Don Juan wins VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary

For the first time ever, two prizes were awarded per competition: a prize for the best film and a special jury prize.

The prize for the best Dutch documentary went to Ester Gould for A Strange Love Affair with Ego. The festival's opening film A Family Affair by Tom Fassaert was awarded the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary. A total of 16 prizes were awarded and three of the winners: Ukrainian Sheriffs, Roundabout in My Head and Sonita were made with financial support from the IDFA Bertha Fund.

• Jerzy Sladkowski won the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (€12,500) for Don Juan (Sweden/Finland). The film is a portrait of 22-year old Oleg, and his mother Marina's attempts to cure him of his lethargy. From the jury's report: "This tender, bittersweet tragicomedy about role-playing within both therapeutic theatre games and family dramas, and the interplay between them, is both subtle and aggressive, speaking volumes about the definitions of normality, abnormality and the dynamics of power and love." Furthermore, the jury awarded the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary (€2,500) to Ukrainian Sheriffs (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany) by Roman Bondarchuk. The documentary, which was made with support from theIDFA Bertha Fund and was a 2014IDFAcademy Summer School project, is a tragicomic portrait of two sheriffs in a remote Ukrainian village where, alongside all manner of commonplace situations, political developments also threaten to disturb the peace. The IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary jury consisted of Chairman Barbara Visser (the Netherlands), Laurent Bécue-Renard (France), Maite Alberdi (Chile), Hanna Polak (Poland) and Jonathan Rosenbaum (USA).
• The IDFA Award for First Appearance (€7,500) was awarded to Salome Machaidze, Tamuna Karumidze and David Meskhi for When the Earth Seems to Be Light (Georgia/Germany). The Special Jury Award for First Appearance (€ 2,500) – in memory of Peter Wintonick – went to Hassen Ferhani's Roundabout in My Head (Algeria/France/Lebanon/Qatar). Roundabout in My Head was financially supported by the IDFA Bertha Fund. The jury for the IDFA Competition for First Appearance was made up of Gábor Hörcher (Hungary), Philippa Kowarsky (Israel), Scott Macaulay (USA), Menna Laura Meijer (the Netherlands) and David Wilson (USA).
• The IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling (€5,000) was presented to Jan Rothuizen and Sara Kolster for Drawing Room (the Netherlands). Ant Hampton received the IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award (€2,500) for Someone Else (Belgium). The IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling jury featured Margaux Missika (France), Hay Kranen (the Netherlands) and Oscar Raby (Chile).
• The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary (€7,500) was awarded to A Strange Love Affair with Ego made by Ester Gould. Tom Fassaert received the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary (€2,500) for A Family Affair. The jury for the IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary consisted of Emel Celebi (Turkey), Amy Dotson (USA), Don Edkins (South Africa), Diana El Jeiroudi (Syria) and Richard Liang (China).
• The ARRI IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary (€5,000) went to My Aleppo (USA) by Melissa Langer. The Mute's House (Israel) by Tamar Kay won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Student Documentary. The prize consists of an Amira camera that ARRI will make available for the winner's next production. Jiri Konecny (Czech Republic), Prerana Langa (India) and Maria Mok (the Netherlands) made up the jury for the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary. 
• This year, the IDFA Award for Best Children's Documentary (€2,500) was awarded for the first time and went to Ninnoc by Niki Padidar (the Netherlands). The jury decided to also award an honourable mention to Victor Kossakovsky's Varicella (Norway/Denmark/Sweden/Russia). Varicella was pitched at IDFA Forum in 2014. The IDFA Kids & Docs Competition jury consisted of Teodora Ana Mihai (Belgium), Jon Bang Carlsen (Denmark) and Mischa Kamp (the Netherlands).
• IDFA DOC U Award for the youth jury's favourite film (€2,500) was awarded to Sonita by Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami (Iran). Sonita was made thanks to a financial contribution from the IDFA Bertha Fund. Yunus Benli, Tim van Hoewijk, Marijn Huijers, Schiavone Simson and Lotte Tendijck were this year's IDFA DOC U Competition's youth jury.
• Other awards The Oxfam Global Justice Award (€2,500) went to Pablo Iraburu and Migueltxo Molina for Walls (Spain). Finally, the Alliance of Women Film Journalists' EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary was awarded to Motley's Law by Nicole Nielsen Horanyi (Denmark). Motley's Law was an IDFA Forum project in 2013. This jury also awarded A Strange Love Affair with Ego by Ester Gould an honourable mention.