International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) announced the winners of the competition programs during the IDFA 2020 Awards Ceremony. Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani won the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, along with the Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for best creative use of archive.
“Mother married a photo of Father,” says director Firouzeh Khosrovani in the opening of this deeply personal documentary Radiograph of a Family. She’s not speaking metaphorically though. Her mother Tayi literally married a portrait of Hossein in Teheran – he was in Switzerland studying radiology and was unable to travel back to his homeland for the wedding. The event illustrates the abyss that still exists in their marriage: Hossein is a secular progressive and Tayi a devout, traditional Muslim. But this family history is also a sort of x-ray, laying bare the conflicts of Iranian society in the run-up to, and aftermath of the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
The International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) continues until Sunday, December 6.
IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary
IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary
Radiograph of a Family (Norway, Iran, Switzerland) by Firouzeh Khosrovani is the winner of the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary.
“Radiography of a Family is literally an X-ray of a family. As discontent grows with politics, many people experience their families divided on ideological lines. Through masterful storytelling, Firouzeh shows how history and revolution brought about the political and personal divorce of her parents, a secular father and increasingly conservative mother. The family space changes over time due to forces of the outside world. It’s the great accomplishment of the filmmaker that she so subtly and poetically shows how divided politics can divide a room and change it forever. The fractured body of family life is told through images, photos, and enactments in such a way that the viewer, too, feels the loss.” the jury reported.
IDFA Award for Best Directing
The IDFA Award for Best Directing went to Vitaly Mansky for Gorbachev. Heaven (Latvia, Czech Republic).
IDFA Award for Best Editing
The IDFA Award for Best Editing went to Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers for Inside the Red Brick Wall (Hong Kong).
IDFA Award for Best Cinematography
The IDFA Award for Best Cinematography went to Nemesis (Switzerland), filmed and directed by Thomas Imbach.
IDFA Competition for First Appearance
IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
Alina Gorlova won the IDFA Award for Best First Appearance for This Rain Will Never Stop (Ukraine, Latvia, Germany, Qatar).
“A striking, beautifully shot and edited film that embarks on the disaster of war through a personal journey and rocks the spectator between furtive moments of joy and pain. This moving film encompasses traditions, modernity, death, and the power of moving forward. This Rain Will Never Stop is a powerful story that does not allow us to escape from the destruction and heart-wrenching losses of wars,” the jury reported.
The jury chose to give a special mention in the First Appearance competition to Diane Sara Bouzgarrou and Thomas Jenkoe for The Last Hillbilly (France, Qatar).
FIPRESCI Award
The FIPRESCI Award was given to Ahmed Abd for The Fifth Story (Qatar, Iraq).
IDFA Competition for Mid-Length Documentary
The IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary was awarded to Nomin Lkhagvasuren for The Wheel (Mongolia).
The film The Blue House (Belgium, Senegal, Cameroon) by Hamedine Kane received a special mention in the Competition for Mid-Length Documentary.
IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary
The IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary went to Paul Sin Nam Rigter for Dealing with Death (Netherlands).
A special mention was awarded to Pieter-Rim de Kroon for Silence of the Tides (Netherlands).
IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
Unforgivable (El Salvador) by Marlén Viñayo won the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary.
IDFA Competition for Student Documentary
Boyi-biyo (Central African Republic, France) by Anne Bertille Vopiande Ndeysseit won the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary.
The jury awarded a special mention to I Don’t Feel at Home Anywhere Anymore (Belgium, China) by Viv Li.
IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs
The IDFA Award for Best Children’s Documentary went to Ako Salemi for Shadegan (Iran).
A special mention in the IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs went to An Intermission (United Kingdom), directed by Edwin Mingard.
IDFA Competition for Creative Use of Archive
In its second year, the Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for best creative use of archive was awarded to Firouzeh Khosrovani for Radiograph of a Family (Norway, Iran, Switzerland).
The jury also decided to award a special mention to Dormant (Argentina) by Natalia Labaké.
Additional awards
Last year’s stipend recipient Marina Meijer presented the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Documentary Stipend (€ 50,000) to filmmaker Aboozar Amini.With this stipend, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds awards a documentary talent with a grant of €50,000 that allows the recipient to make a documentary about a subject of their choice. The award is intended for a documentary filmmaker with a proven track record who has already earned modest recognition in the documentary field.