International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam
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| Location | Amsterdam, Netherlands |
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| Founded | 1988 |
| Hosted by | IDFA |
| Language | International |
| Website | idfa |
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]
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[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 |  Soviet Union
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| 1989 | Soviet Union
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| 1990 | Šar��nas Bartas |  Lithuania
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| 1991 | Djembéfola |  France
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| 1992 | Black Harvest | Robin Anderson & Bob Connolly |  Australia
|
| 1993 |  Russia
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| 1994 | Tsipi Reibenbach |  Israel
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| 1995 | Anne Frank Remembered | Jon Blair |  United Kingdom
|
| 1996 | Blue Eyed |  Germany
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| 1997 |  Sweden
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| 1998 | Twee Vaders |  Netherlands
| |
| 1999 | Crazy | Heddy Honigmann | Netherlands
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| 2000 | Desi | Maria Ramos | Netherlands
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| 2001 |  Canada
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| 2002 | Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore |  United States
|
| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | United States
|
| 2004 | The Yes Men | & Sarah Price & Chris Smith | United States
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| 2005 | Sisters in Law | Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi | United Kingdom
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| 2006 | We Are Together / Thina simunye | Paul Taylor | United Kingdom
|
| 2007 | Israel
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| 2008 | RiP: A Remix Manifesto | Brett Gaylor | Canada
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| 2009 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | United States
|
Special Jury Prize[]
IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (formerly: Silver Wolf Award)[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Israel
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| 1996 | Germany
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| 1997 | & |  Belgium
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| 1998 | Australia
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| 1999 | Les Enfants du Borinage – Lettre à Henri Storck | Belgium
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| 2000 | , , Giuseppe Petitto |  Italy
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| 2001 |  Iran
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| 2002 | Interesting Times: The Secret of My Success |  Chile
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| 2003 | Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers | Erik Gandini | Sweden
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| 2004 | Georgi and the butterflies | Andrey Paounov |  Bulgaria
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| 2005 | Before Flying Back to the Earth | Arūnas Matelis | Lithuania
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| 2006 | Enemies of Happiness | Eva Mulvad |  Denmark
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| 2007 | Israel
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| 2008 | Boris Ryzhy | Netherlands
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| 2009 |  South Korea
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| 2010 | Boris Gerrets | Netherlands
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IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary (formerly: Silver Cub Award)[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Samantha Rebillet | Australia
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| 2006 | Denmark
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| 2007 |  Spain
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| 2008 | & | Sweden / Denmark
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| 2009 | Six Weeks |  Poland
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IDFA Award for Best First Appearance[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | & Kristin Hahn | United States
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| 1998 | Dan Alexe | Belgium
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| 1999 | Zwischen 2 Welten | Bettina Haasen | Germany
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| 2000 | Hybrid | United States
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| 2001 | Russia
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| 2002 |  Finland
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| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | United States
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| 2003 | The Very Best Day | Russia
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| 2004 |  Romania
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| 2005 | The Angelmakers | Astrid Bussink | Netherlands /  Scotland
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| 2006 | We Are Together / Thina simunye | Paul Taylor | United Kingdom
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| 2007 | End of the Rainbow | France / Australia
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| 2008 | Romania
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| 2009 | Colony | & |  Ireland / United States
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| 2010 | Kano: An American and His Harem | Monster Jimenez |  Philippines
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| 2011 | The Vanishing Spring Light | Xun Yu |  China / Canada
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| 2012 | Soldier on the Roof | Netherlands
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| 2013 | My Name Is Salt |  Switzerland /  India
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| 2014 | Drifter |  Hungary / Germany
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| 2015 | When the Earth Seems to Be Light | & & David Meskhi |  Georgia
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Movies that Matter Human Rights Award[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Kim Longinotto | United Kingdom
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| 2002 | The Trials of Henry Kissinger | Eugene Jarecki | United States / United Kingdom / Chile
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| 2003 | Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | & | United Kingdom
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| 2004 | The 3 Rooms of Melancholia | Pirjo Honkasalo | Finland
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| 2005 | China Blue | United States
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| 2006 | New Year Baby | United States
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| 2007 | Jerusalem Is Proud to Present | Nitzan Gilady | Israel
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| 2008 | Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country | Denmark
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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 | Israel
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| 2006 | A Lesson of Belorussian | Poland
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| 2007 | Planet B-Boy | Benson Lee | United States
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| 2008 | United States
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| 2009 | The Yes Men Fix the World | Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno | France / United States
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| 2010 | Autumn Gold | Germany
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| 2011 | The Last Days of Winter | Mehrdad Oskouei | Germany
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| 2012 | Little World | Marcel Barrena | Spain
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| 2013 | #chicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator | United States /  Syria
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IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary[]
| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Elina Hirvonen | Finland
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| 2008 |  Mexico
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| 2009 | Redemption | Germany
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| 2015 | My Aleppo | United States
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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 | Canada
|
| 2011 | In Situ | Antoine Viviani | France
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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 |  England
|
| 1995 | Julie Henderson & & | France
| |
| 1996 | Grenzeloze Liefde – Made in Japan | Puck de Leeuw | Netherlands
|
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.
- ^ "En studie i kærlighed og ensomhed". Kristeligt Dagblad (in Danish). 9 December 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ Sundholm, J.; Thorsen, I.; Andersson, L.G.; Hedling, O.; Iversen, G.; Møller, B.T. (2012). Historical Dictionary of Scandinavian Cinema. G – Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Scarecrow Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8108-5524-3. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
- ^ "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)
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