Read all the latest news from the festival and IDFA's year-round programs here, in addition to in-depth articles.
With much excitement, we announce the appointment of Jenni Tuovinen as IDFA DocLab’s new Head of Operations. Working closely alongside Head of New Media Caspar Sonnen, Tuovinen will be responsible for DocLab’s business policy and finances, managing and streamlining the department, and overseeing the team’s day-to-day management.
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Kicking off the 2023 season, the IDFA Bertha Fund is delighted to support 10 documentary projects with a total of €149,000 in development and (post-)production financing, alongside tailor-made support for the filmmaking teams. The new selection, completed as part of the IBF Classic funding scheme, includes highly anticipated titles by Karim Kassem, Carolina Arias Ortiz, and Fan Jian, in addition to up-and-comers such as Zahraa Ghandour.
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The IDFA Bertha Fund is now accepting project submissions to the IBF Europe – Minority Co-production funding scheme. Read more about the grant program and apply by April 1, 2023.
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How do you make a documentary film about a war that just won’t end? For director Yuliia Hontaruk and producer Ivanna Khitsinska of Ukrainian documentary collective Babylon’13, the question is an open-ended one, but their journey in answering it has been deliberate and whole-hearted. It started eight years ago, when the war in Ukraine first began—long before what is now considered Russia’s full-scale invasion.
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On the 13th of August 2021, Editor in Chief Zaki Daryabi gathered his team for a meeting to prepare for a nation-wide collapse that was under way. He was not yet ready to abandon the newspaper he had built from scratch a decade ago. “First of all, Etilaat Roz here by no means would stop anyone if they individually chose to save themselves, their families, and friends and [decided] not to be a journalist anymore,” Zaki told his staff. Nevertheless, he insisted on keeping the newspaper active, even if it would be forced to operate outside Kabul.
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The vocation of Roberta Torre (Milan, 1962) embraces cinema and theater, fiction and documentary, fantasy and reality alike. Visionary, iconoclast, and eclectic: these are some of the adjectives that come to my mind to describe her voice and take on art.
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The fund supports filmmakers with small grants of EUR 500, EUR 1,000 or EUR 1,500 to be able to assist in covering temporary relocation expenses, legal and administrative fees (visas etc.), to cover initial minor but necessary expenses required during the current situation.
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Thanks to extra funding from the Open Society Foundations, the IDFA Bertha Fund is delighted to select two additional projects for IBF Classic – Ukraine Support: The Elf’s Tower by Polina Kelm and Displaced by Olha Zhurba will receive a total amount of 45,000 euros in production and post-production support.
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IDFA Project Space is now open for applications! Launched in 2020 by IDFA’s Filmmaker Support department, this innovative talent development program offers first- or second-time documentary directors the opportunity to work on their project with highly esteemed filmmakers and film professionals who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with emerging talent.
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The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk and its founding institutions, the International Film Festival Rotterdam, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam and European Film Academy, together with the German Film Academy and the Berlin International Film Festival, protest vehemently against the arrest of Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti and demand her immediate and unconditional release. Having repeatedly shown her solidarity with the protests in Iran, the famous actress was arrested for "failing to provide proof for some of her statements".
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