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20 Days in Mariupol by Mstyslav Chernov was given the NPO IDFA Audience Award, the grand public prize of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The €5,000 cash prize was awarded November 18 in the Royal Theater Tuschinski, followed by a special screening of the film. This year, 142 films competed for the Audience Award.

The Guest of Honour this year was Chinese auteur Wang Bing. In Amsterdam the  director was celebrated with a dedicated retrospective showcasing six of his films, including Youth (Spring), Man in Black and Mrs. Fang, a Top 10 programme and a one-on-one conversation with Orwa Nyrabia that zoomed in on his career and body of work.

The winners of IDFA's 36th edition competition programs were announced November 16. 1489 (Armenia) by Shoghakat Vardanyan won the IDFA Award for Best Film. The award is accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. Ariel Kuaray Ortega and Ernesto de Carvalho won the IDFA Award for Best Film in the Envision Competition for Canuto’s Transformation (Brazil). The award is also accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. All winners…

IDFA announced November 15 that Mohammed Almughanni’s Son of the Streest has won the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch. Amber Fares’s Coexistence, My Ass! took home the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and the DocLab Forum Award went to Turbulence by Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts. Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500. Coexistence, My Ass! will also receive closed captioning and subtitles from inVision Subtitling.

Five films in official selection, one immersive project in DocLab competition, and a delegation composed mainly of women form the core of the Chilean offer at IDFA in 2023. “This year, there is a special emphasis on the diversity of generations of directors and thematic richness and languages, reflecting the quality and diversity of Chilean productions,” comments Chiledoc’s Diego Pino.

Four Polish docs-in-progress, all made by female directors, were presented November 13 to the great and the good of the international documentary sector. Two are by debutants (Julia Kuzka and Natalia Pietsch) while two are by established filmmakers (Agnieszka Zwiefka and Malgorzata Szumowska). KFF Sales & Promotion is also selling Girl’s Stories by Aga Borzym, which premiered at IDFA Youth Competition.

Business Doc Europe spoke to Zenit producer Massimo Arvat, the delegate in charge of internationalization for Doc/It, the Italian association of doc filmmakers and producers made up of 170 members, and active since 1999. During our chat, Arvat touched on this year’s slate of projects, the main industry activities and the current state of the country’s non-fiction landscape.

Paris-based The Party Film Sales is specialised in repping both fiction and documentary films worldwide. “We’re proud to present almost all our main documentaries of the year, among which some are still in the race for Academy Awards,” the firm’s co-head of International Sales Estelle De Araujo told Business Doc Europe at IDFA 2023.

IDFA staff posted an onsite message November 12 which looked to reach out to the aggrieved parties affected by the events of the opening night when protesters took to the stage to present to display a ‘from the river to the sea’ banner.

The film, which world-premiered in IDFA Envision section November 10, concerns recent archaeological findings in southern Portugal which reveal Portugal's forgotten role in the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved African people. “We're proud to be part of a project that sparks important conversations and helps us understand our shared history better,” says CEO Irena Taskowski, whose company celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2023.