The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

History

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 as the new artistic director of IDFA. Every year in November, the festival takes place over the period of 11 days, in more than 40 venues around the city, welcoming an audience of 295.000 (2019), and a record number of documentary film professionals, as over 3500 gather for the festival, from more than 100 countries every year.

Description

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. 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 the 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 international training programs for up-and-coming doc talents.

2023 incident

At the opening ceremony of the festival in 2023 held on 8 November in the shadow of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, three activists burst onto the stage and waved a sign bearing the inscription "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". This was to show solidarity with the people of Gaza, who have been exposed to bombardment by the Israeli army in retaliation to the attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas. The activists received applause from the audience, which included the festival director Orwa Nyrabia. On 10 November members of Israel's film community condemned the activists' use of the slogan and the fact that it was applauded by Nyrabia. Following the IDFA's official apology, the Palestinian Film Institute withdrew its three documentaries from the festival and started a petition protesting what it perceives as "institutional vilification and censorship in the filmmaking industry".

Prizes

The best new documentaries of the year compete in IDFA's main competition programs: Prize: €15,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Prize: €10,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Prize: €5,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Prize: €10,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Prize: €5,000 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Prize: €7,500 (The jury also presents a Special Jury Award) Alongside the competition programs, five awards are awarded during IDFA: Prize: €5,000 Prize: €25,000

Program sections

In addition to the competitions, IDFA presents several non-competitive film programs:

Regular programs

In this program section, the festival presents the latest documentaries by renowned documentary auteurs. In Best of Fests, the festival presents films that have made an impact on the international festival circuit this year. In this section, the festival presents films from all over the world, which are thought-provoking in their form and choice of theme. 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. 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 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

IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (formerly: Silver Wolf Award)

IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary (formerly: Silver Cub Award)

IDFA Award for Best First Appearance

Movies that Matter Human Rights Award

IDFA DOC U! Award for the youth jury's favorite film (formerly: Moviesquad DOC U! Award)

IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

The IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction rewards the best immersive non-fiction of the festival.

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

The IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling rewards the best Digital Storytelling.

Award-winning works