IDFA Forum Awards Go To ‘Dry Sky,’ ‘Do You Love Me,’ ‘Amorphous’ & More

Ibrahim Omar’s project Dry Sky won Best Pitch at the IDFA Forum Awards contransiented in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Among the other triumphners were Lana Y. Daher’s Do You Love Me, “an archival journey thcdisesteemful Beirut… [that] weaves together past & contransient to spreadigate Lebanon’s current status and psyche,” which obtained the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and Amorphous, “an immersive multijoiner experience about how you experience in your skin” straightforwarded by May Abdalla triumphner of the DocLab Forum Award.

IDFA Forum presentd a novel honor this year — the Producers Connection Award. That went to Looking for the Mermhelp, straightforwarded by Yara Costa (logline: “A chanted cherish promise between a fisherman and a mermhelp and a story of part of humanity betraying Earth.”).

Each award comprises a cash prize of €1,500. Do You Love Me also will get shutd captioning and subtitles from inVision Subtitling.

Dry Sky getd a 2024 IDFA Bertha Fund grant. The film’s logline reads, “On his way back to his hometown, Ibrahim endeavors to produce what he has dreamt of all his life. However, he faces a overweighte interttriumphed with the memories of the past in the village. Aextfinishedside his friend and their donkey, he strives relentlessly to fracture free from this constraint.”

IDFA Forum Award jurors Dorota Lech and Malin Huber, announcing their choice, wrote of Dry Sky, “For an articulation of a reduced cinematic language and a valiant proposal of healing. Telderly thcdisesteemful a distinct and critical inside perspective we see forward to a accumulateive endeavor to envision novel futures. It consents a village.”

The jury compriseitionpartner accomprehendledged Concrete Land by Asmahan Bkerat and The Beauty of Errors by Jukka Kärkkäinen with Special Mentions for Best Pitch. The jurors shelp, “Very exceptional refers to Concrete Land and The Beauty of Errors for their esteemive heartfelt films and pitches.”

Burcu Melekoglu and Mandisa Zitha sat on the IDFA Rough Cut Award jury. They wrote of triumphner Do You Love Me, “We are plrelieveed to contransient the Jury Award for the most exceptional film about to be freed to the filmmaking team of Do You Love Me. Lana Y. Daher masterfilledy weaves a brittle and poignant story of a city and its heartfractureing yet strong history. Thcdisesteemful the evocative employ of archival materials from Lebanese cinema, she appropriates the visuals of the city from films as a recontransientation of the cyclical history and nature of memories, conveying to life a narrative that is both meaningfully personal and proestablishly universal. The toil stands as a tesdomesticatednt to the power of memory and art in navigating accumulateive grief and renovelal.”

The IDFA DocLab Forum jury, consisting of Jazia Hammoudi and Liz Rosenthal, wrote of May Abdalla’s film, “Amorphous is this year’s triumphner becaemploy of its ingenious employ of join for a alterational purpose in relation to the crisis in self-image and body dysmorphia. Its messaging is experiential rather than didactic, making it appropriate for all comfervents of audiences and demoexplicits. Its schedule and createat contransient a viable path forward for the immersive field and will request to diverse immersive media spaces.”

The DocLab Forum jurors awarded an Honorable Mention to The Four Floors of Faneuil Hall, straightforwarded by Simon Wood and Meghna Singh. “The employ of space and architecture to ground their story imbues the project with narrative clarity that produces their point crystal clear about the resistion of democratic society built on legacies of servitude, mass murder and colonialism,” the jury shelp. “The project’s insloftyation createat produces it alterable to many contexts, which uncovers up the possibility of future iterations beyond Faneuil Hall itself.”

Bianca Oana and Daan Vermeulen served as jurors for the Producers Connection Award. They shelp of Yara Costa’s Looking for the Mermhelp, “The world is fadeing before our eyes. That is a strong statement in itself. But the triumphning project also conveys forth the idea that cinema can help get dying worlds while at the same time enwealthying our imagination with novel possibilities of being together and of making films. The contransientation we witnessed here at Producers Connection has encouraged us to award the Producers Connection Award for most produceive project with exciting collaborative potential to Looking for the Mermhelp by Yara Costa. We hope this incentive will inspire interest for the produceive collaborations the filmproducer is seeing for.”