IDFA 2022

Autlook boss Salma Abdalla outlines to Business Doc Europe the highlights of her IDFA 2022 slate, which includes the recent pick-up, My Name Is Happy, a world premiere in Frontlight and directed by Nick Read and Ayse Toprak; One In A Million, the new doc by Jack MacInnes and Iota Azzam, and three Oscar hopefuls, Three Minutes - A Lengthening, Myanmar Diaries and Sirens by Rita Baghdadi.

Marina Meijer’s new documentary returns to familiar ground as she profiles a Rotterdam adolescent whose fate as to whether he stays at home or taken into care is decided upon by a team of anonymous social workers. “But I made very clear from the beginning. For me, this is not a film about youth care. It is a film about a boy and his mother and […] the threats from the outside world,” says Meijer.

There can be few films in IDFA this year as disturbing as The Lost Souls Of Syria, a world premiere in the festival’s Frontlight section. Directed by Stéphane Malterre and Garance Le Caisne, the film tells the story of the thousands of people tortured and killed by the Assad regime in Syria and of the agonising battle for justice fought by their relatives and friends. The filmmakers explain the work to BDE.

Dok.incubator director Andrea Prenghyová discusses her high-end professional programme, its raison d’etre and modus operandi, as well as its presence at IDFA, centering on the November 12 showcase of seven new projects. “There are many good films, but we help people to make their films outstanding,” she tells Business Doc Europe of the eight filmmaker teams selected each year.

Antipode’s IDFA slate will feature two lead titles, Humaira Bilkis’ Things I Could Never Tell My Mother (Best of Fests) and Kirill Nenashev’s Doc for Sales film Ice Under His Feet. Originally based in Moscow, Antipode relocated to Israel following the unfolding of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The company’s Anisa Kazakova explained that the sales outlet’s catalogue also includes several protest films.

“We have taken some hits,” a weary-looking stuntwoman sighs early on in Elena Avdija’s debut feature doc Cascadeuses (Stuntwomen), an international premiere at IDFA. The film, sold internationally by Andana, recently won the Focus Competition at the Zurich Film Festival. “We had this question, who are the few women who do this job and what are they facing in their lives,” the director tells BDE.

“Being dead is BOOM,” says one kid in Sara van Oostrum’s very touching short doc about death, receiving its international premiere at IDFA. Another kid opines how, “when you’re dead you don’t fart anymore, and your heart stops beating.” Other children reflect on their very painful experiences of the passing of grandparents, and some older participants talk movingly about their late partners. The director tells BDE why she made her new doc.

Dutch Nirit Peled discusses her new doc, world premiering at IDFA, about the nightmare situation suffered by mothers whose sons are placed on the crime prevention lists drawn up by the authorities. “Intuitively, I felt there was something very interesting and very filmic in looking through parental eyes at youth criminality,” the director says.

A raft of new documentaries, spearheaded by Susanne Regina Meures’ Girl Gang (one of five feature docs recently nominated for a European Film Award) and Jorgen Leth and Andreas Koefoed’s Music for Black Pigeons, form Berlin-based sales agency Rise and Shine’s Docs for Sale line-up, ready to spark the interest of buyers and distributors at this year’s IDFA.

This year, Berlin-based sales agency Magnet Film brings seven new documentaries to IDFA’s Docs for Sale. Business Doc Europe talked to the German firm’s CEO, Georg Gruber, to find out more about the company’s rich non-fiction slate. “We are always looking for films with strong narratives, compelling subjects and characters, and with a clear appeal to a worldwide audience,” he says.