IDFA Reveals Competition Lineups for 38th edition

… at a press conference this afternoon, online, with IDFA veteran Isabel Arrate Fernandez, appointed artistic director after Orwa Nyrabia, doing the presentation together with Head of Program Joost Dammen and Head of New Media Caspar Sonnen.

“As filmmakers and artists from all over the world share their work, they remind us that there is a space for reflection and connection. They bring other perspectives. They open conversations about cinema—about what touches us, what feels urgent, what truly matters right now. Through them, we get to be part of the courage of filmmakers and artists who refuse to give up—who keep pursuing their creative vision, and their commitment to stories that they feel matter,” IDFA’s Artistic Director Isabel Arrate Fernandez said of the IDFA 2025 program during our press conference. Click and you can see the presentation.

I list the lucky filmmakers, who have been selected for the two main competitions, the International and the Envision:

The International Competition (click and you get more info on the films):

Selected films: International Competition   

  • All My Sisters, dir. Massoud Bakhshi (Austria/France/Germany/Iran), 78’ – World Premiere 
  • December, dir. Lucas Gallo (Argentina/Uruguay), 105’ – World Premiere 
  • Flana, dir. Zahraa Ghandour (Iraq/France/Qatar), 85’ – European Premiere 
  • Flood, dir. Katy Scoggin (United States), 75’ – International Premiere 
  • A Fox Under a Pink Moon, dir. Mehrdad Oskouei (Iran/France/United Kingdom/United States/Denmark), 76’ – World Premiere 
  • The Kartli Kingdom, dir. Tamar Kalandadze, Julien Pebrel (Georgia/France), 105’ – World Premiere 
  • Mailin, dir. María Silvia Esteve (Argentina/France/Romania), 89’ – World Premiere 
  • Palimpsest: The Story of a Name, dir. Mary Stephen (France/Hong Kong/Taiwan), 109’ – European Premiere 
  • The Shipwrecked, dir. Diego Gutiérrez (Netherlands), 115’ – World Premiere 
  • Silent Flood, dir. Dmytro Sukholytkyy-Sobchuk (Ukraine/Germany), 90’ – World Premiere 
  • Synthetic Sincerity, dir. Marc Isaacs (United Kingdom), 72’ – World Premiere 
  • Those Who Watch Over, dir. Karima Saïdi (Belgium/France/Qatar), 88’ – European Premiere
The Envision Competition (click and you will get more info on the films)
Selected films: Envision Competition  
Amílcar, dir. Miguel Eek (Spain/Portugal/France/Sweden/Cape Verde), 87’ – World Premiere 
Blood Red, dir. Martin Imrich (Czech Republic), 75’ – World Premiere 
Confessions of a Mole, dir. Mo Tan (China/Poland), 92’ – World Premiere
Fordlândia Panacea, dir. Susana de Sousa Dias (Portugal/Brazil), 62’ – World Premiere  
Holy Destructors, dir. Aiste Žegulytė (Lithuania/France/Latvia), 85’ – World Premiere 
I Want Her Dead, dir. Gianluca Matarrese (Italy), 86’ – International Premiere 
Love-22-Love, dir. Jeroen Kooijmans (Netherlands), 84’ – World Premiere 
Our Body Is an Expanding Star, dir. Semillites Hernández Velasco, Tania Hernández Velasco (Mexico), 84’ – World Premiere 
Past Future Continuous, dir. Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani (Iran/Norway/Italy), 76’ – International Premiere
 Powwow People, dir. Sky Hopinka (United States), 88’ – European Premiere 
Treat Me Like Your Mother, dir. Mohamad Abdouni (Lebanon), 76’ – World Premiere 
Trillion, dir. Victor Kossakovsky (Norway/United States), 80’ – World Premiere 

Still from “Holy Destructors” by Aiste Žegulytė, Lithuania.

Del din kærlighed
Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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