IDFA 2023 announces opening film and competition lineups

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is preparing for its 36th edition, which will run from November 8 to 19 in Amsterdam. The festival’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia shared his views on the importance of documentary film in responding to the urgent and devastating situations in the world. He said that documentary film is not a direct and immediate reaction, but rather a way of offering a broader perspective that goes beyond our limited daily vision. He added that documentary filmmakers have been aware of the signs of the crises, and that the festival aims to bring people together to listen better and to avoid being trapped in our own identities and conflicts.

The festival also revealed its opening film and the main competition selections for this year. The opening film will be the world premiere of A Picture to Remember by Olga Chernykh, a film that received IDFA Bertha Fund support in 2023. The film is a personal and political exploration of the ongoing war in Ukraine and its violent past, through the lens of three generations of women: the filmmaker, her mother, and her grandmother. The film uses old family footage, conversations, and news reports to create a connection and intimacy between the filmmaker and her grandmother. The film is a kaleidoscopic and personal journey that travels through time.

A Picture to Remember is also part of the Envision Competition, which features 12 films that are stylistically innovative and visionary. The films in this section challenge the conventional definition of documentary film and create new cinematic languages. The films are subjective, personal, and ethical, and some of them look at recent socio-political history from a personal perspective. The section also showcases films that have unique aesthetics, hybrid forms, and new ways of using typography and associative narratives in documentary film.

The International Competition includes 11 films that deal with contemporary conflicts and turmoil through personal experiences. Nine of the films are world or international premieres. The section represents 17 countries and covers the most turbulent conflicts of our time, from Gaza, Myanmar, to Nagorno-Karabakh. Some of the films also revisit archives and engage in critical re-examination of our established accounts of history. Some of the films also address the urgency of climate crisis and its impact on our natural world.

The Immersive Competition presents 13 titles that expand the boundaries of the genre, with a selection of multisensory experiences, live performances, artistic VR creations, and immersive installations. The section features multisensory experiments with artificial intelligence, interactive projects that reimagine cinematic classics and film scores, and XR projects that explore unknown worlds and speculative digital utopias.

The Digital Storytelling Competition consists of 10 titles that build on the rich history of interactive storytelling, with captivating works by new talent and established names. The section uses gaming elements and augmented reality to create engaging and thought-provoking experiences. The section covers topics such as anti-capitalist activism, football realms, and scenic drives. The section also critically examines the implications of artificial intelligence, such as governmental risk-based profiling and scripted social realities.

The non-competitive DocLab Spotlight section includes 10 titles, featuring award-winning VR projects, immersive theater, and an expanded offering of fulldome projects. The section uses literature as the starting point for new media explorations, creating augmented experiences that demonstrate cyberfeminism’s legacy and immersive non-linear storytelling that explores the self, life’s catastrophes, and our psycho-geographies.

IDFA also announced the nominations for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature, IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film, and the Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award. The winners will be announced during the IDFA 2023 awards ceremony on Thursday, November 16.

IDFA DocLab is supported by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, CLICKNL, The Netherlands Film Fund, Onassis Foundation, and IDFA’s Special Friends+. IDFA DocLab has research collaborations with MIT Open Documentary Lab, Beeld & Geluid, ARTIS-Planetarium, Atlas V, Bombina Bombast, Cassette - Nu: Reality, Diversion cinema, East City Films, Eye Filmmuseum, Kaspar AI, National Film Board of Canada, ONX Studios, Polymorf, POPKRAFT, ScanLAB Projects, The Immersive Storytelling Studio (National Theatre), Tiny Planets, Unity for Humanity, Vlaams Cultuurhuis de Brakke Grond.