IDFA Forum (November 17-20), the co-production and co-financing market of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), has unveiled the line-up for its 2024 edition, with projects from Aliona van der Horst and Eva Mulad among the selection.
IDFA Forum consists of the Forum Pitch, Producer Connection, Rough Cut Presentations, and IDFA DocLab Forum strands. This year’s 55-strong selection is dominated by women filmmakers across all formats, according to the organisers.
Among attendees in the Forum Pitch and Producer Connection is Russian-Dutch director Aliona van der Horst, whose Gerlach (co-directed with Luuk Bouwman) won the IDFA award for best Dutch film in 2023. Her next project The Return focuses on the experiences of a charismatic elderly couple in Kyiv, as they navigate questions of belonging and identity.
Also back at IDFA is Danish documentary veteran Eva Mulad with new project House Of The Holy Father, co-directed with Andreas Koefoed, which uses fiction and documentary to explore the murky world of the notorious Christian sect Faderhuset – and will involve two of Denmark’s best known actors, Trine Dyrholm and David Dencik.
Among projects from emerging directors, Ruoyun Chen will present People’s Republic Of Letters, exploring the plight of young Chinese poets either residing in diaspora or contemplating it, and Turkish-based project Your Honour from Bircan Birol, which looks at growing authoritarianism within the country.
Another potentially provocative selection is Kristof Bilsen’s The Apologist, which explores the ritual of the public apology and how it shapes society.
Several titles focus on the war in the Middle East, among them Francesca Tosarelli and Kamal Al Azraq’s The West Bank Project.
Rough cut presentations include the IDFA Bertha Fund-supported project Do You Love Me by Lana Daher, an archive-based doc exploring the inner lives of different generations in Lebanon from the 1970s to the present.
Also in the Rough Cut section is The Eternal Soldier by Aleksandar Nikolic, again archive-based and using footage of soldiers to conjure up a story of a timeless character who keeps rising from his grave to battle in yet another war.
Issa’s House by Tomer Heymann, set in the West Bank, is in Rough Cut having been pitched at last year’s Forum.
Dutch director Tom Fassaert, whose A Family Affair opened IDFA in 2015, will be presenting his new project, Between Brothers.
Alongside the Forum events, IDFA’s Docs for Sale, running November 16-20, will showcase the best recent documentary films, series, and shorts looking for distribution and exhibition.
820 projects were submitted this year.
Forum Pitch Overview
Burning Daddy, dir. Tana Gilbert
Untitled Chilean Documentary, dir. Carola Fuentes
Concrete Land, dir. Asmahan Bkerat
Dry Sky, dir. Ibrahim Omar
Home Movie, dir. Anu Czerwiński
House of the Holy Father, dir. Eva Mulvad, Andreas Koefoed
In Front of Us, dir. Inna Sahakyan
Nanyang, dir. Enrico Parenti
Queen of the Stone Age, dir. David Bernet
Replica, dir. Chouwa Liang
The Apologist, dir. Kristof Bilsen
The Beauty of Errors, dir. Jukka Kärkkäinen
The Eighth Continent, dir. Luuk Bouwman, Tomas Kaan
Confidential project, dir. collective of filmmakers from Afghanistan
The Return, dir. Aliona van der Horst
The Road, dir. Cécile Allegra, Antarès Bassis
The Way We Move, dir. Nicolas Davenel, Vanessa Dumont
Transparency Booth: Echoes of the Future, dir. Anna Kapustina, Alexander Mihalkovich
The West Bank Project, dir. Francesca Tosarelli and Kamal Al Azraq
Your Honour, dir. Bircan Birol
Producers Connection
As Red as Water, dir. Fabrizio Albertini
Chunyu: A Death Foretold, dir. Fan Yang
Clones In Heat, dir. Andrew Moir,
Expelled, dir. Tudor Platon
For Those Who Will Inherit The Earth, dir. Sara Hatira
Green Gold, dir. Selim Benzeghia, Ivonne Serna
How Love Moves, dir. Pallavi Paul
Looking for the Mermaid, dir. Yara Costa
Matriarchy, dir. Zara Arrehed
People’s Republic of Letters, dir. Ruoyun Chen
The Long Rescue, dir. Jennifer Huang
Untitled KQT Project, dir. Patrick Lee
Rough-Cut Presentations
Between Brothers, dir. Tom Fassaert
Copan, dir. Carine Wallauer
Crocodile, dir. Pietra Brettkelly
Do You Love Me, dir. Lana Daher
The Eternal Soldier, dir. Aleksandar Nikolic
Issa’s House, dir. Tomer Heymann
Whispers in May, dir. Dongnan Chen
IDFA DocLab Forum
Amorphous, dir. May Abdalla
Atomic Paradise: The Unseen Horizon, dir. John Harvey
Battlefield of Dreams, dir. Floor Houwink ten Cate
Beyond? dir. Yango González
From Memory, dir. John Nathan, Damian Hale
Homeing: Lost&Found Bureau, dir. Maria Kremer
I M U, dir. Juul van der Laan
Lady Lazarus, dir. Willemiek Kluijfhout
Normandie: A Documentary Video Game, dir. Sam Butin
Slipstreaming, dir. Giuseppe Chico
The Four Floors of Faneuil Hall, dir. Simon Wood, Meghna Singh
The Library of All Possible Things, dir. Maria Laura Ruggiero, Ana Fraile
The Time of a Moment, dir. Kate Voet, Victor Maes
to the other side… dir. Oliver Czeslik
Trolls vs Elves, dir. Aleks Rydzkowska
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