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IDFA 2022 IDFA for Professionals

IDFA Forum announces this year’s selected projects

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- Among the award-winning filmmakers set to pitch their upcoming works are Maite Alberdi, Filip Remunda, Anette Ostrø, Zaradasht Ahmed and Martín Benchimol

IDFA Forum announces this year’s selected projects
Director Filip Remunda, who is taking part in IDFA Forum Pitch with Love Exposed

International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has announced the 60 projects selected for the 30th edition of the IDFA Forum, the festival’s co-production and co-financing market, this year running from 12-16 November. Labelled by the team as a “watershed edition”, the event will see a strong return to in-person pitching, with all selected project teams slated to physically attend the event in Amsterdam.

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Besides the 22 projects selected for the market’s flagship Forum Pitch category and the six selected for the annual Rough Cut Presentations, the upcoming gathering marks the second edition of the Producers Connection, an exclusive producer-to-producer showcase of 12 selected projects ripe for international co-production. Moreover, the market’s new-media section, IDFA DocLab Forum, is this year being expanded into a two-day event with a showcase of 20 interactive and XR projects.

Among the projects being pitched this year by established filmmakers are Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory (Chile, “an intimate meditation on love and memory that observes a couple dealing with Alzheimer’s over a four-year period”), Filip Remunda’s Love Exposed (Czech Republic/France, a tragicomedy about “an ageing photographer and his filmmaker daughter who struggle to form a healthier relationship”), Anette Ostrø’s The Golden Swan (Norway/Denmark/Netherlands, “a brutal yet healing story on the kidnapping of her brother”), Zaradasht Ahmed’s The Lions on the River Tigris (Norway, “a vérité project on the healing and resilience of Mosul in northern Iraq after years of ISIS rule”) and Martín Benchimol’s The Castle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martín Benchimol
film profile
]
(Argentina/France, “the bittersweet story of a domestic worker who inherits a crumbling mansion from a former employer and hovers on the verge of emancipation with her daughter”).

Finally, this year’s edition sees the participation of a strong contingent of projects exploring themes revolving around the war, a clear sign of the turbulent times we live in. Among these are Alisa Kovalenko’s Frontline (Poland/Denmark/Ukraine, “an experimental video diary of life on the Ukrainian frontline, bringing together the eye of a soldier and a documentary filmmaker”), Ondřej Moravec and Volodymyr Kolbasa’s mixed-reality work Fresh Memories (Czech Republic/Ukraine, which “transforms an ordinary apartment into a soon-to-be-invaded place in Ukraine”), Maryam Ebrahimi’s The Phantom Pain of Rojava (Sweden/Norway, “about the present-day status of the Kurdish resistance against IS and the women’s revolution in Rojava”) and Mariam Al-Dhubhani’s debut, Let’s Play Soldiers (Yemen/Qatar, tackling “the ongoing Yemeni war through the eyes of a former child soldier who tries to protect his brothers from the same fate”).

Here is the full list of selected projects:

IDFA Forum Pitch

Catching Them YoungPankaj Johar
Producers: Penny Wise Films (India), Ventana Film (Germany)

DisplacedOlha Zhurba
Producers: Darya Bassel (Ukraine), Final Cut for Real (Denmark)

Don’t Call Me MadZora Kuettner
Producers: Delaval Film, Charlie Phillips, Kat Amara-Korba (UK), DocLab (Italy)

Edhi and Alice – Ilrhan Kim
Producers: yPinks, SonaFilms (South Korea)

The Eternal MemoryMaite Alberdi
Producers: Micromundo Producciones, Fabula (Chile)

Frontline (working title) - Alisa Kovalenko
Producers: HAKA Films (Poland), Final Cut for Real (Denmark), Trueman Production (Ukraine)

The Golden SwanAnette Ostrø
Producers: Fri Film (Norway), Made in Copenhagen (Denmark), HALAL (Netherlands)

Hacking HateSimon Klose
Producer: Nonami AB (Sweden)

Ice GraveRobin Hunzinger
Producers: Seppia (France), Making Movies Oy (Finland)

Jump OutNika Saravanja
Producers: Tico Film Company Srl (Italy), Playtime Films (Belgium), Fade In (Croatia)

Love ExposedFilip Remunda
Producers: Hypermarket Film, FreeSaM Ltd (Czech Republic), Farges/Kolam Productions (France), HBO MAX

NiñxsKani Lapuerta
Producers: La Sandía Digital Producción Audiovisual (Mexico), JYOTI Films, Dirk Manthey Film (Germany)

The Phantom Pain of RojavaMaryam Ebrahimi
Producers: Mantaray Film (Sweden), Stray Dogs (Norway)

RobinOrban Wallace
Producers: Snowstorm Productions, Gallivant Film (UK)

Seeds of a Nation – Catherine Lee
Producers: Pointe Media, Clear & Present Pictures (USA/Kenya)

Theft of FireAmer Shomali
Producers: Intuitive Pictures Inc (Canada), made in palestine project (Palestine)

Underage Astronauts – Aleksandra Skowon
Producer: Mediolia (Poland)

Under Her SkinSimon Hernandez Estrada and Liliana Andrade
Producers: La Popular (Colombia), Cinema 226 (Mexico)

Welded TogetherAnastasiya Miroshnichenko
Producer: An|Da Films (Belarus)

Where We BelongSusanne Opstal
Producer: HALAL (Netherlands)

Women of My Life – Zahraa Ghandour
Producers: Karada Films (Iraq), Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion (Switzerland), WG Film AB (Sweden)

Producers Connection

Angels StreetSilvia Rey Canudo
Producer: Limbusfilmak (Spain)

Breaking the WallWeichao Xu
Producer: Yiqian Zhang (China)

December – Grzegorz Paprzycki
Producer: Telemark (Poland)

Dom Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop
Producer: DokLab GmbH (Switzerland)

The Fifth Eye – Ali Hamraz
Producer: Fanoos Films (Iran) 

HawaGul Begum
Producer: YUZU Productions (France)

Let's Play SoldiersMariam Al-Dhubhani
Producer: Mohammed Al-Jaberi (Yemen/Qatar) 

The Lions on the River TigrisZaradasht Ahmed
Producer: Screen Story (Norway)

Lust For Life/Carry OnViktor Nordenskiöld
Producers: Freetownfilms AB, Sisyfos Film Production, Karin Ekberg (Sweden)

The Miraculous Transformation of the Working Class into ForeignersSamir
Producer: Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion (Switzerland)

RabbitChloe Fairweather
Producer: Mark Lacey (UK)

We Had the MoonPamella Edouard
Producers: Piano Piano Production (France/Mauritius), Selven Naidu (Mauritius)

IDFA DocLab Forum

The Anticipation of Rain-6DoFNaima Karim
Producers: Creative Solutions Program, Ithra, Bramble Media, Far Few Giants, Schallgeber Ltd, Wilhelm Perfume GmbH, Fat Red Bird (Saudi Arabia/UK)

The Chaos SimulatorDov Heichemer
Producer: XR Coven (Germany)

DoXNimrod Shanit
Producers: HCXR – Holy City VR (Canada), INVR.SPACE GmbH (Germany)

Fresh MemoriesOndřej Moravec and Volodymyr Kolbasa
Producer: Brainz Immersive (Czech Republic/Ukraine)

Hong Kong Café – Yan Ting Yuen and Doris Yeung
Producer: Docmakers (Netherlands)

House of StoneFlorencia Curci, Joshua Madalitso Chiundiza, Frances Yeung, David Callanan and Anna West
Producer: Anna West (UK)

If These Streets Could TalkBarna Szász
Producers: Parallel Stories Cultural Organization, Andrea Ausztrics, (Hungary), Institute for Transmedia Design (Slovenia)

Jacob’s JourneyJoanne Popinska
Producer: Infinite Frame Media (Canada)

Masquerade. Chapter One: Pillaro’s Devil’s Dance – Juan Pablo Urgilés
Producers: Imán Transmedia (Ecuador), INVR.SPACE GmbH (Germany), Realidad 360º Argentina (Argentina)

NexusRodolfo Lissia
Producers: ONIRA (Netherlands), Small Studio (France), Nexus Vision (UK)

The Pathogen of WarYasmin Fedda
Producers: Black Leaf Films, May Abdalla (UK)

PlungeEllie Land
Producers: Rebecca Mark-Lawson and Daria Nitsche (UK)

Project LeavesChen Chen Chen
Producers: Ren Studios (Hong Kong/UK), OXYZ3 (China)

TartupalukLaakkuluk J Williamson Bathory
Producers: LMDP Co, Ánorâk Film (Canada)

There ExistsAnrick Bregman and Shehani Fernando
Producers: Studio ANRK, Grace Baird, Kylie Boltin (UK/Australia)

Totem – Glen Neath and David Rosenberg
Producer: Darkfield (UK)

Waking Barb – Justin Blinder
Producers: Justin Blinder and Nim Shapira (USA)

We Speak Their Names in Hushed TonesOsakpolor Omoregie
Producer: Electric South (South Africa)

When Silence TalksPaulina Donoso
Producer: Gabriel Torres (Ecuador/France/Argentina)

Zonnebloem Renamed District Six – Haroon Gunn-Salie
Producer: Electric South (South Africa)

Rough Cut Presentations

The Castle [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martín Benchimol
film profile
]
Martín Benchimol
Producers: Gema Films (Argentina), Sister Productions (France)

Memory – Vladlena Sandu
Producers: Haut les mains productions (France), BZ SH.P.K. (Kosovo), Revolver (Netherlands), Mimesis (Russia)

Motherland – Kristoffer Juel and Christian Als
Producers: Elk Film (Denmark), Mantaray Film (Sweden), Ogii Burnebataar (Mongolia)

NightwatchersJuliette de Marcillac
Producers: Dryades Films, Lyon Capitale TV, Division, 8 Mont-Blanc (France)

OzogocheJoe H Silva
Producers: Boton films (Ecuador), Serendipity (Belgium)

The Tuba ThievesAlison O’Daniel
Producers: Rachel Nederveld and Eliza Moley (USA)

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