The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced the main competition lineups for its 38th edition, taking place in the Dutch city between Nov. 13-23. The now complete selection features almost 250 films from 76 countries and will open with a shorts program as a way of “showcasing the creativity and artistic range of short documentary film.”
The opening shorts selection comprises “As I Lay Dying” by Mohammadreza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani; “Intersecting Memory” by Shayma’ Awawdeh; and “happiness” by Firat Yücel. Speaking about the opening night program, artistic director Isabel Arrate Fernandez said: “We believe the selection of films set the tone for a festival that explores major issues of the present, that makes room for new voices, fresh forms, and unexpected perspectives.”
This year marks the first edition with Fernandez at the helm as IDFA’s artistic director, following Orwa Nyrabia’s exit earlier in the year. Fernandez was previously the director of the IDFA Bertha Fund. During the program announcement press conference, Fernandez said filmmakers and artists “remind us that there is a space for reflection and connection.”
“They bring other perspectives,” she added. “They open conversations about cinema—about what touches us, what feels urgent, what truly matters right now. Through them, we get to be part of the courage of filmmakers and artists who refuse to give up—who keep pursuing their creative vision, and their commitment to stories that they feel matter.”
The festival’s competitive strands are split into International and Envision, each featuring 12 films. The former features newcomers and established filmmakers “that transform deeply personal histories into reflections on today’s most pressing issues,” while the latter focuses on works that “forge new cinematic languages.”
Amongst the highlights of the competitive strands are the world premieres of “Trillion” by “Architecton” director Victor Kossakovsky and “Silent Flood,” by “Pamfir” filmmaker Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk. Hybrid doc “Trillion” is the second entry in the planned “empathy trilogy” that started with “Gunda” and observes ocean health and the effects of industrial fisheries. Meanwhile, “Silent Flood” looks at a pacifist community with unique religious beliefs living in a picturesque river canyon in western Ukraine.
“As I Lay Dying,” courtesy of IDFA
IDFA also announced the lineup for its two premiere-only sections: Luminous and Frontlight. Standouts in Luminous include “Do or Die,” co-directed by filmmaker Toia Bonino and incarcerated Marcos Joubert and shot entirely on a phone behind bars. Marjolein Busstra’s “House of Hope” follows a Palestinian woman running a school on the West Bank, while “Paikar” sees filmmaker Dawood Hilmandi return to Iran to confront his authoritarian father.
Palestinian stories also figure heavily in the Frontlight section, with Mohammed Sawwaf’s “Gaza’s Twins, Come Back to Me” following a mother desperately trying to reach her two newborn babies in urgent care amidst bombings. In “Steal This Story, Please!,” Carl Deal and Tia Lessin highlight the vital role of fearless reporting in upholding democracy and a free press.
See the full selection for the IDFA competitive strands, Luminous and Frontlight below:
International Competition
“All My Sisters,” dir. Massoud Bakhshi (Austria/France/Germany/Iran), 78’ – World Premiere
“December,” dir. Lucas Gallo (Argentina/Uruguay), 105’ – World Premiere
“Flana,” dir. Zahraa Ghandour (Iraq/France/Qatar), 85’ – European Premiere
“Flood,” dir. Katy Scoggin (United States), 75’ – International Premiere
“A Fox Under a Pink Moon,” dir. Mehrdad Oskouei (Iran/France/United
Kingdom/United States/Denmark), 76’ – World Premiere
“The Kartli Kingdom,” dir. Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel (Georgia/France), 105’ – World Premiere
“Mailin,” dir. María Silvia Esteve (Argentina/France/Romania), 89’ – World Premiere
“Palimpsest: The Story of a Name,” dir. Mary Stephen (France/Hong Kong/Taiwan), 109’ – European Premiere
“The Shipwrecked,” dir. Diego Gutiérrez (Netherlands), 115’ – World Premiere
“Silent Flood,” dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukraine/Germany), 90’ – World Premiere
“Synthetic Sincerity,” dir. Marc Isaacs (United Kingdom), 72’ – World Premiere
“Those Who Watch Over,” dir. Karima Saïdi (Belgium/France/Qatar), 88’ – European Premiere
Envision Competition
“Amílcar,” dir. Miguel Eek (Spain/Portugal/France/Sweden/Cape Verde), 87’ – World Premiere
“Blood Red,” dir. Martin Imrich (Czech Republic), 75’ – World Premiere
“Confessions of a Mole,” dir. Mo Tan (China/Poland), 92’ – World Premiere
“Fordlândia Panacea,” dir. Susana de Sousa Dias (Portugal/Brazil), 62’ – World Premiere
“Holy Destructors,” dir. Aiste Žegulytė (Lithuania/France/Latvia), 85’ – World Premiere
“I Want Her Dead,” dir. Gianluca Matarrese (Italy), 86’ – International Premiere
“Love-22-Love,” dir. Jeroen Kooijmans (Netherlands), 84’ – World Premiere
“Our Body Is an Expanding Star,” dir. Semillites Hernández Velasco, Tania Hernández Velasco (Mexico), 84’ – World Premiere
“Past Future Continuous,” dir. Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani (Iran/Norway/Italy), 76’ – International Premiere
“Powwow People,” dir. Sky Hopinka (United States), 88’ – European Premiere
“Treat Me Like Your Mother,” dir. Mohamad Abdouni (Lebanon), 76’ – World Premiere
“Trillion,” dir. Victor Kossakovsky (Norway/United States), 80’ – World Premiere
Luminous
“32 Meters,” dir. Morteza Atabaki (Turkey, Iran), 84’ — World Premiere
“9,192,631,770 Hz,” dir. Todd Chandler (United States), 12’ – International Premiere
“Abel,” dir. Fabian Volti (Italy), 78’ – International Premiere
“And She Didn’t Die,” dir. Kethiwe Ngcobo (United Kingdom, South Africa), 103’ – International Premiere
“As the Crow Flies,” dir. Clara Lacombe (France), 30’ – International Premiere
“Blackout Dreams,” dir. Gabriele Licchelli, Francesco Lorusso, Andrea Settembrini (Cuba, Italy), 20’ – World Premiere
“Do or Die,” dir. Toia Bonino, Marcos Joubert (Argentina, Colombia), 88’ – World Premiere
“The Flight of the Stork,” dir. Soumaya Hidalgo Djahdou, Berta Vicente Salas (Spain, Qatar), 70’ – World Premiere
“Grounded,” dir. Simón Uribe Martínez (Colombia, France), 80’ – World Premiere
“House of Hope,” dir. Marjolein Busstra (Netherlands, Palestine), 91’ – World Premiere
“If You Don’t Like It, Look Away,” dir. Margaux Fournier (France), 29’ – International Premiere
“The In-the-Head Film,” dir. Konstantin von Sichart (Germany), 11’ – International Premiere
“Mohammed & Paul – Once Upon a Time in Tangier,” dir. Nordin Lasfar (Netherlands), 93’ – World Premiere
“Murmurations,” dir. Xavier Marrades (Spain), 21’ – World Premiere
“My Word Against Mine,” dir. Maasja Ooms (Netherlands), 114’ – World Premiere
“Nomad Spirit,” dir. Raúl Soto Rodríguez (Colombia), 95’ – International Premiere
“Outliving Shakespeare,” dir. Inna Sahakyan (Armenia, Netherlands) 94’ – World Premiere
“Paikar,” dir. Dawood Hilmandi (Netherlands, Afghanistan), 97’ – World Premiere
“Passion According to Agnieszka,” dir. Wojciech Staroń (Poland), 50’ – International Premiere
“Pedro Tomás Explains the World,” dir. Kornelijus Stučkus (Spain), 6’ – International Premiere
“The Sessions,” dir. Sien Versteyhe (Belgium), 71’ – World Premiere
“Stories of a Lie,” dir. Olia Verriopoulou (Greece, France), 76’ – World Premiere
“Truck Mama,” dir. Zippy Nyaruri (Kenya, South Africa, Saudi Arabia), 85’ – World Premiere
“We Were Left Alone,” dir. Adrián Canoura (Spain), 82’ – World Premiere
“Weeping Rocks,” dir. Karlis Bergs (United States, Latvia), 86’ – World Premiere
“The Wind and All Times,” dir. Carla Valencia Dávila (Ecuador), 83’ – International Premiere
“The Wind Blows Wherever It Wants,” dir. Ivan Boiko (Georgia, United Kingdom), 69’ – World Premiere
Frontlight
“Asparagus Bear,” dir. Ivan Grgur (Croatia), 18’ – European Premiere
“The Clown of Gaza,” dir. Abdulrahman Sabbah (Palestine, France, Qatar) 61’ – European Premiere
“The Desert of the Real,” dir. Luuk Bouwman (Netherlands), 108’ – World Premiere
“Elon Musk Unveiled – The Tesla Experiment,” dir. Andreas Pichler (Germany), 90’ – World Premiere
“Eyes of the Machine,” dir. Daya Cahen (Netherlands), 76’ – World Premiere
“Gaza’s Twins, Come Back to Me,” dir. Mohammed Sawwaf (Palestine), 96’ – World Premiere
“My Foreign Land,” dir. Coletivo Lakapoy, Louise Botkay, João Moreira Salles (Brazil), 99’ – European Premiere
“The New Policy Regarding Homeless Asylum Seekers,” dir. Dennis Harvey (Sweden, Ireland), 14’ – International Premiere
“No Sunshine in Here,” dir. Karol Maia (Brazil), 79’ – International Premiere
“Palestine Comedy Club,” dir. Alaa Aaliabdallah (United Kingdom, Palestine), 98’ – European Premiere
“Steal This Story, Please!,” dir. Carl Deal, Tia Lessin (United States), 101’ – International Premiere
“True North,” dir. Michèle Stephenson (Canada, United States), 96’ – International Premiere
“We Are Pat,” dir. Rowan Haber (United States), 87’ – European Premiere
“When I Get Jailed,” dir. Anastasiia Vedenskaia (France), 65’ – World Premiere
“The Woman Who Poked the Leopard,” dir. Patience Nitumwesiga (Uganda, South Africa, Germany, United States), 108’ – International Premiere
