22/11/2024 - Also among the European winners were An American Pastoral, Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries, The Guest and Writing Hawa

The 37th edition of IDFA (14-24 November) has already named its winners at an awards ceremony that took place in the Internationaal Theater Amsterdam on Thursday 21 November. During the event, Trains [+see also:
film review
interview: Maciej J Drygas
film profile] by Maciej J Drygas (Poland) was handed the IDFA Award for Best Film, worth €15,000. The jury’s statement praised its “bold and inventive use of archive” and the ways in which it “harnesses the magic of cinema; as an audience, we are haunted by our present historical time, even while we bear witness to the past”. The film also snagged the IDFA Award for Best Editing.

Additionally, the IDFA Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000) in the International Competition was given to Auberi Edler for An American Pastoral (France). The jury’s reasoning highlighted Edler’s ability to, “by simply looking and listening, […] reveal the current complexity at the heart of the United States” in a supporting statement. Moreover, the recipients of the IDFA Award for Best Cinematography in the International Competition were Zvika Gregory Portnoy and Zuzanna Solakiewicz for The Guest (Poland/Qatar).

In the Envision Competition, the IDFA Award for Best Film (worth €15,000) went to Miguel Coyula for Chronicles of the Absurd (Cuba). The jury pointed out the movie’s “radical form that matches and embodies the radical spirit of artists refusing to be silenced”. The jury handed the Best Directing gong (worth €5,000) to Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti for Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martina Parenti and Massimo…
film profile] (Italy/Switzerland), while the Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution was given ex-aequo to Omar Mismar for A Frown Gone Mad (Lebanon) and Yo-Hen So for Park (Taiwan).

This year’s International Competition jury comprised Juliana Fanjul, Sophie Fiennes, Grace Lee, Asmae El Moudir and Kazuhiro Soda, while the Envision Competition jurors were Sam Green, Nduka Mntambo, Kumjana Novakova, B Ruby Rich and Wael Shawky. The IDFA Award for Best First Feature went to CycleMahesh (India) by Suhel Banerjee, and Writing Hawa [+see also:
film review
interview: Najiba Noori, Rasul Noori
film profile] (France/Netherlands/Qatar/Afghanistan) by Najiba Noori won the FIPRESCI Prize.

Only a day earlier, on Wednesday 20 November, the IDFA Forum Awards were announced in the Felix Meritis building. Ibrahim Omar’s project Dry Sky (Sudan/Egypt) won the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch, while Lana Y Daher’s Do You Love Me (France/Lebanon) took home the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and the DocLab Forum Award went to Amorphous by May Abdalla (UK). The new, inaugural Producers Connection Award went to Looking for the Mermaid by Yara Costa (Mozambique). Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500.

Here is the full list of this year’s award winners:

International Competition

IDFA Award for Best Film
Trains [+see also:
film review
interview: Maciej J Drygas
film profile] - Maciej J Drygas (Poland)

IDFA Award for Best Directing
An American Pastoral - Auberi Edler (France)

IDFA Award for Best Editing
Maciej J Drygas - Trains

IDFA Award for Best Cinematography
Zvika Gregory Portnoy, Zuzanna Solakiewicz - The Guest (Poland/Qatar)

Envision Competition

IDFA Award for Best Film
Chronicles of the Absurd - Miguel Coyula (Cuba)

IDFA Award for Best Directing
Bestiaries, Herbaria, Lapidaries [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Martina Parenti and Massimo…
film profile] - Massimo D'Anolfi, Martina Parenti (Italy/Switzerland)

IDFA Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (ex-aequo)
A Frown Gone Mad – Omar Mismar (Lebanon)
Park – Yo-Hen So (Taiwan)

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-fiction
Me, a Depiction - Lisa Schamlé (Netherlands)
Special Mention
The Liminal - Alaa Al Minawi (Netherlands/Lebanon/Palestine/Norway)

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling
Entropic Fields of Displacement - Pegah Tabassinejad (Canada)
Special Mention
Burn from Absence - Emeline Courcier (France/Canada)

IDFA Competition for Short Documentary

IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary
The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing - Theo Panagopoulos (UK)
Special Mention
Mama Micra - Rebecca Blöcher (Germany)

IDFA Competition for Youth Film

IDFA Award for Best Youth Film (13+)
Everything Will Be Alright - Eefje Blankevoort, Lara Aerts (Netherlands)
Special Mention
Simply Divine - Mélody Boulissière (France/Romania)

IDFA Award for Best Youth Film (9-12)
What’s the Film About? - Poorva Bhat (India)
Special Mention
The Invisible Ones - Martijn Blekendaal (Netherlands/Belgium)

Other awards

IDFA Award for Best First Feature
CycleMahesh - Suhel Banerjee (India)

IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film
The Propagandist [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Luuk Bouwman (Netherlands)

Beeld & Geluid IDFA Reframe Award
My Stolen Planet [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Farahnaz Sharifi (Iran/Germany)
Special Mention
Eight Postcards from Utopia [+see also:
film review
interview: Radu Jude, Christian Ferenc…
film profile] - Radu Jude, Christian Ferencz-Flatz (Romania)

FIPRESCI Award
Writing Hawa [+see also:
film review
interview: Najiba Noori, Rasul Noori
film profile] - Najiba Noori (France/Netherlands/Qatar/Afghanistan)

IDFA Forum

IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch
Dry Sky - Ibrahim Omar (Sudan/Egypt)

IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut
Do You Love Me - Lana Y Daher (France/Lebanon)

IDFA DocLab Forum Award
Amorphous - May Abdalla (UK)

IDFA Forum Producers Connection Award
Looking for the Mermaid - Yata Costa (Mozambique)