Niñxs, The Tuba Thieves, We Speak Their Names In Hushed Tones win IDFA Forum Awards

“The Award for Best Pitch goes to a project with a very strong and compelling character while bringing up a universal and timely theme. The jury values the sincere and close connection between the protagonist and filmmaker and the witty tone of the trailer,” said jury members Gugi Gumilang, Marieke van den Bersselaar, and Natalia Libet, about Niñxs, co-produced by Mexico’s La Sandía Digital Producción Audiovisual and Germany's Jyoti Film and Dirk Manthey Film.

About The Tuba Thieves, produced by Alison O'Daniel and executive produced by Wendy Ettinger (USA), the jury said: “This project the jury has chosen makes viewers aware of sound in an engaging and unique way, and we are looking forward to watching the 90-minute cut soon.”

Finally, the IDFA DocLab Forum jury, consisting of Faye Kabali-Kagwa, Marie Blondiaux, and Zeina Abi Assy, commented that digital creation is maturing as it becomes a place for diverse, personal, and divergent perspectives, noting that the strong project selection dove into history, feelings, nature, and personal narratives in a new way.

About We Speak Their Names In Hushed Tones, produced by South Africa’s Electric South, they said: “It tells the story of migration through the family members that stay on the continent. We’ve been first very sensitive to this exploration of the other side of the story we have often heard of and we’re happy that it comes from this artist. We also thought that this project, still in an early stage, was a very promising way to use virtuality, namely 3D, to talk about people that can themselves become virtual. Using tech to express this, and at the end making humanity heard, can help us to understand the reality we live in.”

IDFA Forum is made possible by the Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands and Creative Europe Media. The IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut is supported by inVision Subtitling.

Photo by Melle Meivogel.