larger, critical issues that inevitably intersect their private lives – the ambiguous place of interracial families in America, the wonder and precariousness of surrogacy and adoption, the complexities of marriage and divorce within the gay community, and the legality of their own parenthood.

Watch Daddy & Papa now on ITVS’s Indies Showcase >>

Still Life with Animated Dogs traces Paul Fierlinger’s tumultuous life from Stalinist Czechoslovakia to the United States as seen through his relationships with his dogs. It is Fierlinger’s loyalty and caring for his dogs that sustains him even in an atmosphere of oppression and suspicion. Each dog serves as a marker of its master’s personal growth from a misanthrope to an artist who appreciates the divine powers of nature.

Watch Still Life with Animated Dogs now on ITVS’s Indies Showcase >>

An ethnically diverse group of four working class girls strut, flirt, and testify in this vibrant, affecting portrait of teenage girls’ experiences of sexuality. Filmed in South Philadelphia and following its subjects from the ages of 14 to 18, Girls Like Us reveals the conflicts of growing up female by examining the impact of class, sexism, and violence on the dreams and expectations of young girls.

Watch Girls Like Us now on Indies Showcase >>

Women are transforming the landscape of public media through innovation, audience engagement and new forms of storytelling. Our proposed SXSW panel, Women Lead: Public Media in the 21st Century, presents women as innovators and collaborators and will examine how multiple stories told through both traditional and digital media can work in concert to illuminate issues, create sustained, global conversations and invite the public to get involved.

The entry point to the conversation is our new public media initiative, Women and Girls Lead– an unprecedented campaign that activates public television and radio producers, social media strategists, interactive and game designers, and multiple NGO partners committed to affecting change for women and girls around the world. Watch, listen and interact with a variety of content created for this campaign and hear from some 0of the leading women in their field about their experiences working in a 21st century media environment.

Click here to vote for ITVS’s Women Lead Panel at SXSW 2012.

The Oscar-nominated film follows the reunion of a Vietnamese mother and her Amerasian daughter after they were separated for 22 years.