Competitions and awards

​IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary

IDFA's flagship competition presents titles from established filmmakers. From intense visual experiences to intimate portraits, a great diversity of style and form typifies the yearly selection.

IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary
IDFA Award for Best Directing
IDFA Award for Best Editing
IDFA Award for Best Cinematography

IDFA Competition for First Appearance

The Competition for First Appearance offers a strong selection of documentaries from emerging filmmakers who put heart and soul into their debut feature film.

IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
FIPRESCI Award

​IDFA Competition for Mid-Length Documentary

The films in the Competition for Mid-Length Documentary take the one-hour documentary to new places. These films stick to no predictable rules, abandon traditional conventions, and carve out a new space for imagination.

IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

The projects in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling reveal the latest selection of beautiful interactive stories and unexpected artistic applications created for the digital screens and devices around us.

IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling*
Special Jury Award for Creative Technology*

​IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

The definitions of documentary are challenged in the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction. Makers immerse you in diverse sensory experiences and experimental technology.

IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction*
Special Jury Award for Creative Technology*

IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary

The best and brightest Dutch filmmakers compete in the IDFA Competition for Dutch documentary, including both well-known filmmakers and promising new talent.

IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

A selection of international short films compete in the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary, reflecting an aesthetic and remarkably bold approach to documentary filmmaking.

IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary

​IDFA Competition for Student Documentary

The filmmakers of the future are already here… with a fresh view of the world, and of filmmaking. All selected for the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary have in common that they are searching for a cinematic signature.

IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary

IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs

IDFA takes young audiences seriously, offering them the best and most entertaining documentary films in the IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs.

IDFA Award for Best Children’s Documentary

IDFA Competition for Creative Use of Archive

Our new competition supported by The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Beeld en Geluid, the IDFA Competition for Creative Use of Archive pays tribute to one of the pillars of documentary filmmaking: the archive.

Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for best creative use of archive

Additional awards

NPO Fund - Karen de Bok Talent Award
This prize is awarded to one of the projects in the IDFAcademy & NPO Fund Workshop, and consists of a grant of €25.000 for the development of the project and €5.000 for the production of a teaser.

Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Documentary Stipend
With this stipend, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds awards a documentary talent with a grant of €50.000 that allows the recipient to make a documentary about a subject of their choice. The award is intended for a documentary filmmaker with a proven track record who has already earned modest recognition in the documentary field.

*Due to new travel and exhibition restrictions, it is not possible to present all DocLab competition works equally to an international jury. Therefore, the festival will forgo the DocLab juries and awards this year. IDFA will present an alternative scheme to celebrate and support projects in the DocLab competitions.