Held since 1988, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is one of the largest documentary events taking place in the year. It was one of the first film festivals exclusively focused on documentaries, and while it might not be the only documentary-focused film festival today, it certainly remains the largest and most important when it comes to non-fiction film world premieres. At the heart of the festival’s program are nine competition sections - which is a big heart! And so it goes that every November, Docs in Orbit dedicates a good amount of energy meticulously combing through each of the sections of the program, researching the films that will be on display, and inviting a special guest to help curate a watch list ahead of the festival. This culminates into an annual Docs in Orbit IDFA Program Review episode. In addition to our program review episode, each year, we select one film in competition to invite for an in-depth interview. Past films have included Aswang (2019) by Alyx Arumpac, Nothing by the Sun (2020) by Arami Ullón, Children of the Mist (2022) by Diem Ha Le, and Paradise (2023) by Alexander Abaturov. And last but certainly not least, we republish conversations with filmmakers whose films premiered in other festivals and have made their way into the highly coveted IDFA Best of Fests section for you to enjoy!IDFA 2022 with Orwa Nyrabia
[November 29, 2022] Last week brought the close of the 35th edition of IDFA, and this year’s edition felt monumental. Not only for the sheer number of films on display (277) but also for the necessary and thought-provoking panel discussions that were platformed - including an examination of the growing prosecution and incarceration of filmmakers around the world, the emergence of co-creation as a practice grounded in equity and justice, and a bold, critical examination of the power dynamics inherent in film festivals that are designed around exclusivity and competition.
All said it was an impressive offering that gave air to many meaningful exchanges. Midway through the festival, I had the great chance to catch up with Orwa Nyrabia, the Artistic Director of IDFA, to discuss the organizing of this year’s festival experience and unpack some of the ideas and notions that were pushed to the foreground.
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Born in Syria, Orwa Nyrabia started his career as an actor and journalist before moving into film production. In 2002, together with his partner and fellow filmmaker, Diana El Jeiroudi, they established an independent production company. In 2008, he moved into festival organizing where he and his partner launched DOX BOX which grew to be the most important documentary film gathering in the Arab world. Just before the 5th edition, the organizers made a public statement announcing the suspension of the festival in protest against the violation of human rights in Syria. Instead they advocated for Syrian films to be shown in festivals around the world as an act of solidarity in light of the violence that by then had taken hold in Syria. Orwa was subsequently arrested in Damascus and the international film community came together and successfully called on the Syrian Government for his release. Now exiled in Europe, Orwa continues advocating for the power of documentary film and the rights of filmmakers.
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Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.
IDFA 2022 - Co-Curated Watch List with Wouter Jansen
[November 07, 2022] In this episode, I am joined with Wouter Jansen from Square Eyes ahead of his travels to IDFA to review the festival program. IDFA is one of the largest documentary events, and their extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community. But it can also be overwhelming with over 250 titles and only ten days. So, before boarding our flights, Wouter joined me to go through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival experience.
Square Eyes is a sales and distribution company based in Vienna that specializes in helping outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts and collaborates closely with filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. He has a very focused catalog of films that have premiered at prestigious festivals and won multiple awards over the last few years, like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno, and Clermont-Ferrand.
This year, he will be at IDFA representing two titles, ANHEIL69 by Theo Montoya, which made its premiere in the Critics Week section of the Venice Film Festival, and EUROPE by Philip Scheffner, which premiered at the Berlinale Forum section earlier this year.
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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
NON-ALIGNED: SCENES FROM THE LABUDOVIĆ REELS By Mila Turajlić - Serbia, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Qatar - 105’ min
PARADISE by Alexander Abaturov - France, Switzerland - 88’ min
COLETTE AND JUSTIN by Alain Kassanda - France, Belgium - 89' min
ENVISION COMPETITION
HOW DARE YOU HAVE SUCH A RUBBISH WISH by Mania Akbari - Iran, UK - 72’ min
INVOKED by Luka Papić and Srda Vučo - Serbia - 64’ min
SHORT DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
SOLMATALUA by Rodrigo Ribeiro-Andrade - Brazil - 15 min
STILL STATIC - Adam Kaplan - France - 22 min
AWAY by Ruslan Fedotow - Hungary - 28 min
BUDAPEST SILO by Zsofia Paczolay - Hungary - 25 min (Short Competition)
DOCLAB COMPETITION FOR IMMERSIVE NON-FICTION
IN PURSUIT OF REPETITIVE BEATS by Darren Emerson - UK - 35 min
SLUMBERLAND by Emma Bexell Stanisic, Stefan Bexell Stanisic, Robin Jonsson - Sweden - 2022 - 30 min
IDFA ON STAGE
ARCADIA LIVE by Paul Wright - UK - 78 min
BETWEEN NOTHINGNESS AND INFINITY, I BEGAN TO WEEP by Maxime Jean-Baptiste - French Guiana, Belgium, France - 80 min
BEST OF FESTS
ANHELL69 by Theo Montoya - Colombia / Romania / France / Germany - 72 min
NAKED GARDENS by Ivete Lucas & Patrick Bresnan - U.S., France - 90 min
FORAGERS by Jumana Manna - Palestine - 64 min
GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE by Jacqueline Mills - Canada - 104 min
ALL THAT BREATHES by Shaunak Sen - India, UK, U.S.A - 94 min
PARADOCS
EUROPE by Philip Scheffner - Germany, France - 105 min
A LITTLE LOVE PACKAGE by Gastón Solnicki - Austria, Argentina - 81 min
THE UNSTABLE OBJECT II by Daniel Eisenberg - United States - 204 min
LAURA POITRAS + TOP 10
PROJECT CROSSROADS by U.S. Department of Energy - United States - 1949 - 42 min
THE 3 ROOMS OF MELANCHOLIA by pirjo Honkasalo - Finland, Denmark, Germany, Sweden - 2004 - 106 min (Top 10 Section)
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Wouter Jansen is the founder of the sales and festival distribution company Square Eyes. He worked as the head of programming at the Go Short - International Film Festival during the first 10 editions. In 2013 he started Some Shorts, which changed to Square Eyes in 2019, which specializes in having outstanding non-mainstream films find the audience and recognition they deserve. With Square Eyes, Wouter represents bold, author-driven features and shorts, and collaborates closely with the filmmakers to devise bespoke festival distribution and sales strategies. This has resulted in a small catalogue of films premiering at prestigious festivals and winning multiple awards over the last few years like main prizes at Cannes, TIFF, Berlin, Locarno and Clermont-Ferrand.
Wouter has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy and is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab. He has moderated as well as led workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.
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Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.
IDFA 2021 - Co-Curated Watch List with Venice Atienza
[November 17, 2021] In this episode, I am joined by filmmaker and dear friend Venice Atienza ahead of her travels to IDFA to review the festival program. IDFA is one of the largest documentary events, and its extensive programming is energizing for the international documentary film community. But it can also be overwhelming, with over 260 titles and only ten days. So, before boarding her flight, Venice joined me to go through each section of the program and co-curated a watch list to help guide our festival experience.
Venice is a filmmaker currently living between Mumbai and Manilla. She is a graduate of the European film school, DocNomads. Her first feature film, LAST DAYS AT SEA, debuted in March 2021 at the Berlinale and is closing out the year in the “Best of Fests” section at IDFA. She is also a returning contributor to the podcast and sat with us earlier this year to discuss her film, LAST DAYS AT SEA.
You can listen to that discussion, as well as discussions with filmmakers Salomé Jashi, Payal Kapadia, and Stefan Pavlović whose films are included in the Best of Fests section of the festival.
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INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
CHILDREN IN THE MIST by Diem Ha Le / Vietnam / 2021 / 92 min
A THOUSAND FIRES by Saeed Taji Farouky / France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Palestine / 2021 / 90 min
HOW THE ROOM FELT by Ketevan Kapanadze / Georgia / 2021 / 74 min / World Premiere
WHERE ARE WE HEADED by Rusland Fedotow / Russia / 2021 / 63 min
ENVISION COMPETITION
ESKAPE by Adeline Neary Hay / France / 2021 / 70 min
FOUR JOURNEYS by Louis Hothothot (Louis Yi Liu) / Netherlands / 2021 / 112 min
THE BURROWS by Sanshou Hu / China / 2021 / 101 min
IDFA ON STAGE
THE HISTORY OF THE CIVIL WAR by Dziga Vertov / Russia / 1921 / 94 min /
SPECTRAL TRANSMISSIONS by Michael Palmieri, Donal Mosher / United States / 70 min
IDFA COMPETITION FOR YOUTH DOCUMENTARY
WILD ANIMAL by Maria Besora / Spain / 2021 / 23 minutes
IDFA Competition for Short Documentary
Dixie by Caroline Rumley / United States / 15 min European Premiere
I Am Trying to Remember by Pegah Ahangarani / Iran, Czech Republic / 16 min
Prosopagnosia by Steven Fraser - UK - 11 minutes
Two Spirit by Mónica Taboada-Tapia - Colombia - 16 min
BEST OF FESTS
LAST DAYS AT SEA by Venice Atienza / Philippines, Taiwan / 2021 / 72 min
LOOKING FOR HORSES by Stefan Pavlović / Netherlands, Bosnia-Herzegovina, France / 2021 / 88 min
A NIGHT OF KNOWING NOTHING NOTHING by Payal Kapadia / France, India / 2021 / 97 min
TAMING THE GARDEN by Salomé Jashi / Switzerland, Germany, Georgia / 2021 / 92 min
KALSUBAI by Yudhajit Basu / India / 2020 / 20 min
HITO STEYERL TOP 10
Essay, referenced on the podcast IN DEFENSE OF THE POOR IMAGE
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Venice Atienza, Mumbai - Venice is a filmmaker and co-producer of Docs in Orbit. Her first feature documentary, Last Days at Sea (2021) premiered at the Berlinale and screened in festivals around the world, including Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, and DMZ Docs. Venice is also the co-founder of Svemirko Film and Audiovisual Art Productions. Her projects have received support from the IDFA Bertha Fund and Sundance, among others. Venice has a Master of Arts from DocNomads. In 2023, she was invited to serve on the international jury for the 73rd Berlinale Generation KPlus competition.
Wouter has been giving lectures at schools like Le Fresnoy, HEAD Geneva and Netherlands Film Academy and is an expert for Locarno Open Doors and First Cut Lab. He has moderated as well as led workshops at festivals like IDFA, True/False, Winterthur, VIS Vienna Shorts and others. He is a Berlinale Talents alumni.
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Christina is a researcher, filmmaker, and founding editor of Docs in Orbit, where she leads the curation of content.