The answer, it seems, is compelling characters, poignant subject matter and directors whose passion for storytelling showed even in their acceptance speeches. 

"If the filmmaker has that natural curiosity and excitement that they parse out to the audience, they can make almost anything interesting and exciting," said IDA president Eddie Schmidt. 

Schmidt said the Anvil story was far more touching than one would expect from a documentary about a little-known Canadian metal band. 

"'Anvil' touches anyone who has ever wanted to forge their own path in life," he said. "You find yourself sort of teary-eyed by the end of it because you're so invested in the band." 

Earlier in the night, Anvil also took home the Musical Documentary award, which was announced by "Office" and "The Rocker" star Rainn Wilson via a video message. 

But not all of the films were as light-hearted. Many of the night's winners focused on poverty and disease in the developing world. 

Mai Iskander took home the Humanitas Award for "Garbage Dreams," about three boys making a living in the recycling trade in a trash village on the outskirts of Cairo. 

Mai Iskander's documentary 'Garbage Dreams,' which was awarded the
Humanitas Award, focuses on the efforts of a Coptic Christian recycling village
in Egypt. (Photo by Olga Khazan)

Iskander said the boys became like her family, and she theirs. And as with most families, she said, they showed affection by "constantly arguing and never showing up on time." 

Many times, she said, her subjects had to be dragged out of bed for interviews, proof that teenagers are the same everywhere. 

"The kids wouldn't be focused on the fact that they're living in poverty, they were more focused on normal teenage concerns like their hair and who has the biggest muscles," Iskander said in an interview. 

The night reached an emotional fulcrum with a special presentation by Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two journalists who were jailed in North Korea and sentenced to 12 years hard labor before being released earlier this year. 

"I feel like I'm the lucky one in this to have the privilege of being home when so many people do not," Ling said after the ceremony. "We're here to present a tribute to journalists and filmmakers who are still in prison or have been killed in the line of their duty, which is to pursue the truth." 

Their tribute honored the more than 120 journalists who are currently in jail for reporting, while others "have a tendency to ignore the ugliest parts of the world," Lee said.  

Irene Brodsky didn't hesitate before entering one such part of the world with her one-year-old baby in tow. Her film "The Final Inch" followed health workers attempting to administer the polio vaccinate in poor communities across India, often working against a tide of maternal apprehension and mistrust of Western medicine. 

In order to convince reluctant parents that the vaccine is necessary, one of these women became "a closer," Glass said. "Like a character from "Glengarry Glen Ross" in a Burkha." 

"She had a way of talking to these moms and getting them to say yes," said Brodsky, whose film has also been nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary short. 

The IDA also honored Nicolas Noxon and Errol Morris with special achievement awards for their contributions to documentary storytelling. 

Noxon launched the National Geographic TV series in the 1960s, opening a window to the world for at-home audiences while he and his crew "roamed the world as if it was our candy store," he said. 

In his acceptance speech, Noxon told a story about one of the show's first episodes, which was narrated by Orson Welles. Welles was four days late to the narration shoot, and when he finally did arrive to record, he was rushed and inattentive. When Noxon asked him to do another take, Welles said, 

"Mr. Noxon, are you trying to direct me?" 

Noxon responded: "Mr. Welles, I haven't waited for your call for four days only to come here to listen." 

Errol Morris also accepted a career achievement award for his vast body of work, which includes "The Thin Blue Line," the "Fog of War" and last year's "Standard Operating Procedure." In past years, the award had gone to other trailblazers like Werner Herzog and Michael Moore. 

Composer Philip Glass, who wrote the score for several of Morris' films (and happens to be Ira's cousin), introduced Morris and said the director sets an extremely high bar for himself as a documentarian, and one just as high for those who work with him. 

"And the only way out," he said, "is up." 

A montage of Morris' films emphasized the stark candor of his interviews and his unsentimental handling of dark subject matter, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in "Standard Operating Procedure." 

"Making documentaries is a difficult enterprise," Morris said, "but you get to reinvent filmmaking every chance you get."