 | |
| Location | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1988 |
| Hosted by | IDFA |
| Language | International |
| Website | idfa |
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Historyc
IDFA was founded by Ally Derks, who remained at the helm from 1988 until 2017, when she stepped down. Barbara Visser oversaw the 2017 edition as interim director. In January 2018, Syrian film producer Orwa Nyrabia was appointed as the new artistic director of IDFA.
Every year in November, the festival takes place over the period of 11 days, in more than 40 venues around the city, welcoming an audience of 295.000 (2019), and a record number of documentary film professionals, as over 3500 gather for the festival, from more than 100 countries every year.
Description
The festival is an independent, international meeting place for audiences and professionals to see a diverse (in form, content, and cultural background) program of high-quality documentaries. IDFA selects creative and accessible documentaries, which offer new insights into society.
The festival was initially held at the Leidseplein area in the centre of Amsterdam. It has since spread to a number of other locations, including the Tuschinski Theatre and EYE Filmmuseum. Apart from its international film program, the variety of genres, and the many European and world premieres featured each year, the festival also hosts debates, forums, and workshops. Since 2007, the festival's New Media program IDFA DocLab showcases the best interactive non-fiction storytelling and explores how the digital revolution is reshaping documentary art.
In addition to the festival, IDFA has developed several professional activities, contributing to the development of filmmakers and their films at all stages. At the co-financing and co-production market IDFA Forum filmmakers and producers pitch their plans to financiers; at Docs for Sale new documentaries are on offer to programmers and distributors; the IDFA Bertha Fund supports filmmakers and documentary projects in developing countries, and the IDFAcademy offers international training programs for up-and-coming doc talents.
2023 incident
At the opening ceremony of the festival in 2023 held on 8 November in the shadow of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, three activists burst onto the stage and waved a sign bearing the inscription "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". This was to show solidarity with the people of Gaza, who have been exposed to bombardment by the Israeli army in retaliation to the attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas. The activists received applause from the audience, which included the festival director Orwa Nyrabia. On 10 November members of Israel's film community condemned the activists' use of the slogan and the fact that it was applauded by Nyrabia. Following the IDFA's official apology, the Palestinian Film Institute withdrew its three documentaries from the festival and started a petition protesting what it perceives as "institutional vilification and censorship in the filmmaking industry".
Prizes
The best new documentaries of the year compete in IDFA's main competition programs:
- The IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for best documentary longer than 70 minutes.
Prize: €15,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
- The IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary for best documentary between 40 and 70 minutes.
Prize: €10,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
- The IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary for best documentary under 40 minutes.
Prize: €5,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
- The IDFA Award for Best First Appearance for best debut film.
Prize: €10,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
- The IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary for best student documentary from film academies around the world.
Prize: €5,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
- The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary for best Dutch documentary.
Prize: €7,500 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award)
Alongside the competition programs, five awards are awarded during IDFA:
- VPRO IDFA Audience Award for best film as voted by the audience.
Prize: €5,000
- Amsterdam Human Rights Award for the documentary that best depicts the theme of human rights.
Prize: €25,000
- Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds Documentary Scholarship, a €50,000 grant for a documentary talent, allowing the recipient to make a documentary about a subject of their choice.
- Filmfonds DocLab Interactive Grant, a cash prize for the development of interactive projects within the Netherlands.
- Karen de Bok Talent Award for the winner of the IDFAcademy & NPO-fonds workshop. It is the successor of the Media Fund Award Documentary. The NPO Fund awards the winner €25,000 to further develop the project in collaboration with a producer and a broadcast.
Program sections
In addition to the competitions, IDFA presents several non-competitive film programs:
Regular programs
- Masters
In this program section, the festival presents the latest documentaries by renowned documentary auteurs.
- Best of Fests
In Best of Fests, the festival presents films that have made an impact on the international festival circuit this year.
- Panorama
In this section, the festival presents films from all over the world, which are thought-provoking in their form and choice of theme.
- Paradocs
The films in this section showcase what is going on beyond the frame of traditional documentary filmmaking, on the borders between film and art, truth and fiction, and narrative and design.
- Music Documentary
Screenings of many films from this program are accompanied by live performances connected to the films.
Specials
In addition to the regular programs, each year the festival presents programs like Queer Day, featuring new documentaries about LGBTQ-related topics; Focus programs which zoom in on aspects like sound design, editing, and cinematography or a topical theme; a themed program by DocLab, featuring live events and an interactive exhibition; and a retrospective of a filmmaker who also chooses a personal documentary Top 10.
Award winners
Best Film Award International Competition
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Octopus | Karim Kassem |  Lebanon /  Qatar /  United States
|
| 2022 | Manifesto | Angie Vinchito |  Russia
|
| 2023 | 1489 | Shoghakat Vardanyan |  Armenia
|
| 2024 | Trains | Maciej J. Drygas |  Poland
|
IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (Until 2020, formerly: Joris Ivens Award)
Best Cinematography Award International Competition
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Where Are We Headed | Ruslan Fedotow |  Belarus / Russia
|
| 2022 | Paradise | Paul Guilhaume |  France /  Switzerland
|
| 2023 | Flickering Lights | Anirban Dutta & Anupama Srinivasan |  India
|
| 2024 | The Guest | Zvika Gregory Portnoy & Zuzanna Solakiewicz | Poland / Qatar
|
Best Directing Award International Competition
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director
(at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Children of the Mist | Diem Ha Le |  Vietnam
|
| 2022 | Apolonia, Apolonia | Lea Glob |  Denmark
|
| 2023 | Life is Beautiful | Mohamed Jabaly |  Norway /  Palestine
|
| 2024 | An American Pastoral | Auberi Edler | France
|
Best Editing Award International Competition
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director
(at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Mr. Landsbergis | Danielius Kokanauskis |  Lithuania /  Netherlands
|
| 2022 | Journey Through Our World | Mario Steenbergen | Netherlands
|
| 2023 | The World Is Family | Anand Patwardhan | India
|
| 2024 | Trains | Maciej J. Drygas | Poland
|
DFA Audience Award
Special Jury Prize
IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (formerly: Silver Wolf Award)
IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary (formerly: Silver Cub Award)
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Butterfly Man | Samantha Rebillet |  Australia
|
| 2006 | My Eyes | Erlend E. Mo | Denmark
|
| 2007 | The Tailor | Oscar Pérez |  Spain
|
| 2008 | Slaves – An animated documentary | Hanna Heilborn & David Aronowitsch |  Sweden / Denmark
|
| 2009 | Six Weeks | Marcin Janos Krawczyk [pl] | Poland
|
| 2017 | Vi bara lyder (we merely obey) | Erik Holmström och Fredrik Wenzel | Sweden
|
| 2018 | I Signed the Petition | Mahdi Fleifel | Denmark
|
| 2019 | Up at Night | Nelson Makengo |  Republic of the Congo
|
| 2020 | Unforgivable | Marlén Viñayo |  El Salvador
|
| 2021 | Handbook | Pavel Mozhar |  Germany / Belarus
|
| 2022 | Away | Ruslan Fedotow | Russia
|
IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
Movies that Matter Human Rights Award
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Day I Will Never Forget | Kim Longinotto |  United Kingdom
|
| 2002 | The Trials of Henry Kissinger | Eugene Jarecki | United States / United Kingdom /  Chile
|
| 2003 | Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | Nick Broomsfield & Joan Churchill | United Kingdom
|
| 2004 | The 3 Rooms of Melancholia | Pirjo Honkasalo |  Finland
|
| 2005 | China Blue | Micha X Peled | United States
|
| 2006 | New Year Baby | Socheata Poeuv | United States
|
| 2007 | Jerusalem Is Proud to Present | Nitzan Gilady |  Israel
|
| 2008 | Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country | Anders Østergaard [ar; arz; da; de; fi; fr; pt] | Denmark
|
IDFA DOC U! Award for the youth jury's favorite film (formerly: Moviesquad DOC U! Award)
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Shadya, Roy | Roy Westler | Israel
|
| 2006 | A Lesson of Belarusian | Miroslaw Dembinski | Poland
|
| 2007 | Planet B-Boy | Benson Lee | United States
|
| 2008 | Kassim the Dream | Kief Davidson | United States
|
| 2009 | The Yes Men Fix the World | Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno | France / United States
|
| 2010 | Autumn Gold | Jan Tenhaven [de] | Germany
|
| 2011 | The Last Days of Winter | Mehrdad Oskouei |  Iran
|
| 2012 | Little World | Marcel Barrena | Spain
|
| 2013 | #chicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator | Joe Piscatella | United States /  Syria
|
IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Paradise – Three Journeys in This World | Elina Hirvonen | Finland
|
| 2008 | Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies | Yulene Olaizola |  Mexico
|
| 2009 | Redemption | Sabrina Wulff | Germany
|
| 2015 | My Aleppo | Melissa Langer | United States
|
IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction
The IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction rewards the best immersive non-fiction of the festival.
| Year | Work | Artist(s) | Nationality of artist (at time of work release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Museum of Austerity | Sacha Wares, John Pring | United Kingdom
|
| 2022 | In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats | Darren Emerson | United Kingdom
|
| 2023 | Turbulence Jamais Vu | Ben Joseph Andrews, Emma Roberts | Australia
|
| 2024 | Me, a Depiction | Lisa Schamlé | Netherlands
|
Special Jury Award for Creative Technology
| Year | Work | Artist(s) | Nationality of artist (at time of work release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Symbiosis | Marcel van Brakel, Mark Meeuwenoord, | Netherlands
|
| 2022 | Plastisapiens | Miri Chekhanovic, Edith Jorisch |  Canada / Israel
|
| 2023 | Natalie's Trifecta | Natalie Paneng |  South Africa
|
| 2024 | The Liminal | Alaa Al Minawi | Netherlands / Lebanon / Palestine
|
IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling
The IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling rewards the best Digital Storytelling.
Award-winning works
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film or website's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Out My Window | Katerina Cizek | Canada
|
| 2011 | In Situ | Antoine Viviani | France
|
| 2018 | 1 the Road | Ross Goodwin | United States
|
| 2019 | The Waiting Room VR | Victoria Mapplebeck | United Kingdom
|
| 2021 | Un(re)solved | Tamara Shogaolu | United States
|
| 2022 | He Fucked the Girl Out of Me | Taylor McCue | United States
|
| 2023 | Anouschka | Tamara Shogaolu | The Netherlands, United-States, Switzerland |
Zapper Award (1994–1996)
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy | David Munro |  England
|
| 1995 | My Vote is My Secret Chroniques Sud Africaines 1994 | Julie Henderson & Thulani Mokoena & Donne Rundle | France
|
| 1996 | Grenzeloze Liefde – Made in Japan | Puck de Leeuw | Netherlands
|
References
- "Het genre zal overleven - De VPRO op IDFA". VPRO (in Dutch). 10 November 2017. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- "Ally Derks kondigt vertrek aan bij IDFA". Filmkrant (in Dutch). 5 April 2016. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- "Orwa Nyrabia appointed new artistic director of IDFA (exclusive)". Screen. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
- www.oberon.nl, Oberon Amsterdam. "IDFA Institute | Annual report 2023". IDFA. Retrieved 5 November 2024.
- idfa.nl, IDFA. "Mission statement | IDFA". Retrieved 12 February 2018.
- ^ Vallejo, Aida (2020). "IDFA's Industry Model: Fostering Global Documentary Production and Distribution". In Vallejo, Aida; Ezra Winton (eds.). Documentary Film Festivals. Vol. 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan. pp. 23–53. ISBN 9783030173234.
- "HRW Gaza: Israel's 'Open-Air Prison' at 15" Banner". Screen. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- "Israel confirms two more hostages released from Gaza". 22 October 2023.
- "Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel". BBC News. 9 October 2023.
- "IDFA Documentary Festival Opening Night Interrupted By Pro-Palestinian Protesters With "From The River To The Sea" Banner". Screen. Archived from the original on 10 November 2023. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
- "IDFA's Artistic Director Apologizes After Protesters Crash Opening Night With Banner Calling for Destruction of Israel". Screen. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- "In response to IDFA's damaging statement on 11 November 2023". Screen. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
- ^ www.oberon.nl, Oberon Amsterdam. "IDFA Professionals | Winners 1988–2024". IDFA. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- "1489 wins Best Film in the International Competition and Canuto's Transformation wins Best..." IDFA. 16 November 2023. Retrieved 23 November 2023.
- "En studie i kærlighed og ensomhed". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). 9 December 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- Sundholm, J.; Thorsen, I.; Andersson, L.G.; Hedling, O.; Iversen, G.; Møller, B.T. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema. G – Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8108-5524-3. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- "Mila Turajlić: Nismo ispričali sopstvenu istoriju". Večernje novosti (in Serbian). 24 November 2017. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
- "IDFA 2018 winners revealed". Screen Daily. 22 November 2018. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
- "Vi bara lyder", Sveriges Television AB (in Swedish), retrieved 1 May 2022
- "NYHETER". malmodockteater (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 May 2022.
- "VI BARA LYDER". malmodockteater (in Swedish). Retrieved 1 May 2022.
- ^ www.oberon.nl, Oberon Amsterdam. "IDFA Professionals | Winners 1988–2024". IDFA. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
- "Jury report: IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling 2018 | IDFA".
- "Jury report: IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling 2019 | IDFA".
- "Jury report: 2021 IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling | IDFA".
- "Jury report: 2022 IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling | IDFA".
External links
- Official site
- Official YouTube channel of the IDFA (contains all the movie trailers)