Netflix’s ‘Crip Camp’ Beats Amazon’s ‘Time’ For Best Feature Win At IDA Awards

Crip Camp, the Netflix documentary centering on a summer camp for disabled kids and its role in hastening the disability rights movement, won Best Feature at the International Documentary Association’s 2021 IDA Awards, in what many would refer to as an upset.

The film, which was directed by Nicole Newnham and Jim LeBrecht, also won the ABC News VideoSource Award for its skillful use of archival video footage from the 1970s to 1990s. LeBrecht had attended the camp himself as a teenager, according to Deadline.

“I want to thank everybody at Camp Jened, the staff, the counselors and the campers,” said LeBrecht as he struggled to hold back tears. “My life set a course when I went there and you all are responsible for this–you are so much a part of this award.”

Newnham and producer Sara Bolder accepted the award alongside LeBrecht, each thanking the many who contributed to the documentary’s success.

Newnham added, “The hippie teens and counselors of Camp Jened could never have imagined the wide-reaching impact that their brief utopian community would come to have on disability civil rights around the world. But they did dare to imagine that a better, more inclusive world was possible. And we believed that an immersive, community-told story, a film of their story, could help to continue their work.”

In her speech, Newnham thanked executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama, whose Higher Ground banner produced the feature.

As the evening approached, Amazon Studios’ Time was a shoo-in for IDA’s coveted Best Feature award, having already been recognized as the Gotham Award winner for Best Documentary (in a tie with A Thousand Cuts).

Time, however, did not go unnoticed at the IDA Awards. Garrett Bradley was named Best Director and the recipient of the Emerging Filmmaker Award.

In her acceptance speech, Bradley thanked the family whose story she tells in the film: Sibil Fox Richardson (aka Fox Rich) and her husband Rob. Time chronicles Fox Rich’s 20-year-battle to try and get Rob out of jail after he was sentenced to 60 years in prison for armed robbery.

“It has been such a privilege and an honor to work with Fox and Rob and Miss Peggy and the entire Richardson family,” Bradley mentioned, “in bringing their story of love, which surpasses all time and space, to the world.”

Probably the most shocking and upsetting news to Netflix viewers was that Tiger King didn’t win a single award.

Michael is a music and television junkie keen on most things that are not a complete and total bore. You can follow him on Twitter — @Tweetskoor

Stream Crip Camp on Netflix