{"id":801333,"date":"2026-10-13T14:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801333\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T14:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:52:11","slug":"idfa-announces-competition-lineups-adds-musk-elizabeth-holmes-doc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801333\/","title":{"rendered":"IDFA Announces Competition Lineups, Adds ‘Musk’ & Elizabeth Holmes Doc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe 39th edition of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam<\/a> (IDFA<\/a>) will open with White Tiger Column, a film set in one of the deadliest corners of the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe feature directed by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, and Bryan Dickie closely follows \u201ca group of recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar\u2019s resistance movement,\u201d according to a release. \u201cIn a training camp deep in the jungle, the filmmakers capture the daily lives of young volunteers as they prepare to fight for their freedom. A striking example of documentary cinema, the film offers a moving portrait of a courageous generation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIDFA, the largest documentary film festival in the world, runs from November 12-22 in the Dutch capital. The festival announced its competition lineups Tuesday, including White Tiger Column, which is slated to premiere in International Competition. That documentary is also nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature. Scroll for the complete lineup.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'White<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018White Tiger Column\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of IDFA<\/p>\n

\n\tThirteen films are screening in International Competition, a dozen of them world or international premieres. Those documentaries hail from around the world \u2013 Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Ukraine and other European countries, Canada and more \u2013 but interestingly no films from the U.S. in that category.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe International Competition brings together works that invite curiosity and critical reflection on our world today,\u201d IDFA notes. \u201cAcross a wide range of subjects and filmmaking approaches, these films offer complex, layered perspectives on the present.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"'Drop!<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u2018Drop! Cover! Hold On!\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of IDFA<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Envision Competition, meanwhile, offers \u201c13 unparalleled films, each of them stylistically arresting, as visionary filmmakers forge new cinematic languages. The selection brings together titles in which form drives the narrative.\u201d Envision titles include Bah\u00eda Honda, directed by Alejandro Alonso Estrella; Drop! Cover! Hold On!, directed by St\u00e9phanie Roland; Shishir Jha\u2019s Rivers of Memory, and My Own Personal Gulag, directed by Lina Gorbaneva. All of those films are world premieres.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Elizabeth<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tElizabeth Holmes in \u2018You Can See Everything<\/a>\u2018<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA24<\/p>\n

\n\tIDFA announced it is adding two very high-profile documentaries to its lineup: You Can See Everything, the film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes that created a sensation<\/a> when it premiered in Telluride, and Musk<\/a>, Alex Gibney\u2019s unflattering examination<\/a> of world\u2019s richest man Elon Musk. Newly added Sixteen Moments of My Life, directed by Albert Serra, spotlights Ingrid Caven singing live at the Th\u00e9\u00e2tre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Special Screenings section brings an Eye Filmmuseum restoration of John Leerdam\u2019s 30 mei, 1969 (gritu di un pueblo), revisiting \u201cthe historic uprising in Cura\u00e7ao and the colonial inequalities and racial discrimination that fueled it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLuminous<\/p>\n

\n\tThe premiere-only section Luminous presents a wide range of styles and formalist approaches, from observational to personal to experimental. Across both feature-length and short films, the titles grapple with big questions of life through deeply personal, lived experiences. Among the selection of 21 films, 19 titles are world or international premieres, including nine debut feature films.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the immersive and poetic Where the Sun is Born by Laura Berm\u00fadez and Jorge Garc\u00eda, a dancer leaves the city in Honduras to travel back to the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community of his youth\u2014in search of his roots and a sense of community. The IDFA Bertha Fund-supported She Was Not Alone by Hussein Al-asadi closely follows Zaira, an elderly woman living in close communion with nature in the marshlands of southern Iraq\u2014meditatively illuminating an idyllic place, increasingly under threat.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the IDFA Project Space NL alumni Raluca Lupa\u015fcu\u2019s A Modern Roma Fairytale, ten-year-old Nicoleta, granddaughter of a Roma king, grows up dreaming of a life in a marble palace\u2014while watching the women around her navigate the restrictions of the patriarchal traditions that will shape her future. In Every Death Diminishes Me, Sergii Bazhenov trains as a medic to join the front lines, documenting his colleagues as they treat the wounded and confront the human cost of war.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrontlight<\/p>\n

\n\tThe premiere-only section Frontlight showcases 16 films, from critically examinations of the truth and urgent issues of our time to portraits of artists and their work. 15 of the selected titles are world or international premieres.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral films offer immediate responses to critical current events, while others take time to reflect, examining the social realities and challenges shaping people\u2019s lives. The Big Boom! by Gabriel Tejedor explores a Bulgarian arms manufacturer in Kazanlak rife with contradictions and simmering tension, where the machine guns and rockets are destined for Ukraine while many of its employees are pro-Putin. In No Man\u2019s Air by Peter Delpeut and Gerco de Ruijter, a pilot recalls the last flight to Nicosia Airport in July 1974, as a Turkish invasion of Cyprus loomed.<\/p>\n

\n\tAfsaneh Salari\u2019s Tehran, Under the Skin enters Tehran\u2019s cosmetic clinics to explore the pressures behind Iran\u2019s widespread culture of cosmetic surgery in pursuit of physical perfection, in a conservative society that seeks to control women\u2019s beauty. In Jenin & the Nakba Between Us, Serene Husni returns to her parents\u2019 hometown in the occupied West Bank, weaving family archive and conversations with residents into a portrait of a place shaped by displacement, occupation, and memory.<\/p>\n

\n\tSelected films: International Competition<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Bardi, dir. Tala Hadid (Morocco), 108\u2019 \u2013 European Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky, dir. Mehran Tamadon (France), 120\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Down the River, dir. Ruslan Fedotov (Germany), 79\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Hazara Town, dir. Khadim Dai (Belgium\/Australia\/Germany), 103\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Here Where the Fire Burns, dir. Juan Manuel Sep\u00falveda (Mexico), 97\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93, dir. Salom\u00e9 Jashi (Georgia), 100\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Lonan Tch\u00e9, dir. Jo\u00ebl Richmond Mathieu Akafou (France\/Italy\/Ivory Coast\/Senegal), 95\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Mangabangabaka, dir. Micha\u00ebl Andrianaly (France\/Madagascar\/Burkina Faso), 92\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Morro Grande, dir. Isabel Joffily, Rita Toledo (Brazil\/Netherlands), 88\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Still Night, Burning House, dir. Carol Nguyen (Canada), 76\u2019 \u2013 International Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 White Tiger Column, dir. Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, Bryan Dickie (Canada), 95\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Women and War, dir. Elwira Niewiera (Germany\/Poland\/Ukraine), 103\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 The Year of the Ghost, dir. Louis Hothothot (Netherlands\/China), 95\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\tSelected films: Envision Competition<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Bah\u00eda Honda, dir. Alejandro Alonso Estrella (Cuba\/France\/Norway), 85\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Between Revolutions, dir. Ruben Desiere (Belgium\/Netherlands), 78\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 The Black Box Is Orange, dir. Yuula Benivolski (Canada), 89\u2019 \u2013 International Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Drop! Cover! Hold On!, dir. St\u00e9phanie Roland (Belgium\/France), 77\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Lyrical Vengeance, dir. wendelien van oldenborgh (Netherlands), 111\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Memories, dir. Anna Falgu\u00e8res (Belgium\/France), 78\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Memories of Lightning, dir. Riccardo Giacconi (France\/Italy), 73\u2019 \u2013 International Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 My Own Personal Gulag, dir. Lina Gorbaneva (Spain), 84\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Radiant Mountain, dir. Miguel Moraes Cabral (Belgium\/Portugal\/France), 75\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Ragazzi al fiume, dir. Pablo Briones (Switzerland), 75\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Rivers of Memory, dir. Shishir Jha (India), 72\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 Vertigo Garden, dir. Lei Lei (Hong Kong \/ SAR \/China), 73\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\t\u2022 You Don\u2019t Die Two Times, dir. Ager Oueslati (Algeria\/Germany\/Netherlands), 90\u2019 \u2013 World Premiere<\/p>\n

\n\tIDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction<\/p>\n

\n\tWith ten titles, the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction boldly expands the horizons of the documentary genre, pushing immersive media beyond conventional boundaries. Across VR, live theater performances, fulldome experiences, and multisensory works, the selection explores how immersive art can alter the way we encounter reality\u2014offering unexpected perspectives and opening up new possibilities for agency and resistance.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral artists use immersive experiences to bring audiences into close, embodied encounters with realities that may otherwise feel distant. Other works deal with the corporeal and the body, from digitally altering our perception of ourselves and inviting our microbiomes to a feast, to examining grief through magnifying the decomposition of a loved one\u2019s body\u2014turning grief and death into a profound reflection on how humans are but a part of a larger ecosystem.<\/p>\n

\n\tIDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling<\/p>\n

\n\tThe nine-title IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling expands the possibilities of documentary through digital art, games, interactive installations, and live performance. With artists from across disciplines bringing traditional forms into dialogue with new media, the selection showcases a new wave of cross-disciplinary experimentation.<\/p>\n

\n\tSeveral works confront the digital systems shaping contemporary life, subverting algorithms and finding room for human error and agency. Other works invite audiences into interactive open worlds, adapting game and world-building technologies to create participatory experiences that radically depart from everyday reality. Elsewhere, artists explore the ever-evolving relationship between the physical and digital, investigating how technology fundamentally shapes our experience of intimacy, desire, and connection.<\/p>\n

\n\tCross-section awards<\/p>\n

\n\tIDFA has also announced the nominations for the cross-section awards\u2014distinct awards that transcend the program sections to recognize outstanding artistic achievement across the festival program.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe IDFA Award for Best First Feature celebrates the most remarkable debut feature-length films, recognizing works that reveal a distinctive creative voice and the promise of an evolving signature. Drawn from the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, and Frontlight, the award is accompanied by a \u20ac5,000 prize, awarded by an international jury.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe films nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature are also eligible for the FIPRESCI Award, chosen by an international jury of film critics.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film highlights exceptional Dutch filmmaking talent across the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, and Frontlight selections. The winning filmmaker with receive \u20ac5,000, awarded by an international jury.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive honors outstanding archival film, selected from across the film program. The winning film will receive a \u20ac5,000 prize, awarded by an international jury.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe winners will be announced during the IDFA 2026 Awards Ceremony on Thursday, November 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 39th edition of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will open with White Tiger Column, a film set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,105972,112907,2839,13934,56,54,55,252803],"class_list":["post-801333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-idfa","tag-international-documentary-festival-amsterdam","tag-movies","tag-musk","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-you-can-see-everything"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}