IDFA 24

Vienna-based sales agency Filmdelights presents two films in IDFA official selection - Dear Beautiful Beloved by Juri Rechinsky and Personale by Carmen Trocker - as well as acclaimed filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić’s new project Blum and Eva Kübar’s My Partners as part of their Docs for Sale slate. “To put it simply, our editorial policy comes down to films we find interesting and that resonate with us,” Christa Auderlitzky, Managing Director tells BDE.

“The subject of propaganda was one of the most interesting things for me. I wanted to go deeper into that…” Dutch director Luuk Bouwman underlines of his new film, selected for IDFA International Competition. The Propagandist profiles Dutch filmmaker Jan Teunissen (1898-1975) who, during the Nazi era, was called the “czar” of the Dutch film industry, and who boasted of personal friendships with the likes of Goebbels.

Martijn Blekendaal, whose The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Children's Documentary in 2018, discusses the (super)heroic qualities required to remain invisible. “I grew up in a white environment where I always really stood out. I wanted to be invisible. Later, I realized that this desire is a ‘luxury problem’ compared to children who are forced to be invisible because they’re in hiding, being abused, or smuggled across borders,” he says.

In Pictures in Mind, Eleonora Camizzi uses the medium of cinema to confront her father, Vincenzo, who has schizophrenia, asking him the difficult questions she has avoided for years. Set in a minimalist, symbolic space, the documentary explores their strained relationship and the challenges of living with a father in a different reality. The director recalls: “When we first watched it together, he said, ‘luckily I said yes to this project; it’d be a shame if this film didn’t exist.’”

Eight projects that are “ready to premiere soon and start their festival lives” will be presented 15.30 at LAB 111. Over the past 13 years, 14 films developed at the dok.incubator rough cut workshop have been selected for Sundance, while two were nominated for Emmy Awards. This year three are selected for Best of Fests at IDFA 2024 (A Sisters’ Tale, Agent of Happiness and We Are Inside).

Dutch filmmaker Miriam Guttmann discusses her remarkable new documentary in which the front line of war and the front row of Ukrainian culture intertwine. “This story distinguishes itself by interweaving the current war in Ukraine with the power of art,” says Guttmann. “The dancers used their talent as a way to preserve their humanity, and rather than fighting on the frontline, they continue their battle on the ballet stage.”

In 2021, the forested border area between Belarus and Poland became a “forbidden zone.” Refugees caught there were forced back into Belarus, often in brutal fashion. “We felt it was our obligation, our call, to witness what was happening there,” remembers director Zuzanna Solakiewicz whose film, co-directed with Zvika Gregory Portnoy, was transformed when an unexpected ‘guest’ arrived in the forest.

Chiledoc, responsible for the global promotion of Chilean documentary talent, films and series, arrives in Amsterdam with two projects in Forum, the world-prem of Ancestral Secret VR in DocLab, a world and European premiere in Short Film Comp and The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine in Best of Fests. “Europe is a significant territory for Chilean films because it has the most prominent partners for the kind of films we make and because European audiences are very committed to our stories,” says Head of Chiledoc Diego Pino Anguita.

Love may be at the heart of Myrid Carten’s feature documentary debut A Want In Her, but it comes at a price. When the director answered a call to return from London to help find her mother who had gone missing somewhere in Ireland, her response to the crisis was immediate, but so was her reflex to pick up her camera to record the process. Carten talks to BDE about her film, world-premiering in Amsterdam.

This enticing and intriguing documentary about Polish climber Wanda Rutkiewicz, the first woman in the world - and the first person from Poland - to climb the two highest peaks on Earth, offers tantalising hints of possible intrigue and mystery as it tells the story of a remarkable woman who entered the very masculine world of mountaineering uninvited - and seemingly paid the highest price for it.