The winners of IDFA’s 36th edition competition programs were announced November 16 at TA (Internationaal Theater Amsterdam).
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
- 1489 (Armenia) by Shoghakat Vardanyan is the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Film. The award is accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. “A film that acts as a piercing light that makes visible the vast hidden interior landscape of grief and creates a tangible presence from unbearable absence. Cinema as a tool of survival—to allow us all, to look at the things we would rather not see. And ultimately, an unforgettable example of cinema as an act of love,” the jury reported.
- The IDFA Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000) in the International Competition went to Mohamed Jabaly for Life is Beautiful (Norway, Palestine). “A timely cinematic expression of the universal need to be recognized in our full humanity. A compelling indictment of the bureaucratic and political structures that deny that. A directorial tone that, almost impossibly, manages to find hope and humor amid unimaginable pain. An urgent call for freedom, freedom of movement, freedom of opportunity and the freedom to pursue our dreams,” said the jury.
- The IDFA Award for Best Editing (worth €2,500) in the International Competition went to Anand Patwardhan for The World Is Family (India). “A vivid evocation of 100 years of history in less than 100 minutes of cinema. An intimate act of family portraiture whose spirited subjects are lovingly painted with humour and deep humanity. A facility with scale and whose fluidity in form beautifully reflects flow of life, death, and history,” said the jury.
- The IDFA Award for Best Cinematography (worth €2,500) in the International Competition went to Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan for Flickering Lights (India). “A beautiful relationship between a vibrant community and the audience, created through the curious and patient gaze of the camera. An accomplished portrait of existence without electricity, of life without light, until a moment of transformation. With an unshowy but deeply effective sense of really being there,” said the jury.
The jury members of the International Competition were Emilie Bujès, Francesco Giai Via, Tabitha Jackson, Ada Solomon, Xiaoshuai Wang.
ENVISION COMPETITION
- 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 accompanied by a €15,000 cash prize. “With a decades-long commitment to the filmmaking process within community, a sense of humor, and a quest to move between worlds. This film embodies the many meanings of transformation,” the jury reported.
- The Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000) in the Envision Competition went to Kumjana Novakova for Silence of Reason (North Macedonia , Bosnia-Herzegovina). “For her rigorous presentation of forensic evidence and the incredible courage of women whose testimony meant that rape would be internationally recognized as a crime of war. Kumjana Novakova cinematically rendered these crimes unforgettable,” said the jury.
- Ariel Kuaray Ortega and Ernesto de Carvalho also received the Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (worth €2,500) for Canuto’s Transformation (Brazil). “For their profound sense of communitarian cinema in which every person transforms the meaning of the word “subject,” said the jury.
The jury members for the Envision Competition were Annouchka de Andrade, Cao Guimarães, Kirsten Johnson, Kivu Ruhorahoza.
IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR IMMERSIVE NON-FICTION
- Ben Joseph Andrews and Emma Roberts won the IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction for Turbulence: Jamais Vu (Australia). The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. “Our first award goes to a mixed reality project that couldn’t be done in any other way. It uses simple techniques to drastically adjust our perception, enabling us to experience the world through someone else’s eyes. This confronts societal notions surrounding illness and questions the dependence we have on our own unique visual realities,” reported the jury.
- The Special Jury Award for Creative Technology (worth €2,500) went to Natalie Paneng for Natalie’s Trifecta (South Africa). “Our next winner is a playful virtual reality romp through levels of artistic identity. It’s also completely bonkers, applying VR techniques and artistic styles that shouldn’t work together – except they do. The great philosopher and four-time Grammy winner Seal once said, “We are never going to survive unless we get a little crazy. It is in this spirit that we award the IDFA DocLab Special Jury Award for Creative Technology to Natalie Paneng, Natalie’s Trifecta,” said the jury.
The jury members for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction were Jessica Brillhart, Arnaud Colinart, Joy Mawela.
IDFA DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR DIGITAL STORYTELLING
- Tamara Shogaolu won the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling with Anouschka (Netherlands, United States, Switzerland). The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. “This piece masterfully strikes the delicate balance between a unique narrative and its chosen medium, offering inspiration to future creators. The work carries an important message that we collectively bear the responsibility to nurture an understanding of each other’s stories. Much like Anouschka, we are spurred to explore our own heritage with a sensitive and inquisitive spirit,” said the jury.
- The Special Jury Award for Creative Technology (worth €2,500) went to Borderline Visible (Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany) by Ant Hampton. “A soothing voice is guiding us to read a book using all of our senses. We become aware slowly and unexpectedly of the weight and textures of the physical book as well as the violent themes and invisible histories it reveals. We read upside down, end to beginning, we close our eyes and move between two points in a map of a world that becomes increasingly painful to navigate. Borderline Visible is an inspiring model for creative storytelling at large, blurring the boundaries between a traditional book and a cinematic narrative,” said the jury.
- A special mention went to Despelote (Ecuador, United States) by Julián Cordero and Sebastian Valbuena. “The game transports the player to a time of carefree exploration in a dreamy environment filled with different characters, situations and interactions. The mundane and boring becomes an opportunity for discovery and excitement where a ball is all one needs to make connections with the world and people around them. Despelote not only engages us in the world of a child, but also connects us to a time and place showing humanity and cultural connections through subtle interactions, a football and a retro console,” said the jury.
The jury members for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling were Zuraida Buter, Miri Chekhanovich, Jay Kim.
IDFA COMPETITION FOR SHORT DOCUMENTARY
- At That Very Moment (Argentina, Germany) by Rita Pauls and Federico Luis Tachella won the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary. The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize.“For its simplicity, spontaneity, and transparency in dealing with people, things, and small details, and for the depth of the questions raised in it that are profound despite their apparent simplicity, and for its smooth and intense cinematic work, especially photography and lyrical editing, the jury awards the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary to At That Very Moment by directors Rita Pauls and Federico Luis Tachella,” reported the jury.
- A special mention went to My Father (Iran, Czech Republic) by Pegah Ahangarani. “For this filmmaker’s ability to transform archival photographs and video recordings into a film that combine to form an intimate visual narrative, and restores a sensitive, realistic, and influential era – with the negative and positive that it entails—in both public and private history, the jury gives a Special Mention to My Father by Pegah Ahangarani,” said the jury.
The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary were Nadim Jarjoura, Brigid O’Shea.
IDFA COMPETITION FOR YOUTH DOCUMENTARY
- The IDFA Award for Best Youth Documentary (13+) went to Mariusz Rusiński for Sister of Mine (Poland). The award is accompanied by a €2,500 cash prize.
- The IDFA Award for Best Youth Documentary (9-12) went to Sebastian Mulder for And a Happy New Year (Netherlands). The award is accompanied by a €2,500 cash prize.
- A special mention went to Boyz (Germany) by Sylvain Cruiziat.
The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary were Maria Vittoria Pellecchia, Ileana Stanculescu, Pawel Ziemilski.
ADDITIONAL AWARDS
- The IDFA Award for Best First Feature went to Chasing the Dazzling Light (Syria, Qatar, Sweden) by Yaser Kassab. The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. “The members of this jury were greatly impressed by the filmmaker’s total command of the cinematic language, using very simple, even austere elements and a clever and insightful sense of humor to tell a complex story about exile, family loss, nostalgia, loneliness, and to do so in a self-reflective, dignified and moving way,” said jury members were Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Gaia Furrer, Mieke Bernink.
- The IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film went to Aliona van der Horst and Luuk Bouwman for Gerlach (Netherlands). The award is accompanied by a €7,500 cash prize.
- A special mention was awarded to Mother Suriname – Mama Sranan (Netherlands) by Tessa Leuwsha. The jury members were Lea Glob, Nora Philippe, Khalid Shamis.
- The Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award went to In-Soo Radstake for Selling a Colonial War (Netherlands). The award is accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize. “Through an extraordinary wealth of original archive material, the film eloquently, and at times with unexpected humour, weaves together the complexities of little-known colonial history and its denial. Behind what might at first seem a classical form, it subtly peels back the layers to unpack how film propagates ideology. The winning film deconstructs and subverts dominant narratives as it addresses ongoing political concerns,” said the jury.
- A special mention was awarded to Milisuthando Bongela for Milisuthando (South Africa, Colombia). The jury members were Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, Melissa Thackway, Biljana Tutorov.
- The FIPRESCI Award went to 1489 (Armenia) by Shoghakat Vardanyan. The jury members were Senem Aytaç, Irina Codrea-Trocan, Carolin Weidner.
IDFA FORUM AWARDS
- On Wednesday, the IDFA Forum Awards were announced at Felix Meritis. Mohammed Almughanni’s project Son of the Streets won the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch, Amber Fares’ 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. Militantropos, created by a collective of Maksym Nakonechnyi, Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova and Simon Mozgovyi, was recognized with an Honorable Mention for the IDFA Forum Rough Cut Award.
The International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) continues until Sunday, November 19.
