IDFA to open with Amal, IDFA Forum selection announced

On 15 November IDFA 2017 will open with the world première of Mohamed Siam’s Amal. This film was made with support from the IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF) and attracted finance at the IDFA Forum, making it a great example of what IDFA is all about.

With the IDFA Bertha Fund celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and the IDFA Forum now in its 25th edition, IDFA can justifiably be seen as a catalyst for the development, finance and distribution of creative documentaries worldwide.

IDFA Forum Selection 2017

IDFA’s international co-finance and production market will take place in Amsterdam’s Compagnietheater from 20 through 22 November. This year, 57 projects have been selected from 23 countries, including new projects by Victor Kossakovsky, Nino Kirtadze, Jian Fan and Maite Alberdi. The IDFA Forum selection is online from today. During the market, filmmakers and producers present their documentary projects to representatives of international television stations, online platforms, distributors and funds with the aim of attracting finance and distribution for their documentary projects. 680 Projects were submitted this year. A striking feature was the increase in the number of crossmedia projects submitted. A committee of international experts made a selection representing the full range of the documentary genre. Ten crossmedia documentary projects were accepted, including the projects of Brett Gaylor and Michele Stephenson. For the full selection, see list.

The selection includes 4 projects that were previously selected by the IDFA Bertha Fund, and once again this year significant attention was devoted to youth documentaries, with 2 projects selected in this category, including the Finnish project Maiden of the Lake.

IDFA Forum films at IDFA 2017

Initially, IDFA Forum focused on the stimulation of European co-finance by television stations, but has now expanded into a worldwide co-production and co-finance market. Alongside investment from public broadcasters, other public and private funds and platforms play a significant role in the distribution and finance of creative documentary projects and crossmedia projects. Some 90% of the projects presented at the IDFA Forum are eventually produced. The IDFA 2017 program includes 21 documentaries that were presented as projects at previous editions of the IDFA Forum: Link to projects.

The IDFA Forum is supported by Creative Europe Media and the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Opening film: Amal by Mohamed Siam

The 30th edition of IDFA opens on 15 November in Royal Theatre Carré with the world première of Amal by Egyptian director Mohamed Siam. This coming-of-age documentary follows an Egyptian teenager during the revolution and its long resonating aftermath until today. Panning through 6 years, we see how Amal searches for her identity in a country in transition. Amal is fierce and undaunted. But, as a young woman among men, she has to fight to survive and to find her own place in the streets and in all other areas of life. Amal has been selected for the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary and the focus program Shifting Perspectives: The Arab World.

Artistic director (interim) Barbara Visser: “In its choice of Amal as its opening film, IDFA has been able to combine almost everything it considers important: cinematic depiction of reality, an intimate story, and showcasing work by up-and-coming film talent from all over the world.” Siam (1982) is a fiction and documentary filmmaker from Egypt whose first work Whose Country? (2016) was amongst others selected for the New York Film Festival, the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and won the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival. He has previously won the Robert Bosch Film Prize, Durban FilmMart Afridocs Prize and Thessaloniki Award. For Amal, he took on the roles of writer, director, cinematographer and producer.

20 Years of the IDFA Bertha Fund

Amal was made with support from the IDFA Bertha Fund, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. The Fund stimulates and strengthens the creative documentary industry in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East and parts of Eastern Europe by providing support to talented filmmakers in these regions. During the past 20 years, more than 350 documentaries have come about with support from the Fund. Recent examples include Sonita, Return to Homs and 5 Broken Cameras: documentaries that tell exceptional stories from new perspectives. The IDFA selection for 2017 contains 15 films that were realised with support from the IBF. For example, Talal Derki’s poignant Of Fathers and Sons, which has its world première at IDFA. And City of the Sun by Rati Oneli, which has already picked up awards in Madrid and Sheffield.

The IDFA Bertha Fund is supported by main partner the Bertha Foundation and Creative Europe Media.

The 30th edition of IDFA will take place 15 – 26 November.