| International Emmy Award for Best Documentary | |
| Awarded For: | Best Documentary |
| Presenter: | International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences |
| Country: | United States |
| Year: | 1967 |
| Holder: | Otto Baxter: Not a F**ing Horror Story (2024) |
The International Emmy Award for Best Documentary is presented since 1967 by the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (IATAS) to the best documentaries produced and aired initially outside the United States.[1]
According to the rules of the International Academy, documentary is a factual presentation providing an in-depth analysis of a specific subject or point of view supported by evidence and informed commentary, on any subject other than art and artists.[2] The program should fit the minimum format length of a televised half-hour time slot.
If the program is part of a continuous series of self-contained episodes (i.e. each episode has its own storyline with a conclusion; or each episode may have a different director and/or producer; or series has the potential to go on for multiple seasons), then each episode must be submitted as a separate entry. If the program is a multi-part series with a finite number of episodes (no further episodes planned), covering the same theme, two (2) episodes must be submitted to represent of the series as a whole.
If the program contains multiple parts with a continuing storyline beyond one episode, or share the same concept, two (2) episodes must be submitted to represent the series as a whole. The program may employ partial re-enactment, stock footage, stills, animation, stop-motion or other techniques, as long as the emphasis is on fact and not on fiction
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967 | Big Deal at Gothenburg | Tyne Tees Television | |||||||
| 1968 | The Anderson Platoon | La Section Anderson | Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française | ||||||
| 1969 | The Last Campaign of Robert Kennedy | Swiss Broadcasting and Television | |||||||
| The Secret Hospital – Part 1, Rampton | Yorkshire Television | ||||||||
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fighting Back | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | ||||||||
| Charters to Hell | Charters Pour L'Enfer | TF1 | |||||||
| Is There One Who Understands Me? – The World of James Joyce | Raidió Teilifís Éireann | ||||||||
| The Miracle of Life | Swedish Television | ||||||||
| The Heart of the Dragon Remembering (Episode 1) | Channel 4 | ||||||||
| 1985 | 28 Up | Granada Television | |||||||
| Channel 4 / Csaky Ltd. | |||||||||
| The Sword of Islam | Granada Television | ||||||||
| The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank | TROS / BRT Belgium Television / AVA | ||||||||
| Four Hours in My Lai | Yorkshire TV | ||||||||
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J'ai Douze Ans et Je Fais la Guerre | CAPA Production / Canal Plus / France 3 | ||||||||
| Cambodia – The Betrayal | ITV Central | ||||||||
| El Caso 112 | |||||||||
| Chasseurs des ténèbres | Antenne 2 / MDI / Nat Geo / Wind Horse | ||||||||
| 1992 [3] | The Fifth Estate: To Sell A War | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | |||||||
| Inside Story: The Nightrider | |||||||||
| Kwai | |||||||||
| 1993 [4] | Disappearing World "We Are All Neighbours" | Granada Television | |||||||
| Monika and Jonas – The Face of the Informer State | NHK | ||||||||
| Shackled Children | |||||||||
| Life in the Freezer "The Big Freeze" | BBC | ||||||||
| 1995 [5] | Anne Frank Remembered | Jon Blair Film Company / BBC / Disney Channel | |||||||
| Lest We Forget | Contre L’Oubli | France 2 | |||||||
| The Dead (Twenty-Five Bloody Years) | |||||||||
| Igor – Child of Chernobyl | Zenith North / Carlton Television | ||||||||
| The Pelican of Ramzan the Red | Boreales / Canal + / Docstar / Premiere | ||||||||
| People's Century - "1933: The Master Race" | BBC Television / WGBH | ||||||||
| The Saga of Life: The Unknown World | Sveriges Television / Eriksson Television / Wanngard | ||||||||
| Gerrie & Louise | Canadian Broadcasting Corporation | ||||||||
| 1998 [6] | Exile in Sarajevo | Exile Productions | |||||||
| Futebol | GNT / Globosat / Videofilmes | ||||||||
| Endgame: The Untold Story of the Hostage Crisis in Peru | |||||||||
| Born in the USSR: 14 Up | Granada Television / BBC | ||||||||
| Just Like Anyone Else | Mainichi Broadcasting System | ||||||||
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 [7] [8] | Kapo | RAI 3 / Spiegel TV / TEL-AD TV | |||||||
| Stolen Generations | Jotz Productions | ||||||||
| Playing the China Card: Nixon and Mao | Channel 4 / WGBH-TV | ||||||||
| 2001 [9] [10] | Welcome to North Korea | KRO Television | |||||||
| Challenger: Go for Launch | |||||||||
| La liste Golda | Golda's List | ||||||||
| For My Baby | |||||||||
| 2002 [11] [12] | Nicholas Winton - The Power of Good | WIP / Czech Television / Slovak Television |  Slovakia | ||||||
| Offspring | |||||||||
| Decision at Age 18 - Israeli Youths Refuse To Fight | |||||||||
| City Slickers: A Tale of Two African Penguins | Pelican Pictures | ||||||||
| 2003 [13] [14] | Like Goes On | Das Leben geht weiter | StarCrest Media GmbH | ||||||
| Avenging Terror | |||||||||
| The Last Peasants | |||||||||
| Stalingrad | |||||||||
| 2004 [15] [16] | The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off | Channel 4 | |||||||
| Testigo | |||||||||
| Seven Wonders of the Industrial World "Hoover Dam" | |||||||||
| The Origins of AIDS | Les Origines du Sida | Galafilm / MFP / Pathe Archives | , | ||||||
| 2005 [17] [18] | The Drama of Dresden | BROADVIEW TV GmbH / ZDF | |||||||
| Contacto: "Paul Schafer: Se Busca" | |||||||||
| The House of Saud | Arte France / Alegria / Starling / BBC / WGBH Boston | , | |||||||
| Prostitution Behind the Veil | Prostitution bakom slojan | , | |||||||
| 2006 [19] [20] | Hiroshima | BBC / TF1 / ZDF / Discovery Channel | |||||||
| How Putin Came To Power | |||||||||
| 9/11: The Falling Man | |||||||||
| The Search for Happiness | |||||||||
| 2007 [21] [22] | IWC Media / BBC Scotland | ||||||||
| In God's Hands | |||||||||
| Dinosaurs vs. Mammals – Secrets of Mammalian Survival | |||||||||
| Smiling in a War Zone | |||||||||
| 2008 [23] | The Beckoning Silence | Channel 4 | |||||||
| Asian Corridor in Heaven (Tea-Horse Old Road) | |||||||||
| Collision over the Amazon | Colisão sobre a Amazônia | Discovery Channel / US Hispanic | |||||||
| Please Vote for Me | Steps International | ||||||||
| 2009 [24] [25] | The Ascent of Money | Chimerica Media Limited / Channel 4 | |||||||
| Pancho Villa: Aqui y Alli | History Channel Latin America / Anima Films | ||||||||
| Shooting the Messenger | |||||||||
| Cityboy – The Life of Investment Banker Geraint Anderson | |||||||||
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 [26] | Mom and the Red Bean Cake | Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation | |||||||
| 9/11: Phone Calls from the Towers | |||||||||
| Kuarup: The Lost Soul Will Return | Kuarup: A alma perdida vai voltar | ||||||||
| You Die as You Lived: Roterdam Hospice | Je gaat dood zoals je geleefd hebt | ||||||||
| 2011 [27] [28] | Life with Murder | JS Kastner Productions / National Film Board of Canada | |||||||
| Confesiones de un Sicario | Turner Argentina / Anima Films | ||||||||
| The Nonfiction: Family Meeting - 7 Years in the Tanaka Family | |||||||||
| Wild Japan | GmbH / ORF / ARTE / National Geographic / Parthenon Entertainment | ||||||||
| 2012 [29] [30] | BBC / KEO Films | ||||||||
| Across Land, Across Sea | |||||||||
| Hitler's Scape | El escape de Hitler | History Channel Latin America / Anima Films | |||||||
| Race to the South Pole | Der Wettlauf zum Südpol | ||||||||
| 2013 [31] [32] | 5 Broken Cameras | Alegria Productions / Guy DVD Films / Burnat Films Palestine / France Télévisions | |||||||
| The Golden Hour |  New Zealand | ||||||||
| My Mother, Lady Bondong | |||||||||
| 5 de Mayo, Un Dia de Gloria | Discovery Channel Latin America / Cactus Films | ||||||||
| 2014 [33] [34] | No Burqas Behind Bars | Frihet bakom galler | Nima Film / SVT / NHK / Ikon / DRTV / NRK | ||||||
| Going Back | De Volta | Canal Futura / COOPAS | |||||||
| No Fire Zone: The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka | |||||||||
| Phantoms of the Border | |||||||||
| 2015 [35] | Miners Shot Down | Uhuru Productions |  South Africa | ||||||
| Africa's Wild West - Stallions of the Namib Desert |  Austria | ||||||||
| Before We Are Forgotten | Antes de que Nos Olviden | ||||||||
| Growing Up Down's | Maverick Television / Dartmouth Films | ||||||||
| 2016 [36] | War of Lies | Krieg der Lügen | Zischlermann Filmproduktion | ||||||
| Mothers of Plaza de Mayo - The Story | Madres de Plaza de Mayo | El Perro en la Luna | |||||||
| Mom & Clarinet | KBS / Upright Media | ||||||||
| My Son the Jihadi | True Vision Productions | ||||||||
| 2017 [37] | EXODUS: Our Journey to Europe | KEO Films / BBC 2 | |||||||
| The Phone of the Wind: Whispers to Lost Families | |||||||||
| Terror Studios | Le Studio de la Terreur | ||||||||
| Tempestad | Pimienta Films / Cactus Films / Terminal | ||||||||
| 2018 [38] | Goodbye Aleppo | BBC Arabic | |||||||
| This Is Me | Eu Sou Assim | GNT / TV Zero | |||||||
| Puck's World | De Wereld van Puck | KURTA / EO Television | |||||||
| Who I Am (Season 2) | WOWOW / Acrobat Film | ||||||||
| 2019 [39] | Submarine Amsterdam / VPRO | ||||||||
| The First Stone – The Rise of Lynching in Brazil | A Primeira Pedra | Canal Futura / Couro de Rato | |||||||
| Louis Theroux's Altered States | |||||||||
| Witness: India's Forbidden Love | Grain Media / AJE Witness | ||||||||
| width=5% | Year | width=30% | English title | width=30% | Original title | width=20% | Production company/Network | width=15% | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 [40] | For Sama | Channel 4 | |||||||
| The Witness | El testigo | ||||||||
| Granni-E-minem | |||||||||
| Back to Rwanda | Terug naar Rwanda | De Chinezen / VRT Belgium | |||||||
| 2021 [41] | Hope Frozen: A Quest to Live Twice | 2050 Productions / Netflix | |||||||
| Sieged | Cercados | Original Globoplay / Globo Jornalism | |||||||
| They Call Me Babu | Pieter van Huystee Film | ||||||||
| Toxic Beauty | White Pine Pictures | ||||||||
| 2022 [42] | Iraq's Lost Generation | Enfants de Daech, Les Damnés de la Guerre | Cinétévé / France Televisions / LCP / RTS / DR / NRK / SVT / Région Ile-de-France / CNC / PROCIREP – ANGOA | ||||||
| Myanmar Coup: Digital Resistance | |||||||||
| Sky / Alba Sotorra Productions / MetFilm | |||||||||
| The Evandro Case: A Devilish Plot | O Caso Evandro | Globoplay / Glaz Entretenimento | |||||||
| 2023 [43] [44] | Mariupol: The People's Story | Top Hat Productions / Hayloft Productions / BBC | |||||||
| Dossiê Chapecó – O Jogo Por Trás Da Tragédia | Warner Bros. Discovery / Pacha Films | ||||||||
| Nazi Hunter – Journey Into Darkness | Nazijäger – Reise In Die Finsternis | ||||||||
| Witness "Serigne vs. The EU" | |||||||||
| 2024 [45] | Otto Baxter: Not a F**ing Horror Story | Story Films / Archface Films / Sky Documentaries | |||||||
| The Billionaire, the Butler and the Boyfriend | L'affaire Bettencourt : Scandale chez la femme la plus riche du monde | ||||||||
| The Exiles | |||||||||
| Transo | FRM / Canal Futura / LateForCake | ||||||||
United Kingdom has the most awards for this category with 23 (including wins for both BBC and Channel 4).