Filmmaker support

With IDFA Project Space, IDFA offers training programs to the next generation of documentary talent. In 2025, IDFA Project Space selected sixteen international projects in development, production, or editing phases. From June to September, participants took part in workshops and were matched with tutors. The teams spent an intensive week together at Het Documentaire Paviljoen in Amsterdam, taking part in one-on-one mentoring sessions, plenary sessions and workshops, developing their projects alongside high-profile filmmakers and industry professionals.

IDFA Project Space NL, the annual talent development program for emerging Dutch-speaking documentary makers, welcomed six selected filmmakers in 2025 to follow an intensive program of several months in Het Documentaire Paviljoen. During the program, filmmakers developed their film plan under the guidance of renowned professionals. To close IDFA Project Space NL, an independent jury reviews all the plans and selects the winner of the NPO Documentary Talent Award. In 2025, the prize–which comes with a development grant–was awarded to Anne Jan Sijbrandij.

Taking place in De Balie during IDFA, IDFAcademy welcomed 100 international directors and producers working on their first or second feature to participate in an extensive program. Packed with emerging talent and bold new voices, this year’s participants attended sessions and talks led by leading film professionals, including experienced producers, sales agents, and filmmakers such as renowned director Firouzeh Khosrovani.

In 2025, six films developed through IDFA's talent development programs were selected for the festival—the IDFA harvest. Two titles in the International Competition and two nominated for Best First Feature. One of these films, Paikar by Dawood Hilmandi, received multiple IDFA Awards: Best First Feature, the FIPRESCI Award, and a Special Mention for Best Dutch Film.

The IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF) is dedicated to strengthening independent, author-driven documentary filmmaking in regions where access to funding and distribution is structurally challenging—across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Oceania. The Fund supports filmmakers working in contexts without robust public-private funding structures or where censorship restricts creative independence.

IBF engages with documentary filmmakers whose work is grounded in bold artistic vision, innovation in form, and exploration of new perspectives. The Fund collaborates with both emerging and established filmmakers, recognizing that access to resources—not talent or vision—often defines visibility within the global film ecosystem.

In 2025, the Supervisory Board appointed Selin Murat as Executive Director of the IDFA Bertha Fund. At Cannes 2025, the Palestine Film Institute launched the Palestine Film Fund (PFF), backed by the IDFA Bertha Fund, International Media Support, and the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture. The fund empowers Palestinian filmmakers worldwide to tell independent, artistically daring stories from their own perspective.

Applications and selections

In 2025, IBF received 931 applications from 84 different countries, of which 31 projects were selected (from 22 different countries). This year, sixteen IBF-supported projects were in the IDFA 2025 official selection—or IDFA harvest.

IBF-supported films continue to be showcased at renowned international film festivals, such as Venice International Film Festival, CPH:DOX and Visions du Réel. Additionally, television broadcasters across the globe regularly screen IBF-supported documentary films. Once completed, the films are often successfully distributed in their home countries.

• Projects can apply to IBF Classic for project development (€7,500) and production and post-production (€25,000). In 2025, IBF Classic supported 23 projects with a total of €382,200—selecting thirteen projects in spring and ten projects in fall.
• European and Dutch producers can apply for the IBF Europe grant, when co-producing with a filmmaker from the IBF Country List. The maximum contribution per project is €40,000. In 2025, six projects received IBF Europe grants, totaling €240,000 in support.
• In 2025, IBF provided distribution grants for previously supported projects. Five projects received IBF Classic Distribution Support (a total of €25,000) and one project received an IBF Europe Promotion Grant (a total of €7,500).
• Through the NFF + IBF Co-production scheme, a grant of €50,000 was also awarded to two IBF granted documentary projects with a Dutch co-producer, totaling €100,000 in support.
• Additional structural and ancillary support to filmmakers and organizations for mobility, program support and individual needs were disbursed to over 50 recipients.

Since its launch at the Venice Film Festival in September 2020, The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) has been working to unite the global film community against the political persecution of filmmakers worldwide. As a co-founder of the initiative, alongside International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) and the European Film Academy, IDFA remains deeply committed to supporting ICFR’s activities through advocacy, monitoring, observation, and communication.

In 2025, ICFR actively campaigned for filmmakers facing persecution and imprisonment across the globe in the following ways:

• Called for the release of Iranian filmmaker Navid Mihandoust and celebrated his release and pardon after more than a year of imprisonment in Iran;
• Campaigned for the release of Chinese filmmaker Chen Pinlin;
• Advocated for the release and protection of Palestinian filmmaker Abdallah Motan, arrested and incarcerated by Israel without charges;
• Monitored the case of Myanmar filmmaker Shin Daewe, whose lifetime sentence was commuted to 15 years;
• Advocated for Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, sentenced by the Iranian Revolutionary Court to suspended multi-year prison terms, calling on authorities to drop all charges;
• Demanded the immediate release of Afghan filmmaker Sayed Rahim Saidi, tortured and denied care in Taliban prison;
• Called for the protection of Palestinian filmmakers Hamdan Ballal (No Other Land) and Abdallah Motan, persecuted by Israel;
• Supported South Korean filmmaker and journalist Jung Yoon-suk, sentenced to one year in prison for documenting political upheaval, and organized a petition for his appeal;
• Called for the immediate release of Georgian filmmaker Giorgi Mrevlishvili, detained for participating in civic protests;
• Mobilized the global film community to stand in solidarity with colleagues in Iran and called on governments to provide a safe haven for those fleeing violence.

The IDFA Bertha Fund is supported by Bertha Foundation, Nationale Postcode Loterij, Creative Europe Media, JustFilms / Ford Foundation, Netherlands Film Fund, Stichting de Hoorn, Special Friends+ and Patrons of IDFA.

IDFA Talent Development Program is supported by Creative Europe Media, Netherlands Film Fund, NPO Fund and Dioraphte.