IDFA 2023

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.

The final of Copa 71, an international football event billed as the Women’s World Cup and played at Mexico’s famous Azteca stadium in 1971, remains the highest-attended women’s sporting event in history. But since then, the male-centric FIFA has controlled the football narrative, and the tournament was conveniently wiped from history…until now that is. In their documentary, UK filmmakers Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine place the lost tournament exhilaratingly back in the spotlight.

This gripping and emotional documentary about female victims of deepfake revenge porn itself ingeniously employs deepfake techniques to protect the identity of its protagonist. In doing so, it demonstrates both the complexities of digital anonymity and the frightening levels of perfection the technology has already reached.

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 Ukrainian/German filmmaker team were making a feature documentary about the former US military base at Schweinfurt in mid-Germany when it was re-purposed in Spring 2022 to house displaced mothers and children who had fled the war in Ukraine. In their poignantly titled short doc, in equal part playful and melancholic, we see the world through the eyes of the children now living on the compound. The filmmakers talk to BDE.

As the war in Ukraine continues, there is a danger that the outside world will slowly stop paying attention. Especially since the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Olga Chernykh’s stylistically daring yet accessible film is here to remind us that an unjust war still rages in her country, which makes its selection as IDFA’s opening film all the more poignant.

Documentary sales powerhouse Autlook arrives at IDFA with a mix of world premieres and titles screening in Best of Fests. Among the latter are two docs in this year’s race for the International Oscar, Asmae El Moudir’s Cannes hit The Mother of All Lies (representing Morocco) and Estonian hopeful Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (which has already won Anna Hints a Directing Award at Sundance). Autlook boss Salma Abdalla talks to BDE.

Ukrainian filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov talks to Business Doc Europe about 20 Days In Mariupol, a Dutch premiere in Best of Fests and already an Oscar contender. The film is sold by Dogwoof. “What I didn’t want to do was to impose any feelings or judgements on the audience by being too emotional or over-analysing. But at the same time, I needed to show care. I am part of this society. I am part of this country,” says Chernov.

“What I seek is added value, films that add value to the life of the viewer and…to the art of filmmaking itself,” Orwa Nyrabia tells Business Doc Europe on the eve of Amsterdam’s celebration of all things doc. “Originality, authenticity, imagination, innovation, artistic integrity, stylistic coherence…all lead to the hope that this adds value and meaning to the human condition.” The 36th IDFA runs November 8 - 19.

IDFA 2023 opening film A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh has been acquired for world sales by Stranger Films Sales (France). The film will world premiere in IDFA’s Envision competition and marks the first time a Ukrainian film will open the Amsterdam-based fest. “We firmly believe in the therapeutic potential of documentaries like this,” says Stranger Films Sales’ Tijana Djukic.