Attending IDFA Forum 2020

Pitches

IDFA Forum will kick off on Monday, November 16 at 14:00 CET. You can access the program by logging in to your MyIDFA account. You can find the streaming links on your customized home page, or navigate to our Festival Schedule to enter the streams that way.

• 14:00 CET: IDFA Forum pitches and DocLab Forum pitches begin simultaneously in different streams. You can choose which stream to follow.
  • The Forum will have 5 pitches in a row and then a coffee break, followed by another block of 5 pitches. Here you can see which projects are presented on Monday. The pitches take around 15 minutes each and include a short Q&A session with invited industry professionals.
  • The DocLab Forum will have 7 pitches in a row and then a coffee break, followed by 8 project presentations. DocLab Forum pitches take around 10 minutes each and include a short Q&A session with invited new media industry professionals. Here you can see the which DocLab Forum projects will be presented on Monday.
• During the coffee breaks, we will open up a few online rooms where you can mingle with fellow producers and other professionals. Each room will be organized around a particular subject and/or will be hosted by a colleague from the industry. There will also be rooms where you can catch up with the pitch teams who have just finished their pitch. You can choose which rooms to attend during this break.
• 18:00 CET: After the pitching sessions, we will open a few more online rooms where the pitch teams will be available for any questions or comments you might have and where you can meet other professionals and socialize.

The Forum program on Tuesday and Wednesday will follow a similar schedule, with some variations.

On Tuesday, November 17 at 14:15 CET the second day of the Forum starts.

• On this day you can follow the full program in one stream.
• The day starts with the Rough Cut Presentations, and continues with the Forum Pitches after the break.
• You can read more about the Rough Cut Presentations below, and see a list of projects presented on Tuesday here.

On Wednesday, November 18 we are returning to two streams of different Forum programming.

• In one stream we present five Rough Cut Projects and five Forum Pitch projects. This stream will follow a similar schedule to that on Tuesday. Full details of the projects in this program can be found here.
• The other stream, which starts at 15:00 CET, is dedicated to documentaries for children. The program starts with three IDFA Forum pitches of documentary projects for children, and continues with other programming relevant for professionals working with content for young audiences. This includes a think tank on how international collaborations can further strengthen the children's documentary genre, and a look at ongoing opportunities for producers working in the field. Full details about the program can be found here.

All pitches are open to all Forum attendees. One-on-one meetings will be organized for selected projects on Thursday, November 19 and Friday, November 20.

On Friday November 20 we invite you to a celebratory closing event online where the Best Pitch will be awarded to a pitch team from the Forum and DocLab Forum. The winners will be awarded in cash, and chosen by an international jury.

Important: To access all Forum activities, please remember to login to your MyIDFA account. All Forum pitches can be accessed through our Festival Schedule. Decision makers who are taking part in a feedback panel after a pitch will receive information separately about how to join these via Zoom.

Rough Cut Presentations

IDFA Forum will host online presentations for this year's selected Rough Cut Projects. These presentations will take place at the start of the Forum program on Tuesday, November 17 and Wednesday, November 18.

A short moderated online presentation will provide a sneak peak into the teams' almost-finished films. The full rough cuts can be found on the teams' project pages on idfa.nl, available for all Forum and Docs for Sale decision makers after you login to your MyIDFA account.

The deadline for accreditation is October 10, 2020.

One-on-one Meetings

On Thursday, November 19 and Friday, November 20, the Forum team will hold one-on-one meetings between all project teams and various funders, commissioning editors, producers, and other experts.

Project representatives and decision makers can find their personal meeting schedule in their MyIDFA account, under the Appointments section. On the day of the meeting, 20 minutes before it starts, the meeting becomes clickable and participants can join it by clicking on the agenda item.

Moderators

This year's presentations will moderated from our studios in Amsterdam. The 2020 moderators for IDFA Forum are Fleur Knopperts, Ido Abram, Isabel Arrate Fernandez and Margje de Koning. The IDFA DocLab Forum will be moderated by Anna Pedroli and Harm van de Ven.

IDFA Forum Awards & Award Ceremony

Forum launches three new awards recognizing project teams with promising projects and strong pitches. Join us online for the award ceremony Friday 20 November at 19.00 CET by following this link. The award ceremony is open to Forum and Docs for Sale passholders.

A jury will be selecting winners in the following categories:
The IDFA Forum Award for the Best Project – €2,500
The IDFA Forum Award for the Best Rough Cut Project – € 1,000
The IDFA DocLab Forum Award for the Best Project – € 2,500

Support

The Forum team will offer online chat support throughout the event. If you need additional assistance, feel free to contact us at forum@idfa.nl. We have also gathered information about how to attend IDFA as an industry professional here.

Consultancies

IDFA Forum attendees can register for online group meetings with a range of experts who offer specific advice on all aspects of the documentary business, such as distribution and sales, marketing and outreach, etc. These expert meetings will be held Thursday, November 19 and Friday, November 20 in various time zones. Prior to the event, we will send an invitation to all observing producers in attendance. Don't miss this great opportunity to pick the brains of these international experts.

Producers Network

For the fourth year in a row, we organize the Producers Network for accredited producers. This year the event will be hosted online. A key industry event for producers looking for new international co-production partners, the Producers Network includes meetings and short plenary presentations in which participants can meet and learn more about co-production and financing possibilities in specific countries and regions. The Producers Network is also a significant opportunity to meet many other producers who are participating in IDFA's online industry activities.

Press & Industry Library and festival screenings

All accredited guests worldwide can freely view IDFA-selected films in the Press & Industry Library, available online and on-demand from November 18 until December 6.

Additionally, Forum participants who are present in Amsterdam during the festival can purchase discounted tickets for all screenings and events via our website and at the Guest Box Office in De Brakke Grond. The presale for press and industry guests begins on November 9. General ticket sales begin on November 12.

Read more practical information about attending the festival here, and check our overview of what's available online versus in-person here.

IDFA Forum selection committee

The selection committee for the 2020 edition of the IDFA Forum and IDFA DocLab Forum included the following professionals:

Alex Szalat, Asako Fujioka, Anton Calleja, Bob Moore, Cecilia Lidin, David Koh, Emelie Persson, Gary Byung-Seok Kam, Ingrid Kopp, Iris Lammertsma, Jorge Caballero, Leah Giblin, Martha Orozco, Mikael Opstrup, Mohanad Yaqubi, Oli Harbottle, Philippa Kowarsky, Robin Smith, Stefan Kloos, Tiny Mungwe, Ulla Haestrup, Vanja Jambrović.