14/10/2025 - The Dutch festival’s industry strand explores the vital realities of today, as seen through the eyes of both new and seasoned filmmakers

The Video Guy by Sam Howard and Alexander Dickerson-Watson (© Sam Howard/Alexander Dickerson Watson)

In the lead-up to its 33rd edition, International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced the full list of selected Forum projects, which will be presented as part of the annual industry gathering in the Dutch capital. This year, the festival runs from 13-23 November, while the 2025 Forum takes place from 16-19 November, welcoming a total of 51 documentary projects to its co-production and co-financing market across the Producers Connection, Forum Pitch, DocLab Forum and Rough Cut Presentations. Conscious of these present times of turmoil, the Forum selection is set to highlight the political power of documentary to tackle the issues at stake with nuance and urgency. In the words of Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen, head of IDFA Industry, the chosen projects “bring underexposed stories to light while also exploring non-narrative expressions, both of which provide context in a society marked by turbulence and uncertainty.”

The Forum Pitch and Producers Connection feature a total of 33 projects this year. Returning to IDFA is Palestinian filmmaker Mohamed Jabaly, whose Life Is Beautiful [+see also:
film review
film profile] scooped the Best Directing Award in 2023, with his new project My Sister Gaza (Palestine/Norway), a first-person documentation of the daily reality in Gaza in the early days of the genocide, co-helmed with his siblings Rima and Ibrahim Jabaly, and co-produced with Idioms Film, Palestine. Alexandru Solomon, an IDFA regular, heads back to pitch Small Expectations (Romania) alongside executive producer Ada Solomon, of microFILM. Another notable standout is Alison O’Daniel’s (The Tuba Thieves, IDFA 2023) viscerally experiential and experimental Inframince (USA), about Havana Syndrome, the alleged “sonic attacks” on US diplomats, initially reported in Cuba. In Four Comrades, One Echo (Netherlands), emerging director Kiva Liu focuses on four sisters in China’s Sichuan, each of whom mothered her through different episodes in life, in a politically regimented society. Another Dutch entry is Loretta van der Horst’s urgent The Documenters, which zooms in on the labour of gathering evidence of war crimes in Syria, Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine.

Among the six projects selected for Rough Cut Presentations at this year’s IDFA Forum are Getting the Message (Ireland/Netherlands/Belgium) by Neasa Ní Chianáin, a touching, intimate portrait of an Irish political leader fighting for climate justice, and Lucas Paleocrassas’ Bugboy (Greece/Denmark/France), centring on a teenager with a rare eye condition that affects his self-image. Another standout project is Nolwenn Hervé’s The Cord (France), an urgent movie about those workers making it safe for women to give birth in Venezuela, where it is often a life-endangering act.

Finally, the IDFA DocLab Forum will present 12 new-media projects at various stages of development and production. Across an array of formats, the projects found in this selection include interactive 360° VR narratives, like Amy Crighton and Meg Fozzard’s Cripping Up (UK); multi-user VR game installations, like Laura Yilmaz’s Metamorphosis (New Zealand/Hungary); AR, AI and multimedia installations, such as Lara Baladi’s Anatomy of Revolution (Egypt); live-performance, multi-user AR/VR works, such as Robin Coops’ Ghost Towns (Netherlands); and multimedia multi-user installations, such as Emma Hamilton’s Reframing Queer Exile (France), among others. Finally, Darren Emerson, the creator of In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats (IDFA 2022), is preparing a multi-person, collective documentary VR experience called Fear City Paradise (UK), transporting us to the New York of the 1970s.

Here is the complete list of Forum projects:

Forum Pitch

My Name Is Khalil - Bilal Alkhatib
Producer: Les films de l’Altaï (Palestine/France/Lebanon)

Untitled Petra Costa Project - Petra Costa
Producer: Busca Vida Filmes (Brazil)

A Film for One - Alexandre Donot-Saby
Producers: Little Big Story (France), Portage Film (Canada)

Karsai vs Hungary - Marcell Gerő
Producers: Campfilm (Hungary), Films de Force Majeure (France), MPhilms (Slovakia)

Todo Lo Sólido - Luis Gutiérrez Arias, Zaina Bseiso
Producers: Bahia Colectiva (Cuba), Warboys Films, Estudio ST (France)

All Fixed Up – Hao Zhou
Producers: Jenny Wu (China), Tyler Hill (USA)

The Face of Power - James Jones
Producers: Sasha Odynova, James Jones (UK)

The White Doctor - Zippy Ms Kimundu
Producers: Little Wing Films (Ireland), Afrofilms International Company Ltd (Kenya), Tondowski Films (Germany)

ExCoded - Javier Lovera
Producers: Have Magic Media, Lost Time Media (Canada)

Sundays - Justine Martin
Producer: Nemesis Films Inc (Canada)

Inframince - Alison O’Daniel
Producer: Louverture Films (USA)

I’ve Always Said We - Lucia Sanchez
Producers: Les Films d’Ici, Anoki (France), Michèle Massé (Spain)

Untitled Watermelon Pictures Documentary
Producer: Ayah Selene

Nighthawk - Adam James Smith (China/USA)

Small Expectations - Alexandru Solomon
Producers: microFILM (Romania), Frederik Nicolai (Belgium)

Talia After Talia - Pedro Speroni
Producer: El Ojo Silva (Argentina)

Lonesome Land - Virpi Suutari
Producer: Euphoria film oy (Finland)

Never Arrive - Tenji Takakura, Sansan Liu
Producers: Muyi Film (Netherlands), Temjin TV Production Co Ltd (Japan)

The Documenters - Loretta van der Horst
Producers: The Waves, Docmakers (Netherlands)

Codename: Guster - Katharina Warda, Jascha Hannover
Producers: Tondowski Films (Germany), Storyscope (South Africa)

The Path That Walks - Efthymia Zymvragaki
Producers: Gris Medio (Spain), Witfilm (Netherlands), Sisilo (Greece)

Producers Connection

Tongues of Fire - Alyx Ayn Arumpac
Producer: Guerreros (Philippines)

The Video Guy - Sam Howard, Alexander Dickerson-Watson
Producer: Erica Starling Productions (UK)

Serraria - Ricardo Imakawa, Matias Borgström
Producer: Salga Filmes (Brazil)

My Sister Gaza - Mohamed Jabaly, Rima Jabaly, Ibrahim Jabaly
Producers: Palarctic Productions AS (Palestine/Norway), Idioms Films (Palestine)

Four Comrades, One Echo - Kiva Liu
Producer: Kiva Liu (Netherlands)

Flying Like a Bird - El Mahdi Lyoubi
Producers: Cinema Salama (Morocco), Deuxième Ligne Films, GoGoGo Films (France)

Into the Mist - Azadeh Moussavi, Kourosh Ataee
Producer: Fanoos Films (Iran)

The Black Wedding - 7 Years of Eternal Mourning - Dragan Nikolić
Producer: Jovana Nikolić (Serbia)

Resisting Residents - Nikos Pilos
Producer: Filmiki SA (Greece)

Trail on the Water - Juan Pablo Polanco
Producer: Los Niños Films (Colombia)

Eleven Ears - Yashaswini Raghunandan
Producers: Yashaswini Raghunandan (India), Seesaw Pictures (South Korea)

The Pylon and the Lake - Sylvain Yonnet
Producer: Alter Ego Production (France)

Rough Cut Presentations

Sweet Belonging - Benjamin Bucher
Producer: Langfilm (Switzerland)

The Cord – Nolwenn Hervé
Producer: Grande Ourse Films (France)

Dreams of the Wild Oaks - Marjan Khosravi
Producers: Seven Springs Pictures (Iran), Lukimedia SL (Spain), Avant la Nuit (France)

Architecture as Invention - Michael Madsen
Producers: Paloma Productions (Denmark), Auto Images (Sweden), Ma.ja.de filmproduktion GmbH (Germany)

Getting the Message – Neasa Ní Chianáin
Producers: Soilsiu Films (Ireland), Clin d’oeil Films (Belgium), Docmakers (Netherlands)

Busboy – Lucas Paleocrassas
Producers: Anemon Productions (Greece), Toolbox Film ApS (Denmark), Flach Film Production (France)

DocLab Forum

I’m in Love with My Testo - Juno Álvarez
Producers: Cacao Cinema (Spain), Paola Álvarez (Germany)

Anatomy of Revolution - Lara Baladi
Producer: Lara Baladi (Egypt)

Body Count - Cris Bringas
Producer: INVR.SPACE (Philippines/Germany)

Like Every Cloud (Zayy Kulli Ghaima) - Bentley Brown
Producers: Aboudigin Films, Turki Al Mutairi (Chad)

Ghost Towns - Robin Coops
Producers: UPscaleXR, Coops&Co (Netherlands)

Cripping Up - Amy Crighton, Meg Fozzard
Producer: Unlikely Tangent Studios (UK)

Fear City Paradise - Darren Emerson
Producer: East City Films (UK)

Reframing Queer Exile - Emma Hamilton
Producer: Adventice (France)

The Eyes of Mila Kaos - Yimit Ramírez, Tony Alonso
Producers: Free Hundred Media (Spain), Vega Alta Films (France)

Inside a Stripper’s Mind – STORRY
Producer: KZI Films (Canada)

Amasonic - Marcel van Brakel, M Cecilia Oliveira
Producer: Studio Biarritz (Netherlands)

Metamorphosis - Laura Yilmaz
Producers: RumeXR (New Zealand/Hungary)