International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

Amsterdam hosted the 38th IDFA from November 13 to 23, 2025, with Portuguese filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias as Guest of Honor. The awards ceremony at Eye Filmmuseum on November 20 brought two very different visions of documentary cinema into the spotlight: Mehrdad Oskouei’s A Fox Under a Pink Moon won the International Competition, while Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani’s Past Future Continuous took the top Envision prize. The international jury brought together Eric Hynes, Isabelle Glachant, Maya Daisy Hawke, Michel K. Zongo and Myriam Sassine. Dawood Hilmandi’s Paikar collected the Best First Feature and FIPRESCI awards, alongside a special mention in the Dutch competition. Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni’s Cutting Through Rocks was the audience favourite, winning the NPO Doc Audience Award. The DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award went to Claudix Vanesix’s Feedback VR, an anti-futurist musical, with a special mention for Khalil Ashawi and Hadeel Arja’s Under the Same Sky. Beyond the film competitions, DocLab’s Digital Storytelling Award went to Anan Fries’s interactive installation Artificial Sex (Ep. 1 & 2); Maisha Wester’s desktop game Coded Black received a special mention.