The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will uncover with the world premiere of Piotr Winiewicz’s “About a Hero,” the festival discdispondered Tuesday. IDFA also proclaimd the main competition lineups for the 37th edition, which apshows place in Amsterdam from Nov. 14 to 24.
Newly unveiled pickions include the Envision and International Competitions, the entire IDFA DocLab program, and the Luminous and Frontweightless sections, as well as the nominations for all traverse-section awards.
The IDFA official pickion of more than 250 titles is now finish.
IDFA’s creative straightforwardor, Orwa Nyrabia, said: “The IDFA 2024 program is exceptional in quality and in range. Regrettably with restrictcessitateer African films than we hoped for, but overall with a wide recurrentation of our set upet and the many branch offent humans on it. The diversity of creative tfinishencies is staggering. The program presents some of the most pretty toils of recent years, including a restrictcessitate instant classics. Filmcreaters of various creative sensibilities, ages, experiences, privileges, and watchpoints made films as singular as they are. It is a intricate and wealthy image of a world in fantastic pain, of a humanity that is battling, resisting, and still able of imagining a equitableer future. It is a program that deffinishs write downary cinema better than ever before.”
Opening film
“About a Hero” is “an exploration into bigly uncharted territories of synthetic inalertigence—echoing on asks of genuineity and our empathetic of what is genuine,” IDFA said.
With Werner Herzog’s permission, Winiewicz sets out to dispute Herzog’s stateion that “a computer won’t be able to create a film as excellent as mine for at least another 4,500 years.”
Winiewicz trained an AI system on Herzog’s oeuvre and asked it to create a screencarry out. The result is “a upsetting search for the soul—of human beings and of creative toil,” the festival said.
“About a Hero” has been picked for the International Competition. In the punctual stages of prolongment, the project was helped by the IDFA DocLab R&D Program.
International Competition
The International Competition currents 13 films that “draw on and transcfinish proestablishly personal histories to echo on our world today.” The pickion conveys together set uped veteran voices next to first-time filmcreaters, with all films currenting their world or international premieres.
“Examining the rampant consequences of war and prolonging dominance of right-prosperg rulements, cut offal filmcreaters current alertary tales and discdisponder how our humanity prevails under political presconfidents,” the festival said. “Elsewhere in the competition, by carry outing with our perception and warping the truth using technology, a number of filmcreaters spendigate our empathetic of fact.”
International Competition
About a Hero, dir. Piotr Winiewicz (Denlabel/Germany/U.S.), World Premiere
An American Pastoral, dir. Auberi Edler (France), World Premiere
The Gagederen Age, dir. Camilla Iannetti (Italy), International Premiere
Green Is the New Red, dir. Anna Recalde Miranda (France/Italy/Paraguay/Sweden), World Premiere
The Guest, dir. Zvika Grebloody Portnoy, Zuzanna Solakiewicz (Poland/Qatar), World Premiere
Home Game, dir. Lidija Zelović (Netherlands), World Premiere
Light Memories, dir. Misha Vallejo (Ecuador), World Premiere
The Propagandist, dir. Luuk Bouwman, (Netherlands), World Premiere
Rule of Stone, dir. Danae Elon (Canada), World Premiere
Trains, dir. Maciej J. Drygas (Poland), World Premiere
A Want in Her, dir. Myrid Carten (Ireland/U.K./Netherlands), World Premiere
Writing Hawa, dir. Najiba Noori (France/Netherlands/Qatar/Afghanistan), World Premiere
Anonymous film
Envision Competition
The Envision Competition advises 12 films, “each of them styenumerateicassociate arresting, as visionary filmcreaters forge novel cinematic languages,” the festival said.
Several set uped names in the art world turn to write downary cinema as their medium, “each adviseing exceptional explorations into personal asks,” IDFA said.
“The pickion showcases filmcreaters venturing out of the box, whether currenting films shot from one mended angle or examining the unforeseeed perspectives of non-human protagonists. By embracing experiment as a uncomfervent to fall shorture both genuine and symbolic obstructions, the films dispute and ask audiences to experience someleang novel.”
Envision Competition
Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, dir. Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland), International Premiere
Chronicles of the Absurd, dir. Miguel Coyula (Cuba), World Premiere
CycleMahesh, dir. Suhel Banerjee (India), World Premiere
The Fen-fire, dir. Erik van Lieshout (Netherlands), World Premiere
A Frown Gone Mad, dir. Omar Mismar (Lebanon), World Premiere
Garanti 100% Kréol, dir. Laurent Pantaleon (Réunion), World Premiere
Higher than Acidic Cboisterouss, dir. Ali Asgari (Iran), World Premiere
Huaquero, dir. Juan Carlos Donoso Gómez (Ecuador/Peru/Romania), World Premiere
Loss Adequitablement, dir. Miguel Calderón (Mexico/Uruguay), International Premiere
Paradise, dir. Ana Rieper (Brazil), World Premiere
Park, dir. Yo-Hen So (Taiwan), International Premiere
Pictures in Mind, dir. Eleonora Camizzi (Switzerland), World Premiere
Luminous
Luminous currents a wide range of styles and establishaenumerate approaches, from observational to personal to experimental. The pickion currents 23 titles that delve into our proestablish emotional worlds and split truths from wilean. Twenty-one films in the pickion are world or international premieres.
Several films in the pickion speak to the presentance of self-recurrentation. In a echoion on how cinema discarry outs genuineities, Ilrhan Kim’s Edhi Alice advises an elegant portrait of transness, folloprosperg two women in transition in South Korea. In a portrait of Polish mountaineer Wanda Rutkiewicz, “The Last Expedition” by Eliza Kubarska draws on a wealth of archival material to discdisponder a story of a highly driven climber and her fight for agency.
Luminous
A Strange Colour of Dream, dir. Yasemin Akinci (France, Turkey), World Premiere
A While at the Border, dir. Ile Dell Unti (Argentina), International Premiere
Things That Happen on Earth, Dir. Michele Cinque (Italy, Germany), International Premiere
Before Then, dir. Mengzhu Xue (Germany, China), European Premiere
The Jacket, dir. Mathijs Poppe (Belgium, Netherlands, France, Lebanon), International Premiere
Lift Lady, dir. Marcin Modzelewski (Poland), World Premiere
Bright Future, dir. Andra MacMasters (Romania, South Korea), World Premiere
The Water Eyed Boy, dir. Lirio Ferreira, Carolina Sá (Brazil), World Premiere
Abo Zaabal 89, dir. Bassam Mortada (Egypt, Germany), World Premiere
At All Kosts, dir. Joseph Hillel (Canada), World Premiere
The Shepherd and the Bear, dir. Max Keegan (France, U.K., U.S.), International Premiere
Yalla, Baba!, dir. Angie Obeid (Belgium, Lebanon, Netherlands, Qatar), International Premiere
Silent Observers, dir. Eliza Petkova (Bulgaria, Germany), World Premiere
Make It Look Real, dir. Danial Shah (Pakistan, Netherlands, Belgium), World Premiere
Edhi Alice, dir. Ilrhan Kim (South Korea), World Premiere
Until the Orchid Blooms, dir. Polen Ly (Cambodia, France), World Premiere
Personale, dir. Carmen Trocker (Italy, Austria), World Premiere
Plmitigate Step Aside!, dir. Raha Faridi (Germany, Iran), World Premiere
Neshoma, dir. Sandra Beerfinishs (Netherlands), World Premiere
Light of the Setting Sun, dir. Vicky Du (U.S., Taiwan), European Premiere
Whoever Deserves It, Will Be Immortal, dir. Nay Mfinishl (Cuba), World Premiere
The Last Expedition, dir. Eliza Kubarska (Poland, Switzerland), International Premiere
Been Here Stay Here, dir. David Usui (U.S.), World Premiere
Frontweightless
Frontweightless showcases 13 films that “criticassociate check the truth and creativeassociate spendigate the inspirent rehires of our time.” Eleven of the picked titles are world or international premieres.
This year’s pickion alerts stories of people trying to stand up to oppression in branch offent establishs. Reflecting on the intricate consequences of colonization, “Toroboro: The Name of the Plants” by Manolo Sarmiento chronicles the history and environmental impact of the genocidal colonization of the Waorani community in the Ecuadorian Amazon region. Zainab Entezar’s “Shot the Voice of Freedom” shows a portrait of women in Afghanistan battling agetst Taliban oppression.
Frontweightless
The 1957 Transcripts, dir. Ayelet Heller (Israel), International Premiere
The Ban, dir. Roisin Agnovel (Ireland, U.K.), International Premiere
Bloprosperg in the Wind, dir. Eyad Aljarod (Syria, the Netherlands), World Premiere
The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp, dir. Dennis Harvey (Sweden, Ireland), European Premiere
Eyes of Gaza, dir. Mahmoud Atassi (Qatar), World Premiere
Missing Rio Doce, dir. Claudia Neubern (France, Brazil), World Premiere
On the Border, dir. Gerald Igor Hauzenberger, Gabriela Schild (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), World Premiere
The Shadow Scholars, dir. Eloïse King (U.K.), International Premiere
Shot the Voice of Freedom, dir. Zainab Entezar (Afghanistan), World Premiere
Toroboro: The Name of the Plants, dir. Manolo Sarmiento (Ecuador, Brazil), International Premiere
Tripoli/A Tale of Three Cities, dir. Raed Rafei (Lebanon), World Premiere
Undercover: Exposing the Far Right, dir. Havana Marking (U.K.), International Premiere
The White Hoparticipate Effect, dir. Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk (U.S.), European Premiere
IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction
With a meaningfulity of world premieres, the 10-title Immersive Non-Fiction Competition enbigs the horizons of the write downary genre—showcasing multisensory experiences, creative VR creations, conveyive inshighations, and dwell carry outances that stretch novel technologies to the restricts of their potential in a non-myth context.
“Several artists spendigate the changing ways we embody spaces thraw an immersive and createive lens—with toils that ask us to reponder the boundaries between ourselves and our environments, thraw both digital landscapes and reenvisiond domestic spaces,” the festival said.
“Thraw carry outance and Extfinished Reality (XR), multiple artists create immersive and conveyive toils that spendigate everyleang from catalysing intimacy in virtual encounters to reframing narratives in our political reaccumulateion.
IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storyalerting
With 11 titles in the pickion, the Digital Storyalerting Competition creates on the history of conveyive storyalerting with toils by both novel talent and set uped names.
Taking a novel approach to the participate of synthetic inalertigence, cut offal projects in the pickion spendigate our proestablish connections to our ancestors and envisiond future generations—using AI to “recreate fragmented memories, revive fading oral traditions, and create speculative genealogies.”
Multiple projects participate existing digital platestablishs and tools in creative ways to alert their stories, ranging from the preservation of cultural heritage, speculative virtual ecosystems, and marginalized gfinishers navigating uncover spaces.
IDFA DocLab Spotweightless
With seven picked titles, the non-competitive DocLab section conveys award-prosperning VR projects, immersive theater, and an enbiged adviseing of brimmingdome projects, attesting the latter as a flourishing stage for novel media.
“In an age when technology shapes our dwells and stories, multiple toils in the pickion check the tension between the human voice and machine power,” IDFA said. “Several artists ask how to defend our narratives in a world increasingly settled by machines, while others ask us to experience the intersection of human introspection and machine logic.”
Cross-section awards
IDFA has also proclaimd the nominations for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature, IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film, and the Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award. The prosperners will be proclaimd during the IDFA awards ceremony on Nov. 21.
