The 2020 edition of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the world's largest gathering celebrating non-fiction cinema, held its awards ceremony yesterday, both in the Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond and online.

The big winner of this year's festival was Firouzeh Khosrovani's Radiograph of a Family [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film], the recipient of the Award for the Best Feature-length Documentary (a cash prize of €20,000). In detail, the jury, composed of Marie-Pierre Macia, Ed Lachman, Alice Diop, Abdelkader Benali and Finn Halligan, announced the award for the Norwegian-Iranian-Swiss co-production with the following statement: “Radiograph of a Family is literally an X-ray of a family. As discontent grows with politics, many people are seeing their families divided on ideological lines. Through masterful storytelling, Khosrovani shows how history and revolution brought about the political and personal divorce of her parents, a secular father and an increasingly conservative mother. The family space changes over time due to the forces of the outside world. It’s the great accomplishment of the filmmaker that she so subtly and poetically shows how divided politics can divide a room and change it forever. The fractured body of family life is told through images, photos and enactments in such a way that the viewer, too, feels the loss.”

Meanwhile, the Award for Best Directing (€5,000) went to Vitaly Mansky for Gorbachev. Heaven [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Latvia/Czech Republic), and the Award for Best Cinematography (€2,500) was bestowed upon Thomas Imbach's Nemesis [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Switzerland). In the First Appearance section, Alina Gorlova's This Rain Will Never Stop [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alina Gorlova
scheda film] (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany/Qatar) earned the top prize, which was accompanied by the following jury statement: “A striking, beautifully shot and edited film that embarks on the disaster of war through a personal journey and rocks the spectator between furtive moments of joy and pain. This moving film encompasses traditions, modernity, death and the power of moving forward. This Rain Will Never Stop is a powerful story that does not allow us to escape from the destruction and heart-wrenching losses of wars.”

This year, the on-site part of the festival, held in cinemas and other venues, was almost sold out. So far, this edition of the IDFA has racked up over 62,000 online film views and welcomed more than 3,000 online guests. The 2020 edition will wrap on Sunday 6 December.

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

IDFA Competition for Feature-length Documentary

IDFA Award for Best Feature-length Documentary
Radiograph of a Family [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Firouzeh Khosrovani (Norway/Iran/Switzerland)

IDFA Award for Best Directing
Gorbachev. Heaven [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Vitaly Mansky (Latvia/Czech Republic)

IDFA Award for Best Editing
Inside the Red Brick Wall - Hong Kong Documentary Filmmakers (Hong Kong)

IDFA Award for Best Cinematography
Nemesis [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] – Thomas Imbach (Switzerland)

IDFA Competition for First Appearance

IDFA Award for Best First Appearance
This Rain Will Never Stop [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Alina Gorlova
scheda film] – Alina Gorlova (Ukraine/Latvia/Germany/Qatar)
Special Mention
The Last Hillbilly [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Diane Sara Bouzgarrou and Thomas Jenkoe (France/Qatar)

FIPRESCI Award
The Fifth Story – Ahmed Abd (Qatar/Iraq)

IDFA Competition for Mid-length Documentary

IDFA Award for Best Mid-length Documentary
The Wheel - Nomin Lkhagvasuren (Mongolia)
Special Mention
The Blue House – Hamedine Kane (Belgium/Senegal/Cameroon)

IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary
Dealing with Death - Paul Sin Nam Rigter (Netherlands)

IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary
Unforgivable - Marlén Viñayo (El Salvador)

IDFA Competition for Student Documentary

IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary
Boyi-biyo - Anne Bertille Vopiande Ndeysseit (Central African Republic/France)
Special Mention
I Don’t Feel at Home Anywhere Anymore – Viv Li (Belgium/China)

IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs

IDFA Award for Best Children’s Documentary
Shadegan – Ako Salemi (Iran)
Special Mention
An Intermission – Edwin Mingard (UK)

IDFA Competition for Creative Use of Archive

Best Creative Use of Archive
Radiograph of a Family - Firouzeh Khosrovani
Special Mention
Dormant - Natalia Labaké (Argentina)

Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Documentary Stipend
Aboozar Amini (Netherlands/Afghanistan)

Industry awards

IDFA Forum Award for the Best Project
Alis [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] - Nicolas van Hemelryck and Clare Weiskopf (Colombia)

Best Rough Cut Project
We Are Inside [+leggi anche:
recensione
scheda film] - Farah Kassem (Lebanon)
Special Mention
Justice Under Suspicion – Maria Ramos (Brazil)

Best Project Award - IDFA DocLab Forum
Inside: A Journey Into the World of Outsider Artist Judith Scott - Sacha Wares (UK/Canada)
Special Mention
The Pulp - Aubrey Heichemer (Germany)