The 39th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has unveiled the complete line-up of its main competitions. From 12-22 November, the Dutch capital will spotlight a total of 253 titles from 80 countries. The festival kicks off with the world premiere of White Tiger Column, collaboratively directed by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi and Bryan Dickie, an engaged documentary following a group of recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar’s resistance movement. The film is also part of the International Competition and is eligible for IDFA’s First Feature Award.

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This year, the International Competition consists of 13 films, 12 of which are world or international premieres, helmed by established and new voices in the field. The European films celebrating their world premieres include My Worst Enemy’s Mehran Tamadon with his new outing, Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky (France), Hazara Town by Khadim Dai (Belgium/Australia/Germany), Belarusian director Ruslan Fedotov’s Down the River (Germany), Salomé Jashi (Taming the Garden, IDFA 2021) with her new film, An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93 (Georgia), as well as Women and War (Germany/Poland/Ukraine) by Elwira Niewiera, of The Hamlet Syndrome fame (winner of the Locarno 2002 Semaine de la Critique Grand Prix).

The International Competition is also rich in European co-productions being presented for the first time, such as Louis Hothothot’s The Year of the Ghost (Netherlands/China) and Lonan Tché (France/Italy/Ivory Coast/Senegal) by Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou, which are joined by Mangabangabaka (France/Madagascar/Burkina Faso) by Michaël Andrianaly, along with Isabel Joffily and Rita Toledo’s co-directed Morro Grande (Brazil/Netherlands).

The Envision Competition is made up of 13 movies making use of new cinematic languages. The selection thus brings together titles in which form drives the narrative. The European titles are Bahía Honda (Cuba/France/Norway) by Alejandro Alonso Estrella, Ruben Desiere’s Between Revolutions (Belgium/Netherlands), Drop! Cover! Hold On! (Belgium/France) by Stéphanie Roland as well as Rotterdam-based filmmaker Wendelien van Oldenborgh’s Lyrical Vengeance (Netherlands). Also included in the line-up are Anna Falguères’s Memories (Belgium/France), Italian director Riccardo Giacconi’s Memories of Lightning (France/Italy) straight out of Venice’s Giornate degli Autori, and Lina Gorbaneva’s new film, My Own Personal Gulag (Spain). Hailing from Switzerland is Pablo Briones with Ragazzi al fiume. Portuguese filmmaker Miguel Moraes Cabral will present Radiant Mountain (Belgium/Portugal/France), and Ager Oueslati will world-premiere You Don’t Die Two Times (Algeria/Germany/Netherlands).

In addition, the entire IDFA DocLab programme, plus the films selected for the Envision, Luminous and Frontlight strands, as well as the nominees for all cross-sectional awards, have also been announced.

You can browse the detailed list of IDFA’s 2026 line-up here.