International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam to present new awards in its various competitions

At the upcoming IDFA, which will take place from 18 to 29 November, a new structure will be

implemented for the presentation of the awards for documentaries in the festival's various competitions.

Instead of a single winner in each competition, the juries will grant two awards: one for best documentary, and a special jury award.

This will replace the process of making nominations, which were announced three days prior to the awards ceremony, and all jury awards will be presented on Wednesday 25 November in the Rabozaal in Amsterdam's Melkweg venue.

The winner of the IDFA Audience Award will still be announced on the last Friday of the festival.

Alongside awards in the six existing IDFA competition categories, from this year a new award will also be presented for the best international youth documentary.

New awards structure

Previously, three nominations were announced in each competition category on the last Wednesday of the festival, followed on the Friday by the announcement of the winners of each competition. The jury could also grant a Special Jury Award in the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary.

For several reasons, IDFA has decided to change the structure of its juried awards.

Firstly, the new Special Jury Awards enable the juries to acknowledge other outstanding achievements in the field of documentary, alongside the best film award.

Juries will now be able to express greater nuance within their choices, better reflecting the creative versatility within the documentary genre championed by IDFA.

Instead of the nominations process, which inevitably leads to two 'losers´, from this year's festival there will be two winners in each competition. The total amount of prize money will also increase. Dropping the nominations process will also make it possible to hold the awards ceremony on Wednesday 25 November – this brings the additional advantage that a large number of the international guests will still be present at the festival.

Also, audiences will have four days of festival left in which to see the winners.

New competition for international youth documentary

IDFA's various competition programmes will remain as in previous years, with the addition of one new competition: the IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs, for international youth documentaries.

A single award worth €2,500 will be granted by an expert jury in this category.

The new jury awards in each category

VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (€ 12,500)

IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary (€2,500)

IDFA Award for Best First Appearance (€7,500)

Special Jury Award for First Appearance, in memory of Peter Wintonick (€2,500)

IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (€10,000)

IDFA Special Jury Award for Mid-Length Documentary (€2,500)

IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling (€ 5,000)

IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award (€2,500)

Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary (€7,500)

IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary (€2,500)

IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary (€ 5,000)

IDFA Special Jury Award for Student Documentary (€2,500)

IDFA Award for Best Kids & Docs Documentary (€ 2,500)

The IDFA DOC U Award, presented by a youth jury (€ 2,500)

At the awards ceremony, which will be held on the evening of Wednesday 25 November in the Rabozaal in the Melkweg venue, the Oxfam Global Justice Award and the Alliance of Women Film Journalists' EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary will also be announced by their special juries.

On Friday 27 November, the BankGiro Loterij IDFA Audience Award (€ 5,000) will be announced.