Amsterdam Doc Fest IDFA Adds Gaza, Laura Poitras Films, Unveils Shorts Competition Titles

IDFA, theInternational Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, on Tuesday unveiled more of the lineup for its 38th edition, including its Short Documentary Competition titles, as well as selections for its Signed, Best of Fests, Current Future, and Paradocs sections, along with the winners of this year’s Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant. Overall, more than 107 films have now been unveiled for the IDFA 2025 program.

The Short Competition section titles are a “mosaic of styles, themes, and perspectives… driven by ambitious directors with singular cinematic voices and a strong artistic vision, organizers said. “Several titles use archival footage to examine memory and political histories. Exploring where childhood memories connect with collective remembrance, Intersecting Memory by [Palestinian filmmaker] Shayma’ Awawdeh presents a powerful portrait of a youth spent under occupation in Palestine’s West Bank. In As I Lay Dying, Mohammadreza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani revisit shaky footage of social protests in Tehran in 2009.”

Meanwhile, IDFA’s Signed section will showcase “the latest cinematic adventures of some of the most original filmmakers of our time.” For example, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’ Cover-Up on Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Also, Gianfranco Rosi will bring his Venice-debuting Below the Clouds to Amsterdam, while Aboozar Amini’s Kabul, Between Prayers presents “an intimate portrait of a Taliban soldier caught between ideology and an unpredictable reality.” In With Hasan in Gaza, which premiered at Locarno, Kamal Aljafari revisits footage of his 2001 road trip through Gaza, “unknowingly capturing fleeting moments of everyday life, a reality now irreversibly altered because of the ongoing genocide,” IDFA said.

The Paradocs section in Amsterdam will showcase explorations into non-fiction filmmaking, including essay film BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions by Kahlil Joseph and Maureen Fazendeiro’s The Seasons.

IDFA’s Best of Fests section will once again showcase other docs from the fest circuit. “Several films in the selection examine the fragile meaning of belonging and home,” organizers highlighted. And the fest’s Current Future youth selection is this year presented as a cross-section program, curated by filmmaker Niki Padidar.

IDFA previously said it would celebrate Portuguese documentary filmmaker Susana de Sousa Dias as its guest of honor for its 2025 edition, which takes place Nov. 13-23, and unveiled films for its curated program Dead Angle, which will this year focus on institutions, and the latest edition of the new media program IDFA DocLab.

Also on Tuesday, the four winners of the Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant were unveiled. They are the installation Life Needs Internet 2010–2025 by Jeroen van Loon, which offers “reflections on our use of the internet over the last decade and a half;” the VR prohect Feedback, un musical antifuturista by Claudix Vanesix, in which “three entities inspired by Peruvian folklore invite the participant to drink a mystical brew” leading to “a psychotropic trip, leaving the safe space of their tipi behind, moving into ancestral sanctuaries and rituals in a sacred huaca;” the installation Gamer Keyboard Wall Piece #2 by Sjef van Beers, which “displays texts and animations” and “challenges the online stereotype of The Gamer;” and the group experience The Oracle: Ritual for the Future (For humans and non-humans) by Victorine van Alphen, in which participants are “entirely surrounded by large screens” and “gradually surrender to a fusion of human, robot, and imagery.”

Below is the complete IDFA short docs competition lineup.

Competition for Short Documentary

Air Horse One, dir. Lasse Linder (Switzerland/Belgium), 21’ – International
Premiere

As I Lay Dying, dir. Mohammadreza Farzad, Pegah Ahangarani (Iran), 15’ – World
Premiere

Auto Queens, dir. Sraiyanti (India), 30’– World Premiere

Blue Silence, dir. Matías Rojas Ruz (Chile), 16’ – World Premiere

Detach, dir. Danielle Kaganov (France), 16’ – World Premiere

Dreams for a Better Past, dir. Albert Kuhn (Netherlands/Spain), 20’ – World
Premiere

Far from Beyrouth, dir. Mon Dewulf (Belgium), 22’ – International Premiere

Infinity River, dir. Gonçalo Pina (Portugal), 23’ – World Premiere

Intersecting Memory, dir. Shayma’ Awawdeh (Palestine/France), 21’ – World
Premiere

kiss kiss bang bang, dir. Ollie Launspach (Netherlands), 28’ – World Premiere

My Sister’s Room, dir. Pauline Doméjean (France), 31’ – World Premiere

Now That We Are Sending You to The End, dir. Blake Knecht (United States), 13’ –
World Premiere

An Open Field, dir. Teboho Edkins (South Africa/France/Germany), 38’ – World
Premiere

Paper Houses and Horses, dir. An Chu (Taiwan), 19’ – World Premiere

Rahhala: Hayya ala Hayya, dir. Lujain Jo (Lebanon/Qatar), 18’ – International Premiere

Triangle, dir. Anaël Dang (France), 31’ – International Premiere