Blue ID by Burcu Melekoglu and Vuslat Karan has won the NPO IDFA Audience Award, the grand public prize of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
The film is an intimate account of the eventful gender affirmation of former actor Rüzgar Erkoçlar, who must endure incessant media attention in traditional Turkish society on the path to self-realization. Blue ID world-premiered in IDFA's Luminous section.
Blue ID was made with the support of the IDFA Bertha Fund, which awarded the filmmakers a €17,500 production grant through IDFA Bertha Fund Classic in 2014. That same year, the film also pitched at IDFA Forum in the then-Round Table Pitch.
Accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize, the winner of the NPO IDFA Audience Award is determined by visitors who rate the films directly following their screenings via a voting card. The NPO IDFA Audience Award is made possible by NPO for the second time this year. This year, 153 films competed for the Audience Award. A total of 20,845 votes were cast via the tear-off card at the end of each screening.