The 2009 IDFA program offered more than 300 documentaries in non-stop screenings from November 19 to 29, and it's clear that the festival's audience favorite is The Cove, Louie Psihoyos' Oscar short-listed thriller of a documentary about dolphin slaughter in Taijin, Japan. The majority of voters rated the film as 9 or 10 of a possible 10.

Other American documentaries to be honored with IDFA Jury Awards are Daniel Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man In America, which won a Special Jury Award presented by the Feature Length Documentary jury panel and The Yes Men Fix The World, which won the Youth Jury Award, presented by a panel of five high school students.

IDFA, held each November in Amsterdam, is the largest and most important documentary film festival in the world.

(PHOTO: Japanese fishermen in 'The Cove' prepare to spear captive dolphins to death. Courtesy Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions.)

IDFA 2009's opening night ceremonies on November 19, were dedicated in part to honoring esteemed American documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman.

Presenting IDFA's first-ever lifetime achievement award, festival founder Ally Derks presented Wiseman with an award statuette, a gold lapel pin and huge bouquet of flowers, and praised not only his cinematic accomplishments, but his generosity towards his subjects, other filmmakers and IDFA -- where he has presented his films, headed juries and given masterclasses, as well.

Wiseman celebrates his 80th birthday on January 1, 2010 and is currently engaged in the production on a new film. His most recent documentary, La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris premiered in 2009 and is being shown as one of ten films in IDFA 2009's Wiseman Retrospective, which also includes screenings of eight of the filmmakers other classics, including Titicut Follies (1967), High School (1968), Hospital (1969), Basic Training (1971), Welfare (1975), Model (1980), Missile (1987), Near Death (1989) and Belfast, Maine (1999). The selection of films for the retrospective was made by Wiseman, himself.

Wiseman has directed and produced dozens of documentaries, which often focused on social relations within American institutions. He is regarded as one of the major exponents of Direct Cinema.

In addition to the films in the Wiseman Retrospective, IDFA 2009 is presenting some 50 American-made documentaries, including two Mchael Moore films (Capitalism: A Love Story and Bowling For Columbine), as well as Crude, We Live in Public and several of the American-made documentaries on the 2010 Oscars short list, including The Cove and Food, Inc.. In all, about 300 documentares will be screened during the 10 day festival.

By the way, I am attending IDFA for the first time, honored to be serving as a juror for one of the festival's competitive categories. So stay tuned for the list of winners -- who receive 10,000 Euros, along with their trophy statuettes. The films being screened are very good, so making choices will be tough.

(PHOTO: IDFA logo. Courtesy IDFA).

In case you're developing your own list of must-see documentaries of 2009, you'll want to include the fifteen films short listed by the the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to be considered for the 2010 Best Documentary Oscar.

Voting members of the Academy's Documentaries Branch will now pick fine final nominees from the short list. The nominees will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. The Academy Awards ceremony at which the winner will be announced will take place on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. It will be televised life in the US on ABC.

The Academy's short list includes films from my list of top documentaries from 2009, including The Cove and Food, Inc.. How does it compare with your choice of favorites?

In Defamation, Israeli filmmaker Yoav Shamir poses the question: "What is anti-Semitism today? To find the answer, Shamir travels around the globe questioning a cross section of the world's citizens about their behavior and attitudes towards Jews and Judaisim.

Casting himself as a player in the film -- as a sort of no nonsense, somewhat naive and very open minded reporter whose aim is to stumble upon (rather than provocatively pursue) the truth about his subject, he investigates an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) case of gang violence against Jews in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, interviews ADL critic Norman Finkelstein, accompanies Israeli school children on a field trip to Auschwitz and chats with the wide range of people he meets randomly on his fact finding mission.

Shamir's breezy personality, casual manner and deft approach in Defamation (or Hashmatsa in Hebrew) works brilliantly. It encourages people to speak quite candidly, and their comments are shocking -- horrendous, really, but sometimes quite surprisingly funny, as well. The conversation gets intensely serious, though, on the subjects of Israel, Middle Eastern politics and the influence of American foreign policy and interests.

The film and Shamir's approach are reminiscent of Bill Maher's take on religious doctrine and practice in Religulous, which undermines the efficacy of dogma by showing it to be ridiculous.

Distributed by First Run Features, Defamation opens theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on November 20. with future screening dates set for Boston, Fresno and Cleveland. The film has been nominated for Best Documentary in the 2009 European Film Awards. Meanwhile, you can watch the trailer. As you'll see, Defamation is an education!

(PHOTO: Yoav Shamir in 'Defamation.' Courtesy First Run Features.)