Last year’s industry program at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) placed great emphasis on the livelihood of documentarians as the industry sees budgets shrink and European funding bodies like public broadcasters invest less. Have things changed in the past year as the festival prepares for another edition? Unfortunately not, says Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, the head of the industry office at IDFA.
“Looking at what is happening in the documentary landscape in Europe and beyond, I don’t think things have become much better,” she tells Variety. “There is also the fact that there are countries with a political climate that is making it more difficult for documentarians to make the films they want to make. It’s very difficult for filmmakers to make money to continue in the industry. Livelihood hasn’t improved at the same time as the work of these filmmakers is becoming more and more important.”
Nested within the IDFA dates of Nov. 14-24, the festival’s co-production and co-financing market, the Forum, takes place between Nov. 17-20. The Forum encompasses the Forum Pitch, Rough Cut Presentations, Producer Connection and IDFA DocLab Forum strands.
Asked about some of the overarching themes of the projects at the Forum this year, van Nieuwenhuyzen says there isn’t one reigning theme per se but she is seeing a lot of filmmakers broach issues of social justice. “There are also smaller stories about LGBTQ+ communities who are not able to speak up, the impact of the past on the present… It’s a very diverse mix of projects.”
Amongst highlights at this year’s Forum, van Nieuwenhuyzen mentions Anna Kapustina and Alexander Mihalkovich’s “Transparency Booth: Echoes of the Future,” a Ukrainian project looking back at Soviet history and Perestroika to further understand the political landscape of today and Ibrahim Omar’s “Dry Sky,” a personal project taking place in a small village in Sudan.
Although there are several projects coming from across the Middle East within the Forum — including projects directly addressing current tensions such as Kamal Al Azraq and Francesca Tosarelli’s “The West Bank Project” and Tomer Heymann’s “Issa’s House” (selected at Forum Pitch last year and returning in 2024 as part of Rough Cut) — van Nieuwenhuyzen is reluctant to define the conflicts in the region as a dominant presence at this year’s market.
“Creative documentaries typically go beyond the daily news,” she says. “It’s not like the events of yesterday are immediately visible in the projects we have tomorrow. To really reflect as a filmmaker on what is happening in the world takes time.”
After last year’s record-breaking 800 submissions, the IDFA team didn’t expect the numbers to go higher this year, but they did indeed. The head of industry says there have been 820 submissions in 2024, an “overwhelming” number. “Last year we thought it was a bit of a post-pandemic effect. This year’s numbers are rich and huge but also very painful because we had to turn down so many amazing projects.”
“This is not only happening to us at IDFA,” she adds. “You see it in other platforms similar to ours across Europe. People can look for explanations in different ways, you can say people are keen on exploring collaborations internationally, for example. We see a huge appetite for collaboration, which I find beautiful. We are even seeing unusual collaborations like New Zealand and Nigeria.”
This spirit of collaboration and finding parallel sources of support — be it through development programs or funding avenues — is one of the biggest industry changes van Nieuwenhuyzen has seen in recent years. “Four or five years ago, a lot of filmmakers would have a keen focus on the big streamers and now you see that people are open to all of it,” she highlights.
“There is not just one way to go about funding and people have realized that going down different routes like connecting to multiple smaller players and building collaborative work is also very worthwhile to explore.”
In terms of industry talks and sessions, this year’s festival features two separate discussions on AI titled “AI and Documentary Filmmaking” and “The Humans Have Entered the Chat.” This follows the festival’s opening film, Piotr Winiewicz’s “About a Hero,” which investigates the creative possibilities of AI through a docufiction based on AI software developed to mimic German filmmaker Werner Herzog.
Asked about the emphasis on conversations around AI and new technologies at this year’s festival, van Nieuwenhuyzen says she is not as interested in answers as she is in bringing forth questions to the filmmaking community. “We want people to ask themselves questions. “What is available? What does it mean to us as filmmakers? What are the ethical and aesthetic questions?”
Speaking about questions, there is a big question mark hovering above IDFA this year as the upcoming edition marks the last with Orwa Nyrabia as artistic director and Isabel Arrate Fernandez as the head of the festival’s funding body, the Bertha Fund. “I am sad because I love working with Isabelle and Orwa,” says the head of industry. “On the other hand, change will also bring us something. I am certain of it. At the moment I feel a loss even though they are still with us, but you can also see it as a privilege that they have been with the festival for so long. We are lucky.”
