IDFA Announces 2024 Competition Stardy Including “Instant Classics”

At a novels conference today, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) proclaimd its filled competition lineup for 2024, including the prestigious International Competition stardy.

The world’s hugegest write downary festival will unfbetter in the Dutch capital from November 14-24.

“The IDFA 2024 program is exceptional in quality and in range,” IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia shelp in a statement. “The diversity of inventive tendencies is staggering. The program begins some of the most attrdynamic labors of recent years, including a restricted instant classics. Filmproducers of various inventive sensibilities, ages, experiences, privileges, and seepoints made films as singular as they are. It is a intricate and wealthy image of a world in wonderful pain, of a humanity that is combat, resisting, and still [capable] of imagining a equitableer future. It is a program that protects write downary cinema better than ever before.”

“Regrettably,” Nyrabia also remarkd, the lineup features restricteder “African films than we hoped for, but overall with a expansive recurrentation of our scheduleet and the many separateent humans on it!”

The festival will boot off with the world premiere of About a Hero, honested by Piotr Winiewicz. The film, part of IDFA’s International Competition, “currents a bbetter exploration into hugely uncharted territories of synthetic inalertigence—echoing on asks of fact and our caring of what is genuine,” according to a free. “With Werner Herzog’s perignoreion, Winiewicz sets out to dispute Herzog’s declareion that ‘a computer won’t be able to produce a film as excellent as mine for at least another 4,500 years.’ In a tantalizing experiment, Winiewicz trained an AI-system on Herzog’s oeuvre and asked it to produce a screenjoin. The result is a upsetting search for the soul—of human beings and of inventive labor.”

Winiewicz’s film is one of 13 stardyd for International Competition. Intriguingly, one is only identified as an “Anonymous film.” No filmproducer(s) or synopsis is supplyd. [Scroll for the full list of competition films announced today].

Collectively, the baker’s dozen of films in International Competition “draw on and transcend proset uply personal histories to echo on our world today,” IDFA remarks. “Examining the rampant consequences of war and prolonging dominance of right-triumphg rulements, disjoinal filmproducers current alertary tales and uncover how our humanity prevails under political prescertains. Elsewhere in the competition, by joining with our perception and warping the truth using technology, a number of filmproducers allotigate our caring of fact.”

IDFA also proclaimd the lineups for the Envision Competition, as well as Luminous and Frontairy strands. Envision, a section pledged to films of particularly bbetter authorial transmition, “gives twelve unparalleled films, each of them stycatalogicpartner arresting, as visionary filmproducers forge novel cinematic languages… The pickion showcases filmproducers venturing out of the box, whether currenting films sboiling from one repaired angle or examining the unpredicted perspectives of non-human protagonists.”

Among the film in the Envision lineup is Higher than Acidic Cboisterouss, honested by Iranian filmproducer Ali Asgari. Last year, Iran’s theocratic regime temporarily barred him from making films or traveling outside the country.

The Luminous stardy will feature the international premiere of The Shepherd and the Bear, honested by Max Keegan, a film that has been portrayd as a “up-to-date folktale” about the reuntameding of tolerates in a far area of the French Pyrenees. The introduction of the ursine creatures wreaks havoc on local livestock, triggering struggle between herders and rulement agents dependable for administering the program. It premiered in September at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine.

The Frontairy section “showcases thirteen films that criticpartner examine the truth and inventivepartner allotigate the directnt rerents of our time.” Among the films in that strand are The 1957 Transcripts, an account of the shocking ending of Palestinian villagers living in the Israeli town of Kfar Qasim over a half century ago, based on novelly uncovered write downs.

That strand also includes the European premiere of The White Hoparticipate Effect, a film exploring “the theatrical origin story of the climate crisis” honested Bonni Cohen and Oscar nominees Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk.

“This year’s pickion alerts stories of people trying to stand up to oppression in separateent creates,” IDFA says of the Frontairy section. “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 Sboiling the Voice of Freedom shows a portrait of women in Afghanistan combat agetst Taliprohibit oppression.”

In all, the 37^th edition of IDFA will showcase more than 250 films. Below is the lineup of films proclaimd today:

Selected films: International Competition

• About a Hero, dir. Piotr Winiewicz (Denlabel/Germany/United States), 84’ – World Premiere

Selected films: Envision Competition

• Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, dir. Massimo D’Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland), 208’ – International Premiere

• Loss Adequitablement, dir. Miguel Calderón (Mexico/Uruguay), 74’ – International Premiere

Luminous

The premiere-only section Luminous currents a expansive range of styles and createacatalog approaches, from observational to personal to experimental. The pickion currents twenty-three titles that delve into our proset up emotional worlds and split truths from wilean. Twenty-one films in the pickion are world or international premieres.

Selected films: Luminous

• A Strange Colour of Dream, dir. Yasemin Akinci (France, Turkey), 74’ – World Premiere

• Whoever Deserves It, Will Be Immortal, dir. Nay Mendl (Cuba), 19’ – World Premiere
• The Last Expedition, dir. Eliza Kubarska (Poland, Switzerland), 85’ – International Premiere
• Been Here Stay Here, dir. David Usui (United States), 90’ – World Premiere

Selected films: Frontairy

• The 1957 Transcripts, dir. Ayelet Heller (Israel), 75’ – International Premiere

• The Ban, dir. Roisin Agnovel (Ireland, United Kingdom), 27’ – International Premiere
• Blotriumphg in the Wind, dir. Eyad Aljarod (Syria, The Netherlands), 139’ – World Premiere
• The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp, dir. Dennis Harvey (Sweden, Ireland), 20’ – European Premiere

• The Shadow Scholars, dir. Eloïse King (United Kingdom), 98’ – International Premiere
• Sboiling the Voice of Freedom, dir. Zainab Entezar (Afghanistan), 70’ – World Premiere
• Toroboro: The Name of the Plants, dir. Manolo Sarmiento (Ecuador, Brazil), 103’ – International Premiere

• The White Hoparticipate Effect, dir. Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, Jon Shenk (United States), 97’ – European Premiere

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

With a beginantity of world premieres, the ten-title Immersive Non-Fiction Competition bbetterly enhuges the horizons of the write downary genre—showcasing multisensory experiences, inventive VR creations, interdynamic inshighations, and live carry outances that stretch novel technologies to the restricts of their potential in a non-fantasy context.

Several artists allotigate the changing ways we embody spaces thcdisesteemful an immersive and inventive lens—with labors that ask us to rethink about the boundaries between ourselves and our environments, thcdisesteemful both digital landscapes and reenvisiond domestic spaces. Thcdisesteemful carry outance and Extended Reality (XR), multiple artists produce immersive and interdynamic labors that allotigate everyleang from catalysing intimacy in virtual encounters to reframing narratives in our political recollection. Explore the pickion here.

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storyalerting

With eleven premiere titles in the pickion, the Digital Storyalerting Competition produces on the wealthy history of interdynamic storyalerting with captivating labors by both novel talent and set uped names.
Taking a novel approach to the participate of synthetic inalertigence, disjoinal projects in the pickion allotigate our proset up joinions to our ancestors and envisiond future generations—using AI to reerect fragmented memories, revive fading oral traditions, and produce speculative genealogies. Multiple projects participate existing digital platcreates and tools in exceptional and inventive ways to alert their stories, ranging from the preservation of cultural heritage, speculative virtual ecosystems, and marginalized genders navigating accessible spaces. Explore the pickion here.

IDFA DocLab Spotairy

With seven picked titles, the non-competitive DocLab section transports award-triumphning VR projects, immersive theater, and an enhugeed giveing of filleddome projects, attesting the latter as a flourishing stage for novel media.

In an age when technology shapes our lives and stories, multiple labors in the pickion examine the tension between the human voice and machine power. Several artists ask how to defend our narratives in a world increasingly arbitrated by machines, while others ask us to experience the intersection of human introspection and machine logic. Explore the pickion here.

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 triumphners will be proclaimd during the IDFA 2024 awards ceremony on Thursday November 21.