IDFA announced September 23 its line-up for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, as well as selections for Signed, Best of Fests, Current Future, and Paradocs. IDFA DocLab and Netherlands Film Fund also present the winners of the Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant. More than 107 films have now been added to the IDFA 2025 program.
The 38th edition of IDFA runs from November 13 to 23 in Amsterdam. The final competition titles and full selection will be announced October 14.
IDFA COMPETITION FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY (text supplied by festival)
The IDFA Competition for Short Documentary celebrates the versatility of the form, with films that use creativity and imagination to push the boundaries of short documentary. This year’s mosaic of styles, themes, and perspectives is driven by ambitious directors with singular cinematic voices and a strong artistic vision.
Several titles use archival footage to examine memory and political histories. Exploring where childhood memories connect with collective remembrance, Intersecting Memory by Shayma’ Awawdeh presents a powerful portrait of a youth spent under occupation in Palestine’s West Bank. In As I Lay Dying, Mohammadreza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani revisit shaky footage of social protests in Tehran in 2009.
The selection welcomes several filmmakers back to IDFA with new work, including Lasse Linder with Air Horse One, following prized jumping horse Legacy as she jets from one championship to the next, and Teboho Edkins with An Open Field, where he and his father visit Ethiopia to mourn his brother alongside a community still grieving the victims of a plane crash. Turning to deeply personal stories, in the uplifting collage kiss kiss bang bang by Ollie Launspach explores how the filmmaker’s transition affects his girlfriend, revealing complex questions and insecurities.
Scroll down for full selection. Click here for more info on Short Doc Competition.
SIGNED (Click here for more info)
Signed showcases the latest cinematic adventures of some of the most original filmmakers of our time. The program celebrates those with a unique artistic signature, beyond the canon. Several acclaimed names return to IDFA in this year’s selection. Following his IDFA Bertha Fund-supported debut Kabul, City in the Wind, Aboozar Amini’s Kabul, Between Prayers presents an intimate portrait of a Taliban soldier caught between ideology and an unpredictable reality.
IDFA’s 2020 Guest of Honor Gianfranco Rosi returns with Below the Clouds, a mosaic documentary that explores the city of Naples and its volcanic depths. The selection also includes deeply personal filmmaking. In With Hasan in Gaza, Kamal Aljafari revisits footage of his 2001 road trip through Gaza—unknowingly capturing fleeting moments of everyday life, a reality now irreversibly altered because of the ongoing genocide.
Touching on the critical importance of journalism and literature, award-winning Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up offers a dark portrait of the US through the lens of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Critically acclaimed Claire Simon turns to the classrooms in Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through the Eyes of High School Students, a devoted portrait that captures the living power of the Nobel Prize-winner and contemporary feminist icon Annie Ernaux.
BEST OF FESTS (Click here for more info)
The expansive Best of Fests section presents the year’s most eye-catching and celebrated films from various festivals from around the world. The selection uses vastly diverse styles and genres to take us to the world’s most pressing topics.
Several films in the selection examine the fragile meaning of belonging and home. In Imago, Déni Oumar Pitsaev follows the filmmaker’s journey of personal discovery after inheriting a piece of land in his estranged motherland of Georgia. By means of a poetic portrait of his mother, The Attachment by Mamadou Khouma Gueye documents the forced relocation of her residential community in Dakar.
Other films portray urgent stories of resistance and grassroots activism. Reporting from the front line of the refugee crisis, The Travelers by David Bingong documents young African migrants attempting to enter Europe on the heavily guarded border between Morocco and Spain. Brittany Shyne’s contemplative film Seeds captures the daily lives of Black farmers in the American South, as they struggle to preserve their way of life and ancestral land.
CURRENT FUTURE (Click here for more info)
This year, IDFA takes the next step in its approach to youth documentary by presenting. its youth selection as a cross-section program, curated by filmmaker Niki Padidar. Current Future showcases works that defy our understanding of youth documentary, showing the complexities of our current reality to young audiences—with films now included across the entire festival program. The cross-section program sets out to present works that challenge conventions, spark curiosity, and even leave space for confusion—encouraging young audiences to question their own understanding of the world. The full selection will be announced in October.
PARADOCS (Click here for more info)
Paradocs showcases the year’s non-fiction film art, in which visual artists and filmmakers present their explorations into non-fiction filmmaking. This year’s selection embraces the speculative and the imaginative, blending history, memory, and fantasy.
In his mesmerizing essay film BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions, Kahlil Joseph offers an Afro futurist journey through Black history, identity, and potential. Maureen Fazendeiro’s The Seasons combines archaeological field notes, local legends, and dreamlike 16mm footage to paint a lyrical portrait of Portugal’s Alentejo region.
Isabel Pagliai blurs the line between fiction and documentary in Fantasy, introducing her protagonist through diary entries and inner worlds. In Underground, Kaori Oda leads us through the haunted caves of Okinawa, where images and words unearth a horrific past.
FILM FUND DOCLAB INTERACTIVE GRANT
The Netherlands Film Fund and IDFA DocLab announced the four winners of the Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant. The winning projects will be presented during IDFA as part of the IDFA DocLab program, with works ranging from a full-dome experience to immersive installations.
The winning projects are: Life Needs Internet 2010–2025 by Jeroen van Loon; Feedback, un musical antifuturista by Claudix Vanesix; Gamer Keyboard Wall Piece #2 by Sjef van Beers, and The Oracle: Ritual for the Future (For humans and non-humans) by Victorine van Alphen.
Alongside these presentations, the DocLab Industry Track brings together independent artists, creative technologists, and cultural institutions—offering a unique space for R&D, new partnerships, and the development of emerging documentary formats.
SELECTED FILMS: IDFA COMPETITION FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY (Click here for more info)
- Air Horse One, dir. Lasse Linder (Switzerland/Belgium), 21’ – International Premiere
- As I Lay Dying, dir. Mohammadreza Farzad, Pegah Ahangarani (Iran), 15’ – World Premiere
- Auto Queens, dir. Sraiyanti (India), 30’– World Premiere
- Blue Silence, dir. Matías Rojas Ruz (Chile), 16’ – World Premiere
- Detach, dir. Danielle Kaganov (France), 16’ – World Premiere
- Dreams for a Better Past, dir. Albert Kuhn (Netherlands/Spain), 20’ – World Premiere
- Far from Beyrouth, dir. Mon Dewulf (Belgium), 22’ – International Premiere
- Infinity River, dir. Gonçalo Pina (Portugal), 23’ – World Premiere
- Intersecting Memory, dir. Shayma’ Awawdeh (Palestine/France), 21’ – World Premiere
- kiss kiss bang bang, dir. Ollie Launspach (Netherlands), 28’ – World Premiere
- My Sister’s Room, dir. Pauline Doméjean (France), 31’ – World Premiere
- Now That We Are Sending You to The End, dir. Blake Knecht (United States), 13’ –World Premiere
- An Open Field, dir. Teboho Edkins (South Africa/France/Germany), 38’ – World Premiere
- Paper Houses and Horses, dir. An Chu (Taiwan), 19’ – World Premiere
- Rahhala: Hayya ala Hayya, dir. Lujain Jo (Lebanon/Qatar), 18’ – International Premiere
- Triangle, dir. Anaël Dang (France), 31’ – International Premiere
