International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam. Over a period of twelve days, it has screened more than 300 films and sold more than 250,000 tickets. Visitors to the festival have increased from 65,000 in 2000 to 285,000 in 2018.[1]
 | |
| Location | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1988 |
| Hosted by | IDFA |
| Language | International |
| Website | idfa |
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. In its mission statement,[2] IDFA says it ‘strives to screen films with urgent social themes that reflect the spirit of the time in which they are made’.
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 Tuschinski Cinema 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 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 an international training programs for up-and-coming doc talents.
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[3] as the new artistic director of IDFA.
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 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 the 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
IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (formerly: Joris Ivens Award)
VPRO IDFA Audience Award
Special Jury Prize
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie | Marcel Ophüls |   |
| 1988 | The Power of Solovki | Marina Goldovskaya |  |
| 1989 | Skierskala | Ivars Seleckis | |
| 1990 | The Collector | E. Strömdahl |  |
| 1991 | Djembéfola | Laurent Chevallier | |
| 1992 | Black Harvest | Robin Anderson & Bob Connolly | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| 1993 | Mit Verlust ist zu Rechnen | Ulrich Seidl |  |
| 1994 | Choice and Destiny | Tsipi Reibenbach |  |
| 1995 | Picasso Would Have Made a Glorious Waiter | Jonathan Schell | |
| 1996 | The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera | Adam Simon |  |
| 1997 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | Werner Herzog |  |
| 1998 | Pavel and Lyalya / a Jerusalem Romance | Victor Kossakovsky |  |
| 1999 | A Cry from the Grave | Leslie Woodhead | |
| 2000 | Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale | Laurie Gwen & David Shapiro | |
| 2001 | Elsewhere | Nikolaus Geyrhalter | |
| 2002 | On Hitler's Highway | Lech Kowalski | |
| 2003 | The Corporation | Mark Achbar | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| 2004 | Liberia: an Uncivil War | Jonathan Stack & James Brabazon | |
| 2005 | Our Daily Bread | Nikolaus Geyrhalter | |
| 2006 | Tender’s Heat. Wild Wild beach | Alexander Rastorguev | |
| 2007 | Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go | Kim Longinotto |  |
| 2008 | Forgetting Dad | Rick Minnich & Matthew Sweetwood | |
| 2009 | The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers | Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith | |
| 2012 | Teached | Kelly Amis | |
| 2013 | A Letter to Nelson Mandela | Khalo Matabane |  |
| 2014 | Something Better to Come | Hanna Polak |   |
| 2015 | Ukrainian Sheriffs | Roman Bondarchuk |   |
| 2016 | Still Tomorrow | Jian Fan |  |
IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (formerly: Silver Wolf Award)
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 6 Open, 21 Closed | Amit Goren | |
| 1996 | Mr. Behrmann - Leben Traum Tod | Andreas Voigt | |
| 1997 | Gigi, Monica...& Bianca | Yasmina Abdellaoui & Benoït Dervaux | .svg.png){kind=small} |
| 1998 | Hephzibah | Curtis Levy | |
| 1999 | Les Enfants du Borinage - Lettre à Henri Storck | Patric Jean | |
| 2000 | Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin | Fabrizio Lazzaretti, Alberto Vendemmiati, Giuseppe Petitto |  |
| 2001 | Haj-Abba's Wives | Mohsen Abdolvahab |  |
| 2002 | Interesting Times - the Secret of my Success | Jinchuan Duan |  |
| 2003 | Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers | Erik Gandini | |
| 2004 | Georgi and the butterflies | Andrey Paounov |  |
| 2005 | Before Flying Back to the Earth | Arūnas Matelis |  |
| 2006 | Enemies of Happiness | Eva Mulvad | |
| 2007 | To See If I'm Smiling | Tamar Yarom | |
| 2008 | Boris Ryzhy | Aliona van der Horst |  |
| 2009 | Iron Crows | Bong-Nam Park |  |
| 2010 | People I Could Have Been And Maybe Am | Boris Gerrets | |
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 | |
| 2006 | My Eyes | Erlend E. Mo | |
| 2007 | The Tailor | Oscar Pérez |  |
| 2008 | Slaves - An animated documentary | Hanna Heilborn & David Aronowitsch | |
| 2009 | Six Weeks | Marcin Janos Krawczyk | |
IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Anthem, an American Road Story | Shainee Gabel & Kristin Hahn | |
| 1998 | Les Amoureux de Dieu / Howling for God | Dan Alexe | |
| 1999 | Zwischen 2 Welten | Bettina Haasen | |
| 2000 | Hybrid | Monteith McCollum | |
| 2001 | Suka | Igor Voloshin | |
| 2002 | Barbeiros | M. Junkkonen |  |
| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | |
| 2003 | The very best day | Pavel Medvedev | |
| 2004 | Podul Peste Tisa | Ileana Stanculescu |  |
| 2005 | The Angelmakers | Astrid Bussink |  |
| 2006 | We Are Together / Thina simunye | Paul Taylor | |
| 2007 | End of the Rainbow | Robert Nugent | |
| 2008 | Constantin and Elena | Andrei Dascalescu | |
| 2009 | Colony | Ross McDonnell & Carter Gunn |  |
| 2010 | Kano: An American and His Harem | Monster Jimenez |  |
| 2011 | The Vanishing Spring Light | Xun Yu | |
| 2012 | Soldier on the Roof | Esther Hertog | |
| 2013 | My Name Is Salt | Farida Pacha |   |
| 2014 | Drifter | Gábor Hörcher |  |
| 2015 | When the Earth Seems to Be Light | Salome Machaidze & Tamuna Karumidze & David Meskhi |  |
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 | |
| 2002 | The Trials of Henry Kissinger | Eugene Jarecki | |
| 2003 | Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | Nick Broomsfield & Joan Churchill | |
| 2004 | The 3 Rooms of Melancholia | Pirjo Honkasalo | |
| 2005 | China Blue | Micha X Peled | |
| 2006 | New Year Baby | Socheata Poeuv | |
| 2007 | Jerusalem Is Proud to Present | Nitzan Gilady | |
| 2008 | Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country | Anders Østergaard | |
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 | |
| 2006 | A Lesson of Belorussian | Miroslaw Dembinski | |
| 2007 | Planet B-Boy | Benson Lee | |
| 2008 | Kassim the Dream | Kief Davidson | |
| 2009 | The Yes Men Fix the World | Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno | |
| 2010 | Autumn Gold | Jan Tenhaven | |
| 2011 | The Last Days of Winter | Mehrdad Oskouei | |
| 2012 | Little World | Marcel Barrena | |
| 2013 | #chicagoGirl - The Social Network Takes on a Dictator | Joe Piscatella |  |
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 | |
| 2008 | Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies | Yulene Olaizola |  |
| 2009 | Redemption | Sabrina Wulff | |
| 2015 | My Aleppo | Melissa Langer | |
IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of Director (at time of film or website's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Out My Window | Katerina Cizek | |
| 2011 | In Situ | Antoine Viviani | |
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 | |
| 1995 | My Vote is My Secret Chroniques Sud Africaines 1994 | Julie Henderson & Thulani Mokoena & Donne Rundle | |
| 1996 | Grenzeloze Liefde - Made in Japan | Puck de Leeuw | |
References
- "IDFA Annual Report". Retrieved 2 February 2020.
- idfa.nl, IDFA. "Mission statement | IDFA". Retrieved 2018-02-12.
- "Orwa Nyrabia appointed new artistic director of IDFA (exclusive)". Screen. Retrieved 2018-02-22.
- "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.
External links
- Official site
- Official YouTube channel of the IDFA (contains all the movie trailers)