25th IDFA to screen 317 titles including 97 world premieres

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced that its upcoming 25th edition, which runs Nov 14-25, will screen 317 titles of which 97 will receive their world premiere at the festival.

As previously announced, John Appel’s Wrong Time Wrong Place [pictured] will open the festival and will compete with 15 other titles in the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary. The jury for the award consists of Susan Froemke (USA), Michael Glawogger (Austria), Maria Goos (the Netherlands), Jørgen Leth (Denmark) and Kenneth Turan (USA), who may also present a Special Jury Award alongside the main award.

Other films in contention for the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, which carries a €12,500 award, include Janusz Mrozowski’s Bad Boy High Security Cell, following a Polish bank robber in solitary confinement, Gabriel Mascaro’s Housemaids, centred on affluent Brazilian young people who film their live-in maids, and Morag McKinnon & Emma Davie’s I Am Breathing about a terminally ill father who broadcasts his observations on life in a blog.

The full list of competition titles are:

Bad Boy High Security Cell by Janusz Mrozowski (France/Poland)
First Cousin Once Removed by Alan Berliner (US)
The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh (Israel/France/Germany/Belgium)
Housemaids by Gabriel Mascaro (France/Lebanon/Brazil)
I Am Breathing by Morag McKinnon and Emma Davie (England/Scotland/Denmark)
In the Dark Room by Nadav Schirman (Germany/Israel/Romania/Finland/Italy)
The Lost Fighters of Vietnam by Lê Lam (France)
Miss Nikki and the Tiger Girls by Juliet Lamont (Australia)
Missing in the Land of Gods by Davor Dirlic (Australia)
My Afghanistan - Life in the Forbidden Zone by Nagieb Khaja (Denmark)
Rafea: Solar Mama by Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief (US/Denmark/Jordania/India)
Selection: Who Will Be a Gurkha? by Kesang Tseten Lama (Nepal/Finland)
Smash & Grab - The Story of the Pink Panthers by Havana Marking (England)
The Sons of the Land by Edouard Bergeon (France)
The Staircase 2. The Last Chance by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (France)
Wrong Time Wrong Place by John Appel (Netherlands)

The best feature-length documentary is one of nine awards to be given out at this year’s IDFA, alongside the likes of the NTR IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary, for films 30-60 minutes long with the winner receiving €10,000, and the IDFA Competition for First Appearance with the best debut filmmaker receiving €5,000.

All awards will be presented in the Compagnietheater on Nov 23.

To mark its 25th anniversary, IDFA is celebrating Dutch documentaries with a special programme entitled 25 Years Highlights of the Lowlands where 15 Dutch documentaries that have previously screened at the festival will be revisited. In total, 64 Dutch productions will screen at this year’s festival across its various strands.

Other strands at this year’s festival include RE: Constructing History, where 25 years of world history will be presented as seen through the lenses of great documentary filmmakers, and Reflecting Images: Masters where the latest films from documentary filmmakers such as Morgan Spurlock, Phie Ambo and Michael Apted will be screened. This year’s Top 10 will be compiled by Russian filmmaker Victor Kossakovsky, with the festival also screening a restropective of his work.

For the full lineup, visit IDFA’s website.