Nick Cunningham

Jagoda and Zuzia, two smart, articulate and very funny young Polish teenagers talk about life as they see it in Aga Borzym’s charming doc selected for IDFA Youth Competition. “Generally, Polish documentaries like to show really tough topics,” says the director, “It’s not so [usual] to have a documentary where the protagonists are kids.”

It’s like The Apprentice, but on steroids. But unlike that Trumpian gift to television, the candidates in Piet Baumgartner’s The Driven Ones are seriously smart (potential) entrepreneurs. In the film we meet five students on the world-renowned Masters program at the Swiss University of St. Gallen. But student life accounts for a mere quarter of the film. Because Baumgartner then follows his subjects into the wider world to see how they put theory into practice. The director gets down to business with BDE.

Rise and Shine World Sales has announced the acquisition of the IDFA International Competition doc Selling A Colonial War by Korean-Dutch director In-Soo Radstake. The film world premieres November 11 at the Royal Theatre Carré. The film “exposes the Dutch government's narrative during the Indonesian War of Independence,” the filmmakers note.

In Karim Sayad’s highly cinematic 2G, world-premiering at IDFA, the Niger government’s ban on unlawful migrant transportation forces four former smugglers to reassess their future prospects, which mainly involves digging for gold in the desert. The film is made with a ‘western’ visual aesthetic, Sayad tells BDE. “They are modern cowboys. Instead of riding horses they drive a Toyota Hilux or ride motor bikes across the desert.”

In his funny and melancholic “coming of old age” doc, Rogier Kappers looks to overcome a mid-life crisis by making, and going on the road with, a glass organ, a musical instrument comprised of water-filled drinking glasses. “The film is about all these existential questions we all have; love, how to be happy, how to be someone meaningful or what to do with your life, what to dream about, and what the purpose of life actually is,” says Kappers.

The apology follows the publication of an open letter by leading representatives of the Israeli documentary and film community which expressed its “uttermost dismay, disappointment and concern” at the protest which saw the public display of a sign which read, ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.’ In its response, IDFA wrote: “That slogan does not represent us, and we do not endorse it in any way. We are truly sorry that it was hurtful to many.”

The IDFA offer to doc professionals is very much in evidence again in 2023, with 64 projects selected for Forum, a Docs for Sale catalogue of 350+ projects and a series of talks that underline the “solidarity” with the filmmakers for whom the festival exists, both to promote and serve. “The filmmakers…are our ears and eyes in society, and it is very important to remember that we should give space to them to make their work possible,” says Industry Head Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen.

IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia and IDFA Bertha Fund director Isabel Arrate Fernandez responded November 9 to the open letter published November 7 by Docudays articulating concern over the festival’s selection of Russian films this year. “Any films by Russian filmmakers whose political positions are not clear to us, being critical to the Russian war on Ukraine and the Russian discourse of trying to justify it, will not be welcome at IDFA,” Nyrabia and Arrate Fernandez underline.

In an open letter co-signed by 46 Ukrainian film professionals, Docudays UA expressed its “disappointment and serious concern about the presence of films made in Russia and by Russian authors in the [IDFA] programmes” in 2023. The letter further cited the names of Ukrainian film professionals who have died in 2022–2023 as a direct result of the Russian war in Ukraine.

The Australian International Documentary Conference, the leading Southern Hemisphere gathering and marketplace for doc and factual content, revealed November 9 the first confirmed guests and theme for the 2024 edition. The event 2024 will take place in-person 3-6 March, followed by an online international marketplace 7- 8 March 2024. $235K Australian (€140,000) up for grabs in prizes.