The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam has its announced line-ups for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary and the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary (for full list see below), as well as the selections for its new Signed sections, and Best of Fests.
The festival also announced that IDFA Forum, the festival’s co-production and co- financing market, has expanded to a total of 64 projects, including seven by Ukrainian filmmakers.
IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
The IDFA Competition for Short Documentary “showcases a healthy boom for the short film form,” writes the festival. “A mosaic of styles and themes defines this selection of 15 films, exploring everything a short documentary can be.”
The festival points out how Pegah Ahangarani returns to IDFA with “a personal telling of family history and their experience of the Iranian revolution” in My Father, and Nastia Korkia while Vlad Fishez’s essayistic Dreams About Putin “traverses the nightmares and hopes of many Russians.” Other highlights include Esy Casey’s A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas, “a visually ingenious partly dual-channel film that tells the story of the many women from the Philippines who are trafficked all over the world to support their families.” Returning to IDFA after the 2017 world premiere of his film We Will Maintain, Festus Toll uses archive materials and striking design in his new film The Story of Ne Kuko which explores “the disruptions and consequences caused by the colonial looting of art.”
IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary
The Youth Competition showcases 15 films that “challenge the definition of youth documentary.” For the first time, IDFA has invited a filmmaker to curate the selection with Niki Padidar, the director of IDFA 2022’s opening film All You See, initiating this new approach. The selected titles are presented for two distinct age groups: 9+ and 12+. A three-person jury, to be announced in late October, will select one award-winner from each group.
IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia comments: “By inviting a filmmaker, being Niki Padidar, to lead this process, we are trying to rethink what we do with youth documentary. Niki is outspoken in wanting to move beyond the limits of structure and forced light-heartedness that fail to take children seriously. Her change starts with a compelling and complex selection and is followed by written reflections and debates during the Industry Talks program.”
IDFA Youth Competition programmer Niki Padidar comments: “This year IDFA Youth will push the envelope. More uneasy and bold topics and stretching the confines of the genre; applauding diversity in documentary storytelling. Taking youth seriously and challenging them, with film that are just as interesting for adults to watch.”
Mariusz Rusiński delivers Sister of Mine, described as “an intensely intimate and intricate account of the filmmaker’s family, following his parents and his 17-year-old drug-addicted and charismatic sister Zuzia. In “a story about estrangement and the search for belonging,” The Sketch by director Tomas Cali follows his journey as he moves to Paris and sketches a “new reality” for himself.
The selection presents noteworthy experiments in storytelling, including Headprickles by Katarzyna Miechowicz, a series of absurd and funny, animated vignettes, and Medhin Tewolde Serrano’s Nyanga, a handmade animation that translates a complex history of slavery into the story of Nyanga, a boy who is kidnapped to America who wants to go home.
Signed
In new festival programme Signed, the audience is invited to discover the new cinematic adventures of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers. The first selections represent “a wide spectrum of artistic expression and explorations into film language, with celebrated filmmakers at various stages of their documentary career.”
IDFA’s Nyrabia comments: “Our new section Signed starts from the filmmaker, not from the film. Signed is about acknowledging a filmmaker’s career and oeuvre, giving the programming team the authority to recognize a unique cinematic voice or signature— beyond the canon.”
“The selection includes genre-defying ventures into the documentary realm,” the festival writes. Among them, documentary filmmaker Rosine Mbakam presents narrative feature Madame Pierrette, a moving and authentic portrait of a Cameroonian dressmaker’s daily life. Tatiana Huezo Sanchez offers an intensive and feminist immersion into the realities and fantasies of adolescent girls in a remote Mexican village in The Echo, while in Tehachapi, established photographer and artist JR gives a voice to inmates in a maximum-security Tehachapi prison in California.
Notably, the selection sees several renowned directors “further exploring their cinematic language.” Observational documentary pioneer Frederick Wiseman offers an ultimate slow- cinema experience in Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, which explores the craft and mechanics of several top restaurants. Award-winning filmmaker and artist Steve McQueen will present his first feature-length documentary Occupied City, a monumental mediation on Amsterdam’s war history. In Our Body, filmmaker Claire Simon presents a deeply intimate and clinically detailed observation of the obstetrics and gynecology department. Final titles will be announced shortly.
Best of Fests
The Best of Fests section brings the highlights of the year’s harvest, presenting the best films from Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Visions du Réel, and CPH:DOX among others.
These include the Cannes-winning and IDFA Bertha Fund-supported film The Mother of All Lies by Asmae El Moudir; an unorthodox reconstruction of a painful period for her family and homeland of Morocco. In The Disappearance of Shere Hite, Nicole Newnham tells the story of groundbreaking feminist writer and sexuality researcher Shere Hite. Also selected is Orlando, My Political Biography, in which Paul B. Preciado “shows a sparklingly intelligent and genre-fluid exploration of the trans experience.” In Agniia Galdanova’s Queendom, recipient of IDFA Bertha Fund support in 2022, we follow the everyday resistance and radical performance by non-binary Russian artist and activist Gena. In Kokomo City, D. Smith brings together violence, beauty, and wisdom in a raw portrait of four black trans women in New York and Atlanta.
“Ukraine is ever-present in the selection, with several courageous filmmakers delivering urgent perspectives on war, art, and humanity,” the festival writes. In the IDFA Bertha Fund-supported We Will Not Fade Away, Alisa Kovalenko speaks to the dreams of five Ukrainian teenagers as they grow up near the frontline. Incorporating footage taken on his trips as a volunteer evacuation driver, Maciek Hamela’s In the Rearview portrays heart-wrenching accounts of civilians who were forced to leave their homes during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
31st edition of IDFA Forum
Running from Sunday, November 12 to Wednesday, November 15, this year’s IDFA Forum will welcome teams, industry representatives and observers to attend the Producers Connection, Forum Pitches, DocLab Forum, and Rough Cut Presentations. This year, the Forum expands its Rough Cut Presentations to take place over two days (November 12 and 13) while the Forum Pitches will be scheduled to take place over two days (November 13 and 14). Producers Connection will take place on November 13.
“Next to presenting this year’s outstanding slate of projects, we are excited to be expanding our capacity to showcase and adapt to the needs of filmmakers. We received a record number of Rough Cut submissions this year, over a third more than in previous years, which we took as a clear sign that filmmakers and producers are in need of support in their process. That is why this edition of Forum has extended its Rough Cut Presentations to show crucial projects from Ukraine that need to be seen and deserve the widest possible audience,” comments Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen, Head of IDFA Industry.
Forum Pitch
The Forum Pitch presents 20 projects this year. The selection includes notable filmmakers who make their return to IDFA, such as Aboozar Amini, whose Kabul, City in the Wind screened at IDFA 2018, and is now pitching the project Kabul, Year Zero, which threads together four vivid coming-of-age stories against the backdrop of war. After presenting The Postcard at IDFA 2020 and receiving IDFA Bertha Fund support for The Mother of All Lies, Asmae El Moudir is back with Don’t Let the Sun Go Up on Me, a VHS-driven love story between a father and daughter. Michael Madsen (The Visit) returns with Architecture as Invention, which captures star architect Daniel Libeskind’s journey into imagining his final masterpiece.
A strong slate of emerging directors and producers also join the pitch line-up, the festival notes. Among them are Daniel Nils Roberts with EatenFish, with confirmed support by seasoned producer Anne Köhncke (Final Cut for Real Norway), which traces the future outlooks for a cartoonist who has fled his country. Artist Zoya Laktionova pitches her first feature-length project, using diaries and photographs to tell the stories of her own and other Ukrainian families whose homes have been destroyed by Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface.
Producers Connection
Thirteen projects at early stages have been selected for Producers Connection, the Forum’s section for fostering international co-productions. The event presents several “stand out” projects which previously received IDFA Bertha Fund support. City of the Sun director Rati Oneli returns with El Dorado, a story of seeking ancient cave riches in the face of environmental devastation. A Girl and a Gun by Arya Amber Lalloo, which surveys personal and colonial archives in search for liberation from the image.
Rough Cut Presentations
Expanding the category this year, Rough Cut Presentations at Forum has selected eleven projects. Next to the usual six projects, the selection will showcase five urgent Ukrainian projects—four of which have previously received support by IDFA Bertha Fund. Highlights include the IDFA Bertha Fund-supported Flowers of Ukraine by Adelina Borets, which details one woman’s battle to protect her lush green home from the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and To Use a Mountain by Casey Carter, presenting rural American stories of environmental ruin and ecopolitical activism in six candidate sites for nuclear dumping grounds.
IDFA DocLab Forum
The market’s new media strand IDFA DocLab Forum presents 20 projects at all stages of development and production. “The selection includes experimental and playful projects tackling the subject of algorithms, gestures of love, and digital doubles,” the festival writes. Next to a wide range of creative teams and subjects, the selection presents formats including VR, AR, games, mixed media, installations, and audio projects. “Ambitious” highlights include Nicolas Blies and Stéphane Hueber-Blie ’Ceci est mon coeur (Here lies my heart) and Francisca Silva’s Knowing Your Nature. Baff Akoto’s Collatoral Echoes speaks of police violence in the United Kingdom, and Laura A Dima’s Future Affair explores robots as a medium for human connection.
Selected films: IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
- 14 Paintings, dir. Dongnan Chen (China), 24 mins. International Premiere
- At That Very Moment, dir. Rita Pauls, Federico Luis Tachella (Argentina/Germany), 12 mins. World Premiere
- Between Delicate and Violent, dir. Şirin Bahar Demirel (Turkey), 15 mins. International Premiere
- Blow!, dir. Neus Ballús (Spain), 14 mins. World Premiere
- Dreams About Putin, dir. Nastia Korkia, Vlad Fishez (Belgium/Hungary/Portugal), 30 mins. World Premiere
- How to Please, dir. Elina Talvensaari (Finland), 27 mins. World Premiere
- Landslide, dir. Daniel Cortés (Colombia) 25 mins. International Premiere
- A Movement Against the Transparency of the Stars of the Seas, dir. Esy Casey (United States/Philippines), 31 mins.European Premiere
- My Father, dir. Pegah Ahangarani (Iran/Czech Republic), 19 mins. World Premiere
- Newsreel 242 – Sunny Railways, dir. Nika Autor (Slovenia), 31 mins. International Premiere
- Our Special Little Secret, dir. Anna Hanslik (France), 16 mins. World Premiere
- People from the Heart of the Earth, dir. Guahu’i Guyra Collective (Brazil), 40 mins. World Premiere
- Postcards from the Verge, dir. Natalia Koniarz (Poland/Bolivia), 40 mins. International Premiere
- Red Flag, dir. Mónica Taboada-Tapia (Colombia), 20 mins. International Premiere
- The Story of Ne Kuko, dir. Festus Toll (Netherlands), 25 mins. World Premiere
Selected films: IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary Films in the 9+ category
- And a Happy New Year, dir. Sebastian Mulder (Netherlands), 21 mins. World Premiere
- Figure, dir. Jonas Sars (Netherlands), 2 mins. World Premiere
- Girl Away from Home, dir. Simon Lereng Wilmont, Alisa Kovalenko (Denmark/Norway), 22 mins. World Premiere
- Girls ’Stories, dir. Aga Borzym (Poland), 62 mins. nternational Premiere
- JessZilla, dir. Emily Sheskin (United States), 90 mins. European Premiere
- Nelson the Piglet, dir. Anneke de Lind van Wijngaarden (Netherlands), 15 mins. World Premiere
Films in the 13+ category
- Another Body, dir. Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn (United States/United Kingdom), 80 mins. Dutch Premiere
- Boyz, dir. Sylvain Cruiziat (Germany), 72 mins. International Premiere
- Eternal Father, dir. Ömer Sami (Denmark), 31 mins. International Premiere
- Headprickles, dir. Katarzyna Miechowicz (Poland), 8 mins. Dutch Premiere
- Love, Your Neighbour, dir. Jethro Westraad (South Africa/Hungary/Portugal/Belgium), 8 mins. World Premiere
- Nyanga, dir. Medhin Tewolde Serrano (Mexico), 20 mins. Dutch Premiere
- Sister of Mine, dir. Mariusz Rusiński (Poland), 30 mins. European Premiere
- The Sketch, dir. Tomas Cali (France), 9 mins. Dutch Premiere
- Where Am I From?, dir. Nouf Aljowaysir (United States/Saudi Arabia), 12 mins. Dutch Premiere
The 36th edition of IDFA runs from November 8 to 19 in Amsterdam.
