IDFA 2024 Names Opening Film, Sets Full Competition Lineups

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has set Piotr Winiewicz’s “About a Hero” as the opening film for its 37th edition, running Nov. 14–24.

During a press conference on Wednesday, festival organizers revealed the titles selected for the International and Envision competitions, along with complete lineups for the Luminous, Frontlight and IDFA DocLab sections.

IDFA, widely regarded as the world’s largest documentary festival, had previously rolled out programming for other key strands, including Short Documentary, Youth Documentary, Best of Fests, Signed and Paradocs. On Oct. 8, the festival also announced 55 projects for its IDFA Forum 2024, spanning Forum Pitch, Producers Connection, Rough Cut Presentations and DocLab Forum segments.

Winners of the cross-section prizes — including the IDFA Award for Best First Feature, IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film and Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award — will be named at the awards ceremony on Nov. 21.

The full lineup of films selected for the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, Frontlight, and IDFA DocLab competition sections follows:

Selected films: International Competition

• “About a Hero,” director: Piotr Winiewicz (Denmark/Germany/United States),
  World Premiere
• “An American Pastoral,” director: Auberi Edler (France),
  World Premiere
• Anonymous film
• “The Golden Age,” director: Camilla Iannetti (Italy),
  International Premiere
• “Green Is the New Red,” director: Anna Recalde Miranda (France/Italy/Paraguay/Sweden),
  World Premiere
• “The Guest,” director: Zvika Gregory Portnoy, Zuzanna Solakiewicz (Poland/Qatar), World Premiere
• “Home Game,” director: Lidija Zelović (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Light Memories,” director: Misha Vallejo (Ecuador),
  World Premiere
• “The Propagandist,” director: Luuk Bouwman, (Netherlands)
  World Premiere
• “Rule of Stone,” director: Danae Elon (Canada),
  World Premiere
• “Trains,” director: Maciej J. Drygas (Poland),
  World Premiereq
• “A Want in Her,” director: Myrid Carten (Ireland/United Kingdom/Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Writing Hawa,” director: Najiba Noori (France/Netherlands/Qatar/Afghanistan),
  World Premiere

Selected films: Envision Competition

• “Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries,” director: Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland),
  International Premiere
• “Chronicles of the Absurd,” director: Miguel Coyula (Cuba),
  World Premiere
• “CycleMahesh,” director: Suhel Banerjee (India)
  World Premiere
• “The Fen-fire,” director: Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “A Frown Gone Mad,” director: Omar Mismar (Lebanon),
  World Premiere
• “Garanti 100% Kréol,” director: Laurent Pantaleon (Réunion),
  World Premiere
• “Higher than Acidic Clouds,” director: Ali Asgari (Iran),
  World Premiere
• “Huaquero,” director: Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez (Ecuador/Peru/Romania),
  World Premiere
• “Loss Adjustment,” director: Miguel Calderón (Mexico/Uruguay),
  International Premiere
• “Paradise,” director: Ana Rieper (Brazil),
  World Premiere
• “Park,” director: Yo-Hen So (Taiwan),
  International Premiere
• “Pictures in Mind,” director: Eleonora Camizzi (Switzerland),
  World Premiere

Selected films: Luminous section

• “Abu Zaabal 89,” director: by Bassam Mortada (Egypt, Germany),
  World Premiere
• “At All Kosts,” director: Joseph Hillel (Canada),
  World Premiere
• “Been Here Stay Here,” director: David Usui (United States),
  World Premiere
• “Before Then,” director: Mengzhu Xue (Germany, China),
  European Premiere
• “Bright Future,” director: Andra MacMasters (Romania, South Korea),
  World Premiere
• “Edhi Alice,” director: Ilrhan Kim (South Korea),
  World Premiere
• “The Jacket,” director: Mathijs Poppe (Belgium, Netherlands, France, Lebanon),
  International Premiere
• “The Last Expedition,” director: Eliza Kubarska (Poland, Switzerland),
  International Premiere
• “Lift Lady,” director: Marcin Modzelewski (Poland),
  World Premiere
• “Light of the Setting Sun,” director: Vicky Du (USA, Taiwan),
  European Premiere
• “Make It Look Real,” director: Danial Shah (Pakistan, Netherlands, Belgium),
  European Premiere
• “Neshoma,” director: Sandra Beerends (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Personale,” director: Carmen Trocker (Italy, Austria),
  World Premiere
• “Please Step Aside!,” director: Raha Faridi (Germany, Iran),
  World Premiere
• “The Shepherd and the Bear,” director: Max Keegan (France, UK, USA),
  International Premiere
• “Silent Observers,” director: Eliza Petkova (Bulgaria, Germany),
  World Premiere
• “A Strange Colour of Dream,” director: Yasemin Akinci (France, Turkey),
  World Premiere
• “Things That Happen on Earth,” director: Michele Cinque (Italy, Germany),
  International Premiere
• “Until the Orchid Blooms,” director: Polen Ly (Cambodia, France),
  World Premiere
• “The Water Eyed Boy,” directors: Lírio Ferreira, Carolina Sá (Brazil),
  World Premiere
• “A While at the Border,” director: Ile Dell Unti (Argentina),
  International Premiere
• “Whoever Deserves It, Will Be Immortal,” director: Nay Mendl (Cuba),
  World Premiere
• “Yalla, Baba!,” director: Angie Obeid (Belgium, Lebanon, Netherlands, Qatar),
  International Premiere

Selected films: Frontlight section

• “The 1957 Transcripts,” director: Ayelet Heller (Israel),
  International Premiere
• “The Ban,” director: Roisin Agnew (Ireland, United Kingdom),
  International Premiere
• “Blowing in the Wind,” director: Eyad Aljarod (Syria, Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp,” director: Dennis Harvey (Sweden, Ireland),
  European Premiere
• “Eyes of Gaza,” director: Mahmoud Atassi (Qatar),
  World Premiere
• “Missing Rio Doce,” director: Claudia Neubern (France, Brazil),
  World Premiere
• “On the Border,” directors: Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, Gabriela Schild (Austria, Germany, Switzerland),
  World Premiere
• “The Shadow Scholars,” director: Eloïse King (United Kingdom),
  International Premiere
• “Shot the Voice of Freedom,” director: Zainab Entezar (Afghanistan),
  World Premiere
• “Toroboro: The Name of the Plants,” director: Manolo Sarmiento (Ecuador, Brazil),
  International Premiere
• “Tripoli / A Tale of Three Cities,” director: Raed El Rafei (Lebanon),
  World Premiere
• “Undercover: Exposing the Far Right,” director: Havana Marking (United Kingdom),
  International Premiere
• “The White House Effect,” directors: Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk (United States),
  European Premiere

Selected films: IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

• “Ancestral Secret VR,” directors: Francisca Silva, Maria Jose Diaz (Chile, Germany),
  International Premiere
• “DOLLHOUSE for Queer Imaginaries,” director: queer.space (South Africa),
  World Premiere
• “Drinking Brecht: An Automated Laboratory Performance,” director: Sister Sylvester (United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Limbophobia,” director: Wen-Yee Hsieh (Taiwan),
  World Premiere
• “The Liminal,” director: Alaa Al Minawi (Netherlands, Lebanon, Palestine, Norway),
  World Premiere
• “Me, a Depiction,” director: Lisa Schamlé (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “RAPTURE II – Portal,” director: Alisa Berger (France, Ukraine, Germany),
  World Premiere
• “ROAMance,” directors: Stanislaw Liguzinski, Ibrahim Quraishi (Netherlands, Germany),
  World Premiere
• “Speechless Witness of a Wandering Tree,” director: Aphra Taghizadeh (Iran),
  World Premiere
• “Walking Alone, Text You When I’m Home,” director: Vincent Abert (Germany),
  World Premiere

Selected films: IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

• “Ancestors,” director: Steye Hallema (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Burn from Absence,” director: Emeline Courcier (France, Canada),
  World Premiere
• “Drift,” directors: Nienke Huitenga, Hay Kranen, Lieven Heeremans (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Entropic Fields of Displacement,” director: Pegah Tabassinejad (Canada),
  International Premiere
• “Future Botanica,” directors: Marcel van Brakel, Hazal Ertürkan (Netherlands),
  World Premiere
• “Google volume 2,” director: Felix Heyes, Ben West (France, Lithuania),
  World Premiere
• “Oryza: Healing Ground,” director: Tamara Shogaolu (Netherlands, United States),
  World Premiere
• “Sena, and Their Garden,” director: Jisoo Lim (South Korea),
  World Premiere
• “Sincerely, Victor Pike,” director: Gregor Petrikovič (United Kingdom, Slovakia),
  World Premiere
• “Töngö sondi,” director: Ruben Cabenda (Suriname),
  World Premiere
• “You Can Sing Me on My Way,” director: Seán Hannan (Netherlands),
  World Premiere

Selected films: IDFA DocLab Spotlight

• “About a Hero,” director: Piotr Winiewicz (Denmark, Germany, United States),
  World Premiere
• “AI & Me,” director: mots (Germany),
  Dutch Premiere
• “All I Know About Teacher Li,” director: Zhuzmo (United States),
  Dutch Premiere
• “Bad Trip,” director: Emese Pálovics (Hungary),
  Dutch Premiere
• “Fragile Home,” directors: Ondřej Moravec, Victoria Lopukhina (Czech Republic),
  Dutch Premiere
• “Impulse: Playing with Reality,” directors: Barry Gene Murphy, May Abdalla (United Kingdom),
  Dutch Premiere
• “Thanks for Being Here,” directors: Ontroerend Goed, Alexander Devriendt (Belgium)