IDFA 2020

Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw, the team behind Sundance hit The Truffle Hunters, have revealed further details of their new production company Beautiful Stories. The new outfit, which will make fiction as well as documentary, will be based out of the US and Sweden.

Iranian director Firouzeh Khosrovani discusses the IDFA competition selection Radiograph of a Family, her brilliantly constructed and devastatingly moving story of her parents before and after the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Madagascan Nantenaina Lova’s story of protecting sacred land from foreign mining interests hits just the right tone: no sentimentality, no voyeurism, just honesty.

Berlin-based sales house Rise and Shine have three major music-themed documentaries on their slate, including the Here We Move, Here We Groove about Balkan Beats godfather Robert Soko in Dutch Competition. Festival manager Anja Dziersk also points out that work life under lockdown hasn’t been so bad…

Irena Taskovski focusses on “the positive, while letting docs connect us,” as she picks up world rights for three more IDFA titles. This boosts a slate that already includes Main Competition titles Radiograph of a Family and War and Peace.

Vienna-based Moldovan director Pavel Cuzuioc talks to Business Doc Europe about his second feature doc 'Please Hold The Line', which screens in Best of Fests.

Saskia Gubbels’ Sheltered in Dutch Competition is a paean to love for our furry four-legged friends. But set in the Amsterdam Animal Shelter, it is also an indictment of the human species and its frequent propensity towards cruelty. The director explains all.

It makes you feel like you’re part of this brave and energetic movement, modern day heroes, fighting repression with little more than their innate intelligence and an overpowering sense of (in)justice.

London-based sales outfit Film Republic has confirmed that Netherlands distribution of IDFA opening film Nothing But The Sun by Arami Ullón is to be handled by Cinema Delicatessen, who came on board last week. Meanwhile, Cineworx will be releasing the film in Switzerland.

The dream to make a sleepy French village a Mecca for auteur documentary makes for an intriguing and ultimately enthralling story.