IDFA announced October 18 that A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh will open the festival in 2023, an unveiled the selections for the Envision and International Competitions, the entire IDFA DocLab program and the nominations for all cross-section awards. The official selection of more than 250 titles is now complete. The 36th edition of IDFA takes place in Amsterdam from November 8 to 19.
Opening film
IDFA 2023 opens with the world premiere of A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh. The film presents a deeply personal and essay-style account of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent history, seen through the prism of three generations of women: Chernykh herself, her mother, and her grandmother. In a bid for connection and intimacy, the filmmaker uses old family films, recordings of conversations, and news reports to bridge the distance between her and her grandmother. The result is a kaleidoscopic and personal film that travels through time fluidly.
A Picture to Remember has been selected for the Envision Competition and received IDFA Bertha Fund support in 2023.
IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia comments: “This is a film by an independent filmmaker that is both personal and political. By building her film around three generations of women in her family, Chernykh carriers us to the daily experience of Ukrainians today. The director does not shy away from trying to build a cinematic world with fragile elements. The courage and originality of the film’s approach opens up to a much larger world view. That’s what place films like A Picture to Remember at the heart of IDFA.”
International Competition
The International Competition presents 11 films that “explore contemporary conflict and turmoil through deeply personal experiences,” the festival notes. Nine of the selected titles are world or international premieres. With seventeen countries represented, the selection takes us on “a profound and human journey through the harsh realities of the most tumultuous conflicts of our time—from Gaza, Myanmar, to Nagorno-Karabakh. By revisiting archives and engaging in recent debates, several filmmakers take to the critical re-examination of our established recounts of history. With the ever-rising urgency of climate crisis, a number of selected filmmakers turn their attention to the rapidly unfolding consequences to our natural world.”
Selected films: International Competition
- 1489, dir. Shoghakat Vardanyan (Armenia), 76’ – World Premiere
- As the Tide Comes In, dir. Juan Palacios (Denmark), 89’ – International Premiere
- The Burden, dir. Elvis Ngaibino Sabin (Central African Republic/France/Democratic Republic of the Congo/Italy), 80’ – World Premiere
- The Clinic, dir. Midi Z (Taiwan/Myanmar), 87’ – World Premiere
- Danger Zone, dir. Vita Maria Drygas (Poland/United Kingdom), 93’ – International Premiere
- Flickering Lights, dir. Anirban Dutta, Anupama Srinivasan (India), 90’ – European Premiere
- The Last, dir. Sebastian Peña-Escobar (Paraguay/Uruguay/France), 87’ – World Premiere
- Life Is Beautiful, dir. Mohamed Jabaly (Norway/Palestine), 90’ – World Premiere
- Limitation, dir. Elene Asatiani, Soso Dumbadze (Georgia), 125’ – World Premiere
- Selling a Colonial War, dir. In-Soo Radstake (Netherlands), 133’ – World Premiere
- The World Is Family, dir. Anand Patwardhan (India), 96’ – European Premiere
Envision Competition
The Envision Competition offers 12 “unparalleled films, each of them stylistically arresting, as visionary filmmakers forge new cinematic languages,” the festival notes.
“By refusing to abide to conventional film structures and embracing subjectivity, the films in this selection deviate from the widely established definition of documentary film. Several filmmakers are explicit in the constructing of their world view, each shaped by their own emotions, aesthetics, and ethics. Others turn to look at recent socio-political history through a personal gaze. The selection additionally presents compelling takes on form, with singular aesthetics, hybrid films, and a new era of typography and associative narratives in documentary film,” the festival adds.
Selected films: Envision Competition
- La cancha, dir. Mustafa Uzuner (Canada), 54’ – World Premiere
- Canuto’s Transformation, dir. Ariel Kuaray Ortega, Ernesto de Carvalho (Brazil), 130’ – World Premiere
- Chasing the Dazzling Light, dir. Yaser Kassab (Syria/Qatar/Sweden), 63’ – World Premiere
- Damnatio Memoriae, dir. Thunska Pansittivorakul (Thailand/Germany), 108’ – European Premiere
- GAMA, dir. Kaori Oda (Japan), 53’ – International Premiere
- Mud, dir. Ilya Povolotsky (Russia), 50’ – World Premiere
- Paragate, dir. Jialai Wang (Belgium), 72’ – World Premiere
- A Picture to Remember, dir. Olga Chernykh (Ukraine/France/Germany), 72’ – World Premiere
- Silence of Reason, dir. Kumjana Novakova (North Macedonia/Bosnia-Herzegovina), 63’ – International Premiere
- Tales of Oblivion, dir. Dulce Fernandes (Portugal), 63’ – World Premiere
- Thermodielectric, dir. Ana Costa Ribeiro (Brazil), 72’ – International Premiere
- The Wasp and the Orchid, dir. Saber Zammouri (Tunisia), 66’ – World Premiere
IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction
The 13-title Immersive Competition “boldly expands the genre’s horizons, featuring a selection of multisensory experiences, live performances, artistic VR creations, and immersive installations,” writes the festival. “The selection features multisensory explorations into the frontiers and limitations of artificial intelligence—ranging from how we ascribe emotional value to an AI void of meaning and interactive experiments reimaging cinematic classic and film scores. XR remains a medium of choice for groundbreaking immersive works, with interactive projects that explore everything from worlds unknown to speculative digital utopias.” For all programme details click here
IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling
With 10 selected titles, the Digital Storytelling Competition “builds on the rich history of interactive storytelling with captivating works by both new talent and established names,” the festival writes. “Taking a playful approach to familiar technologies, several projects in this selection use gaming elements and augmented reality to create engaging and thought-provoking experiences. Broaching anti-capitalist activism, football realms, and insightful scenic drives, these projects are designed to engage audiences with creativity and unique narratives. Multiple projects critically explore AI beyond our collective marvel, to examine the implications of this new technology—including governmental risk-based profiling and scripted social realities. For all programme details click here
IDFA DocLab Spotlight
With 10 selected titles, the non-competitive DocLab section brings award-winning VR projects, immersive theater, and an expanded offering of full-dome projects, affirming the space as a flourishing stage for new media. Several works take the age-old medium of literature as the starting point for new media explorations—crafting augmented experiences to demonstrate cyberfeminism’s legacy and immersive non-linear storytelling that explores the self, life’s catastrophes, and our psycho-geographies. For all programme details click here
Cross-section awards
IDFA has also announced the nominations for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature, IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film, and the Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award. The winners will be announced during the IDFA 2023 awards ceremony on Thursday, November 16. Details to follow
