International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)

  • IDFA 2021 Reveals Documentary Films in Luminous and Frontlight Premiere Sections

    Intensive Life Unit directed by Adéla Komrzý
    Intensive Life Unit directed by Adéla Komrzý

    The 2021 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) unveiled the selected films in premiere-only sections Luminous and Frontlight, along with its first competition selections in the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary and the IDFA Competition for Youth Documentary. IDFA also announced the selected titles in interdisciplinary program IDFA on Stage, chief among them the world premiere of the newly restored Dziga Vertov film The History of the Civil War. The 34th edition of IDFA takes place from November 17 to 28 in Amsterdam.

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  • IDFA 2021 Unveils Best of Fests, Masters, and Paradocs Documentary Films

    Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege directed by Abdallah Al Khatib
    Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege directed by Abdallah Al Khatib

    The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) added 65 new documentary films to its festival lineup today, rolling out the non-competitive program sections Best of Fests, Masters, and Paradocs. The 34th edition of IDFA takes place from November 17 to 28 in Amsterdam.

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  • International Documentary Film Festival 2021 Reveals First Films and Premiere of Artavazd Pelechian’ Nature

    Nature directed by Artavazd Pelechian
    Nature directed by Artavazd Pelechian

    International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) announced the first films selected for its 34th edition: the Top 10 program curated by Guest of Honor Hito Steyerl, and a four-title program with the films of Artavazd Pelechian. Both directors will be in attendance at IDFA 2021, which runs November 17 to 28 in Amsterdam.

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  • IDFA 2020 Awards – ‘Radiograph of a Family’ wins Best Feature Documentary

    Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani
    Radiograph of a Family by Firouzeh Khosrovani

    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.

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  • World Premiere of NOTHING BUT THE SUN will Open International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

    Nothing but the Sun directed by Arami Ullón
    Nothing but the Sun directed by Arami Ullón

    International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2020 will open with the world premiere of Nothing but the Sun by Paraguayan-Swiss director Arami Ullón. A quietly earth-shattering film, Nothing but the Sun lucidly contrasts the hot, arid atmosphere of Paraguay’s Chaco region with the devastating stories of the Ayoreo people, an Indigenous community violently uprooted from their ancestral territory by white missionaries. Between past and present, forest and desert, folk songs and church hymns, Ullón’s poetic feature lays bare the raw emotions of the human condition, seen through a culture on the brink of disappearing, but not without a voice.

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  • IDFA 2020 Announces Films in Dutch, Short, Student, and Young Audience Competitions

    100UP directed by Heddy Honigmann
    100UP directed by Heddy Honigmann

    International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2020 (IDFA) announced the films selected for the Dutch, short, student, and young audience competitions, as well as for the non-competitive sections Luminous, Frontlight, and IDFA on Stage.

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  • IDFA 2020: Fest Reveals Best of Fests and Gianfranco Rosi’s Top 10

    Stray directed by Elizabeth Lo
    Stray directed by Elizabeth Lo

    International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) revealed the first films selected for its 33rd edition, including 30 films in the Best of Fests program, and 10 films selected by Gianfranco Rosi for the Top 10 program.

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  • Director Gianfranco Rosi is the Guest of Honor at IDFA 2020

    Gianfranco Rosi
    Gianfranco Rosi

    Italian director Gianfranco Rosi, the only filmmaker to win top awards at two A-list festivals with documentary films, the Golden Lion at Venice with Sacro GRA in 2013 and the Golden Bear at the Berlinale with Fire at Sea in 2016 will be the Guest of Honor for the 2020 edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).

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  • IDFA 2020 Sets November Dates for Return to Cinemas

    Award Winners of 2019 International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
    Award Winners of 2019 International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)

    With Dutch cinemas now re-opening, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is looking to hold the 33rd edition of the festival in theaters from November 18th to 29th, with potentially reduced capacity. The festival’s competitions will remain intact, to be presented in cinemas and extended with limited virtual cinema screenings and events.

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  • FOR SAMA Wins Audience Award at International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

    FOR SAMA. Sama pictured in September 2016, in the bombarded east of the city with a placard in response to US presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s infamous gaffe “What’s Aleppo” – Courtesy of Channel 4, Copyright Waad al-Kateab.
    FOR SAMA. Sama pictured in September 2016, in the bombarded east of the city with a placard in response to US presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s infamous gaffe “What’s Aleppo” – Courtesy of Channel 4, Copyright Waad al-Kateab.

    For Sama directed by Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts has won the VPRO IDFA Audience Award the grand public prize of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.

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  • IDFA 2019 Winners – IN A WHISPER Wins Best Documentary

    Award Winners of 2019 International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
    Award Winners of 2019 International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)

    Directors Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez Fernández are the winners of the 2019 International Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary with In a Whisper. The film centers on two emigrated Cuban filmmakers whose passion for film, friendship, and freedom reunites them after years apart.

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