IDFA unveils its opening film and main competition selections, "worthy of our return to the cinemas"
by Marta Bałaga
- Louis Hothothot’s Four Journeys will open the 34th edition of the festival, which will screen new films by Sergei Loznitsa and Aliona van der Horst
The 34th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), running from 17-28 November, has unveiled its selection. The festival’s line-up will feature 264 titles by filmmakers from over 80 countries.
“They are showing us how artistic freedom, courage and engagement with the world come in many different languages, styles and viewpoints. The documentary field is being confirmed as a future-proof art form that is unapologetically open, diverse and continuously developing. IDFA’s new programme structure, as well as IDFA’s Filmmaker Support and Industry activities, is changing to reflect this,” said artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, calling the programme “worthy of our return to the cinemas”.
The main competition, including 14 titles, will boast the likes of Mr. Landsbergis [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Sergei Loznitsa, this time interested in Lithuania’s “singing revolution”; Vedette [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by France’s Claudine Bories and Patrice Chagnard, which follows the life of a cow; and How the Room Felt [+see also:
film review
interview: Ketevan Kapanadze
film profile] by Georgia’s Ketevan Kapanadze, showing a local women’s football team providing a safe space for LGBTQ+ people. Saeed Taji Farouky’s A Thousand Fires [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (France/Switzerland/Netherlands/Palestine), Susana de Sousa Dias and Ansgar Schaefer’s Journey to the Sun (Portugal), Aliona van der Horst’s Turn Your Body to the Sun (Netherlands), Giovanni Buccomino’s After a Revolution [+see also:
film review
film profile] (Italy/Libya), Qinyuan Lei’s The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost (Germany/China), Seydou Cissé’s Taamaden (Mali/Cameroon/South Africa/France/Belgium), Kamar Ahmad Simon’s Day after... (Bangladesh/France/Norway) and Ruslan Fedotow’s Where Are We Headed (Belarus/Russia) are the other European (co-)productions in the section, which is rounded off by The Beach of Enchaquirados (Ecuador) by Ivan Mora Manzano, Children of the Mist (Vietnam) by Diem Ha Le and The Delights (Argentina) by Eduardo Crespo.
“These are films that use a clearly defined frame, but inside it, anything can happen. Artistically confident, well-rounded and universally relevant, each of these titles expresses an unparalleled cinematic mastery that is at once both intricate and effortless,” promised the organisers.
The festival will open with Four Journeys [+see also:
film review
film profile], the personal debut feature by Louis Hothothot. Born in China as an “illegal” second child, Louis and his family suffered the devastating consequences at the hands of the authorities. The title will also be a part of IDFA’s new Envision Competition, gathering together 15 “exploratory” films. They include Pim Zwier’s O, Collecting Eggs Despite the Times [+see also:
film review
film profile] about a German ornithologist who devoted his life to the study of birds’ eggs; Tea Tupajic’s Darkness There and Nothing More, in which two Dutch war veterans spend a night in conversation with the director; and Neary Adeline Hay’s Eskape [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a journey to the past of a camp of refugees fleeing from the Khmer Rouge regime.
Ten projects were chosen for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling, as well as the non-competitive IDFA DocLab Spotlight section, including interactive and immersive highlights, and a one-off cinematic experience by a very special guest – In Missing Pictures Episode 2: Tsai-Ming Liang, the Seven-Story Building, offering directors the opportunity to bring a lost project back to life in an animated virtual world, the Taiwanese director talks about his childhood memories that would be impossible for him to film. Finally, ten experiential projects by some of the world’s top immersive and interactive artists have been selected for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction.
“Within the selection, projects journey into speculative worlds, engaging all of our senses as they transform us into a post-human being; others merge augmented reality with the harsh texture of our current reality in crisis; several projects redefine live performance as immersive, shared experience; and still others take us literally outside, into nature, to reconnect with the world around us,” it was stated.
You can find the full line-up here.
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