Business Doc Europe

In Sien Versteyhe’s new documentary we watch a therapy session within a care centre for survivors of sexual violence. The woman in the film may be traumatised and vulnerable but she is tough, the director underlines. “We are talking more and more about sexual violence, but that we are talking about it in the wrong way,” she tells BDE. “I still feel that. In the stories we see or hear, the perpetrator is almost always the man in the bushes, the monster, and the survivor is always weak. We’re not getting any further than the image of a weak victim in a shower…that’s not the reality.”

In her new feature doc, which world-premieres in Amsterdam, Lynne Sachs sets out to discover why, over the years, receiving business cards from strangers has left such a strong imprint on her consciousness. For her the process was like the tale of Hansel and Gretel. “You leave the crumbs…and they lead you back somewhere…The whole project was to figure out how we are affected by those intersections of our lives with other people's.”

Gianluca Matarrese’s I Want Her Dead is a film about enmity, specifically about two middle-aged women, and both cousins of the director, who simply can’t stand one another. And, no, it wasn’t cathartic or healing for them to have the chance to yell insults so spectacularly. “They still hate each other,” the director tells BDE. “It wasn’t therapeutic at all…but they’re expressing everything they wanted to express.”

Wouter Jansen’s Vienna-based Square Eyes is in IDFA this year with half a dozen films in official selection, both long-form and shorts. Feature docs include The Kartli Kingdom by Georgian directors Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel in International Competition, the Ukrainian Militantropos by Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi in Best of Fests, and Maureen Fazendeiro’s Portuguese doc The Seasons which receives its Dutch premiere in Paradocs. Jansen talks docs with BDE.

Docmaker Mary Stephen’s Palimpsest: The Story of a Name draws on family secrets and outstanding archive footage to pose the universal question, what’s in a name? As the late Eric Rohmer’s editor, Stephen is a cutter of high renown, a fact that informs her debut feature doc. “The real structure of the story really comes out when I'm editing, so that confirms that editing is my calling,” she tells BDE. “That really is the guiding approach to this film. I kept saying to people that [the story] will come when I'm editing it. Try and convince an unknown funder with that! Luckily, we had ARTE come on board very early.”

The prolific Dutch filmmaker is back at IDFA, this time with a film that tackles the difficult topic of psychosis. Several of Bouwmann's protagonists mentioned that, during their psychotic periods, they felt “as if they were in a movie.” Some of their insights are also subversive, suggesting that, at such moments, they’re also experiencing life in a heightened fashion, and that going back to “ordinary reality” seems monotonous and anticlimactic by comparison. “Euphoria and deep insights can be part of psychosis,” he says.

The Whickers announced November 16 that it is increasing its Film & TV Funding Award from £100,000 to £120,000, and its runner-up development award from £20,000 to £25,000. The announcement was made at IDFA during the launch of the organisation’s annual Cost of Docs survey for which filmmakers are invited to share the true cost of documentary production. The deadline for applications for The Whickers Film and TV Fund is January 30, while the deadline to submit responses to the survey is December 16.

The November 17 Polish Docs Pro Showcase will present five new docs in progress to the professionals in attendance at IDFA Industry. At Docs for Sale, industry guests can watch and assess some the most successful Polish docs of the last 12 month, including Silver by Natalia Koniarz – a multiple winner at Krakow FF, Child of Dust by Weronika Mliczewska and What the...Hen? by Joanna Deja, as well films from the IDFA 2025 official selection, such as Confession of a Mole by Mo Tan (Envision Competition), and Passion According to Agnieszka by Wojciech Staroń (Luminous).

Eight new documentaries nearing completion and developed at dok.incubator 2025, will be pitched November 16 during the organisation’s annual showcase at IDFA. “This year’s collection of films offers an extraordinary range of styles, from musical and comedic documentaries to deeply personal auteur films, including a film which is also being turned into an HBO docu-series,” says Andrea Prenghyová, CEO of dok.incubator. “These are profound works shaped by years of devoted filmmaking.”

“Chile arrives at IDFA with a vibrant and diverse presence that celebrates both new voices and master documentarians, reaffirming the creative strength and international recognition of our cinema,” Flor Rubina, Deputy Director of Chiledoc, comments of her country’s presence in Amsterdam this year. Highlights include Blue Silence (by Matías Rojas Ruz) in International Short Film Competition, and two films in Signed; Letters to My Dead Parents by Ignacio Agüero and Invisible Life by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff.

As doors open on 2025 IDFA Forum 2025, one of the most delicate and emotionally resonant titles in the Rough Cut line-up is Bugboy, the new documentary by Greek director Lucas Paleocrassas. The film is produced by Anemon Productions (Greece) in co-production with Toolbox Film (Denmark) and Flach Film Production (France), with world sales being handled by Austria's Autlook. Shot over three years, it examines the growing bond between a sensitive teenager, Yorgos, and the insects he cares for - an unlikely friendship that gradually becomes a map of the boy’s inner world.

In Benjamin Bucher’s debut feature, Joyce, a 22-year-old African-Chinese dancer, tries to find her way in Europe – torn between artistic and identity-related self-discovery, and financial dependence on her mother’s TikTok business. “The film deals with universal themes that many of us can relate to, such as the search for independence, migration and globalisation, identity and the attempt to preserve real moments in an increasingly staged world,” producer Olivier Zobrist tells BDE.