Celebrating its 37th edition, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) held in Amsterdam from November 14-24, 2024, revealed the main competition lineup.
IDFA 2024 opens with the world premiere of About a Hero by Piotr Winiewicz, a bold exploration into largely uncharted territories of artificial intelligence – reflecting on questions of authenticity and our understanding of what is real. With Werner Herzog’s permission, Winiewicz sets out to challenge Herzog’s assertion that “a computer won’t be able to create a film as good as mine for at least another 4,500 years.” In a tantalizing experiment, Winiewicz trained an AI-system on Herzog’s oeuvre and asked it to generate a screenplay. The result is a disturbing search for the soul—of human beings and of creative work. About a Hero has been selected for the International Competition.
“The IDFA 2024 program is exceptional in quality and in range. Regrettably with less African films than we hoped for, but overall with a wide representation of our planet and the many different humans on it! The diversity of artistic tendencies is staggering. The program introduces some of the most beautiful works of recent years, including a few instant classics. Filmmakers of various artistic sensibilities, ages, experiences, privileges, and viewpoints made films as singular as they are. It is a complex and rich image of a world in great pain, of a humanity that is fighting, resisting, and still able of imagining a fairer future. It is a program that defends documentary cinema better than ever before,” said IDFA’s Artistic Director, Orwa Nyrabia.
International Competition
About a Hero, dir. Piotr Winiewicz (Denmark/Germany/United States), 84’ – World Premiere
An American Pastoral, dir. Auberi Edler (France), 127’ – World Premiere
Anonymous film
The Golden Age, dir. Camilla Iannetti (Italy), 98’ – International Premiere
Green Is the New Red, dir. Anna Recalde Miranda (France/Italy/Paraguay/Sweden), 105’ – World Premiere
The Guest, dir. Zvika Gregory Portnoy, Zuzanna Solakiewicz (Poland/Qatar), 81’ – World Premiere
Home Game, dir. Lidija Zelović (Netherlands), 95’ – World Premiere
Light Memories, dir. Misha Vallejo (Ecuador), 77’ – World Premiere
The Propagandist, dir. Luuk Bouwman, (Netherlands) 112’ – World Premiere
Rule of Stone, dir. Danae Elon (Canada), 84’ – World Premiere
Trains, dir. Maciej J. Drygas (Poland), 80’ – World Premiereq
A Want in Her, dir. Myrid Carten (Ireland/United Kingdom/Netherlands), 81’ – World Premiere
Writing Hawa, dir. Najiba Noori (France/Netherlands/Qatar/Afghanistan), 84’ – World Premiere
Envision Competition
Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, dir. Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland), 208’ – International Premiere
Chronicles of the Absurd, dir. Miguel Coyula (Cuba), 77’ – World Premiere
CycleMahesh, dir. Suhel Banerjee India 60 World Premiere
The Fen-fire, dir. Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands), 60’ – World Premiere
A Frown Gone Mad, dir. Omar Mismar (Lebanon), 71’ – World Premiere
Garanti 100% Kréol, dir. Laurent Pantaleon (Réunion), 63’ – World Premiere
Higher than Acidic Clouds, dir. Ali Asgari (Iran), 70’ – World Premiere
Huaquero, dir. Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez (Ecuador/Peru/Romania), 79’ – World Premiere
Loss Adjustment, dir. Miguel Calderón (Mexico/Uruguay), 74’ – International Premiere
Paradise, dir. Ana Rieper (Brazil), 76’ – World Premiere
Park, dir. Yo-Hen So (Taiwan), 101’ – International Premiere
Pictures in Mind, dir. Eleonora Camizzi (Switzerland), 78’ – World Premiere
Luminous
The premiere-only section Luminous presents a wide range of styles and formalist approaches, from observational to personal to experimental. The selection presents twenty-three titles that delve into our deep emotional worlds and share truths from within. Twenty-one films in the selection are world or international premieres.
Several films in the selection speak to the importance of self-representation. In a reflection on how cinema displays realities, Ilrhan Kim’s Edhi Alice offers an elegant portrait of transness, following two women in transition in South Korea. In a fascinating portrait of Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz, The Last Expedition by Eliza Kubarska draws on a wealth of archival material to reveal a story of a highly ambitious climber and her fight for agency.
Frontlight
The premiere-only section Frontlight showcases thirteen films that critically examine the truth and artistically explore the urgent issues of our time. Eleven of the selected titles are world or international premieres.
This year’s selection tells stories of people trying to stand up to oppression in different forms. Reflecting on the complex consequences of colonization, Toroboro: The Name of the Plants by Manolo Sarmiento chronicles the history and environmental impact of the genocidal colonization of the Waorani community in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. Zainab Entezar’s Shot the Voice of Freedom shows a portrait of women in Afghanistan fighting against Taliban oppression.
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