Idfa Festival Nominations

The festival in Amsterdam has a nomination system like the one used at the Oscars – three films in each category of competition are shortlisted – and the directors have to wait until saturday night to hear if they are the lucky winners.

You can read all about it on the site below and you can for free click on the titles and watch the trailers of the films. I did so for the ”Abuelos” that competes in the First Appearance catagory. It is directed by Ecuadorian Carla Valencia Dávila and is about her two grandfathers, one who was killed by the Chilean dictatorship, the other who had special medical curing skills. Looks absolutely beautiful, the trailer.

Personally I am very happy that the Latvian ”Family Instinct” (PHOTO) by young director Andris Gauja has been nominated in the category of films of mid-length duration. It is a courageous and honest film that creates a lot of ethical debate because of its very close observation of a family that lives a life on the edge. I had the privilege of watching rough cuts of the film and see Gauja as a very much wanted new talent in the strong Latvian tradition for documentaries.

Take a look at the trailer on the websites below.

Two very well known films by readers of this site are nominated by a jury of young people – ”Autumn Gold”, which is also number one on the list for the Audience Award – and ”Armadillo”, not further presentation needed.

http://www.idfa.nl/industry/Festival/news/latest_news/25-11-10-nominations.aspx

http://www.fafilma.lv/en/films/family-instinct

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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