The 33rd edition of the Forum co-production and co-financing market of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) unveiled a lineup of 51 projects on Wednesday, “welcoming a new cohort of debut and seasoned filmmakers to the international stage.”
The doc projects were selected from 841 entries for the IDFA Forum 2025, which organizers said “takes place at a time when the world is grappling with multiple overlapping crises affecting every aspect of our lives: from escalating wars and conflicts to political turmoil, social and economic hardships, deepening inequalities, environmental damage — and our recurring failure to learn from the past.”
They added: “As an inherently political art form, documentary cinema has the capacity to explore and examine these issues with depth and nuance.”
Said Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen, head of IDFA Industry. “The selection demonstrates how versatile the domain of the documentary filmmaker and new media artist is. Through the use of inventive cinematic language and formats, these projects bring underexposed stories while also exploring non-narrative expressions, both of which provide context in a society marked by turbulence and uncertainty.”
This year, 24 filmmakers will bring their debut features to Amsterdam. “The lineup maintains gender balance across the formats,” the market highlighted. “Production countries span all continents, with Europe in the lead, followed by Asia, North America, South America, Africa, and Oceania.”
IDFA Forum takes place Nov. 16-19. The festival runs Nov. 12-26.
The market’s Forum Pitch and Producers Connection will feature 33 projects this year. “The selection includes notable filmmakers who make their return to IDFA,” organizers highlighted. “Mohamed Jabaly, whose Life Is Beautiful scooped the IDFA Award for best directing in 2023, will present My Sister Gaza, co-helmed with his siblings Rima and Ibrahim Jabaly, and co-produced with Idioms Film, Palestine, with Elhum Shakerifar serving as executive producer. Punctuated by the rhythms of war, this collaborative film presents a poignant first-person documentation of the daily reality in Gaza in the early days of the genocide, as lived and chronicled by Rima and Ibrahim Jabaly.”
Alexandru Solomon, whose films have screened at IDFA in the past (Cold Waves in 2007, Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula in 2010, and Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife in 2023) returns to pitch Small Expectations, alongside executive producer Ada Solomon of microFILM. “Unfurling during Romania’s electoral race, the documentary follows former civic activist Nicușor Dan who takes the helm of a troubled office,” reads a synopsis.
Sam Howard and Alexander Dickerson-Watson will debut their feature The Video Guy. “From a humble hustle shooting music videos for local rappers, the project morphed into a sprawling decade-long endeavor that follows five African-American youths set to become the next Kendrick, all the while unpacking the hyperreal fantasies, projected onto — and in part perpetuated by the men — and the few paths open to them,” reads a synopsis.
Meanwhile, Loretta van der Horst’s The Documenters, “the labor of gathering evidence of war crimes reveals the perils of ‘witnessing’ along with the inequities of international justice,” while Javier Lovera’s ExCoded centers on “the rise of facial recognition technology and surveillance infrastructures that have penetrated public spaces and personal lives, often escaping scrutiny.”
This year’s IDFA Forum crop also features a number of titles that have been supported by the IDFA
Bertha Fund, including Alyx Ayn Arumpac’s Tongues of Fire, Juan Pablo Polanco’s Trail on the
Water, Luis Gutiérrez Arias, Zaina Bseiso’s Todo Lo Sólido, and Hao Zhou’s All Fixed Up.
Check out the list of projects for the various IDFA Forum sections below:
Forum Pitch
A Film for One, dir. Alexandre Donot-Saby, prod. Valérie Montmartin /Little Big Story
(France), co-prod. Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre /Portage Films (Canada)
All Fixed Up, dir. Hao Zhou, prod. Jenny Wu (China), co-prod. Tyler Hill (United States)
Codename: Guster, dir. Katharina Warda, Jascha Hannover, prod. Alexandre Tondowski/
Tondowski Films (Germany), co-prod. Alexandre Tondowski/Tondowski Films, Thandi Davids/Storyscope (South Africa)
ExCoded, dir. Javier Lovera, prod. Hannah Donegan/Have Magic Media, Marc Serpa Francoeur/
Lost Time Media (Canada)
I’ve Always Said We, dir. Lucia Sanchez, prod. Lucia Sanchez/Les Films d’Ici, Marie Régis/
Anoki (France), co-prod. Michèle Massé (Spain)
Inframince, dir. Alison O’Daniel, prod. Maya E. Rudolph/Louverture Films (United States)
Karsai vs Hungary, dir. Marcell Gerő, prod. Sara László/Campfilm (Hungary), co-prod. Jean Laurent Csinidis/Films de Force Majeure, Mátyás Prikler / MPhilms (Slovakia, France)
Lonesome Land, dir. Virpi Suutari, prod. Virpi Suutari/Euphoria film oy (Finland)
My Name Is Khalil, dir. Bilal Alkhatib, prod. Tania El Khoury/Les films de l’Altaï (Palestine,
France, Lebanon)
Never Arrive, dir. Tenji Takakura, Sansan Liu, prod. Jia Zhao/Muyi Film, Takahito Kanegawa/
Temjin TV Production Co Ltd (The Netherlands, Japan)
Nighthawk, dir. Adam James Smith (China, United States)
Small Expectations, dir. Alexandru Solomon, prod. Ada Solomon/microFILM (Romania), co-prod. Frederik Nicolai (Belgium)
Sundays, dir. Justine Martin, prod. Amélie Tremblay / Nemesis Films (Canada)
Talia After Talia, dir. Pedro Speroni, prod. Tomas Raimondo/El Ojo Silva, Pedro Speroni/El
Ojo Silva (Argentina)
The Face of Power, dir. James Jones, prod. Sasha Odynova, James Jones (United Kingdom)
The Documenters, dir. Loretta van der Horst, prod. Claudio Montesano Casillas/The Waves, Ilja
Roomans/Docmakers (The Netherlands)
The Path That Walks, dir. Efthymia Zymvragaki, prod. Efthymia Zymvragaki/Gris Medio (Spain), co-prod. Iris Lammertsma/Witfilm (The Netherlands), Eirini Makedona Pangkopoulo/Sisilo (Greece)
The White Doctor, dir. Zippy Ms Kimundu/Afrofilms International, prod. Colum McKeown/
Little Wing Films, Zippy Ms Kimundu/Afrofilms International Company Ltd (Kenya, Ireland),
co-prod. Alex Tondowski/Tondowski Films (Germany)
Todo Lo Sólido, dir. Luis Gutiérrez Arias, Zaina Bseiso, prod. Luis Gutiérrez Arias / Bahia
Colectiva, Zaina Bseiso/Bahia Colectiva (Cuba), co-prod. Rémi Grellety/Warboys Films, Sara
Skrodzka/Warboys Films, Daniela Muñoz Barroso/Estudio ST (France)
Untitled Petra Costa Project, dir. Petra Costa, prod. Rémi Grellety/Busca Vida Filmes (Brazil)
Untitled Watermelon Pictures Documentary, editor. Rabab Haj Yahya, prod. Ayah Selene
Producers Connection
Eleven Ears, dir. Yashaswini Raghunandan, prod. Yashaswini Raghunandan (India), co-prod.
Heejung Oh/Seesaw Pictures (South Korea)
Flying Like a Bird, dir. El Mahdi Lyoubi, prod. Hicham Falah / Cinema Salama (Morocco), co-prod.
Marie Dubas/Deuxième Ligne Films, Louise Bansard/GoGoGo Films (France)
Four Comrades, One Echo, dir. Kiva Liu, prod. Kiva Liu (The Netherlands)
Into the Mist, dir. Azadeh Moussavi, Kourosh Ataee, prod. Azadeh Moussavi, Kourosh Ataee/
Fanoos Films (Iran)
My Sister Gaza, dir. Mohamed Jabaly, Rima Jabaly, Ibrahim Jabaly, prod. Mohamed Jabaly/
Palarctic Productions AS (Palestine, Norway), co-prod. Mohanad Yaqubi / Idioms Films (Palestine)
Resisting Residents, dir. Nikos Pilos, prod. Kalafati Dafni/Filmiki S.A (Greece)
Serraria, dir. Ricardo Imakawa, Matias Borgström, prod. Matias Borgström, Ricardo Imakawa/
Salga Filmes (Brazil)
The Pylon and the Lake, dir. Sylvain Yonnet, prod. Cécile Lestrade, Elise Hug/Alter Ego
Production (France)
The Video Guy, dir. Sam Howard, Alexander Dickerson-Watson, prod. Erica Starling Productions
(United Kingdom)
The Black Wedding – 7 Years of Eternal Mourning, dir. Dragan Nikolić, prod. Jovana Nikolić
(Serbia)
Tongues of Fire, dir. Alyx Ayn Arumpac, prod. Alyx Ayn Arumpac/Guerreros (Philippines)
Trail on the Water, dir. Juan Pablo Polanco, prod. Laura Nogal/Los Niños Films (Colombia)
Rough Cut Presentations
Architecture as Invention, dir. Michael Madsen, prod. Per Damgaard Hansen/Paloma
Productions (Denmark), co-prod. Ove Rishøj Jensen/Auto Images, Cecilie Bolvinkel/Auto
Images, Heino Deckert/Majade filmproduktion GmbH (Germany, Sweden)
Bugboy, dir. Lucas Paleocrassas, prod. Rea Apostolides/Anemon Productions, Yuri Averof/
Anemon Productions (Greece), co-prod. Maria Stevnbak Westergren/Toolbox Film ApS, Adam
Leibovitz/Flach Film Production (Denmark, France)
Dreams of the Wild Oaks, dir. Marjan Khosravi, prod. Milad Khosravi/Seven Springs Pictures
(Iran), co-prod. Stephanie von Lukowicz/Lukimedia S.L., Thibaut Amri/Avant la Nuit (France, Spain)
Getting the Message, dir. Neasa Ní Chianáin, prod. David Rane / Soilsiu Films (Ireland), co-prod.
Hanne Phlypo/Clin d’oeil films, Ilja Roomans/Docmakers (Belgium, The Netherlands)
Sweet Belonging, dir. Benjamin Bucher, prod. Olivier Zobrist/Langfilm (Switzerland)
The Cord, dir. Nolwenn Hervé, prod. Estelle Robin You/Grande Ourse Films (France)
DocLab Forum
Amasonic, dir. Marcel van Brakel, M. Cecilia Oliveira, prod. Corine Meijers/Studio Biarritz (The
Netherlands)
Anatomy of Revolution, dir. Lara Baladi, prod. Lara Baladi (Egypt)
Body Count, dir. Cris Bringas, prod. Mica Oliveros, Sönke Kirchhof/INVR.SPACE (Philippines,
Germany)
Cripping Up, dir. Amy Crighton, Meg Fozzard, prod. Meg Fozzard/Unlikely Tangent Studios
(United Kingdom)
Fear City Paradise, dir. Darren Emerson, prod. Dan Tucker / East City Films (United Kingdom)
Ghost Towns, dir. Robin Coops, prod. Floris Smit / UPscaleXR, Robin Coops / Coops&Co (The Netherlands)
I’m in Love With My Testo, dir. Juno Álvarez, prod. Nell Córdova/Cacao Cinema (Spain), co-prod.
Paola Álvarez (Germany)
Inside A Stripper’s Mind, dir. STORRY, prod. Karimah Zakia Issa/KZI Films (Canada)
Like Every Cloud (Zayy Kulli Ghaima), dir. Bentley Brown, prod. Bentley Brown/Aboudigin
Films, Turki Al Mutairi (Chad)
Metramorphosis, dir. Laura Yilmaz, prod. Fanni Fazakas/RumeXR (New Zealand, Hungary)
Reframing Queer Exile, dir. Emma Hamilton, prod. Anne-Lise Miller/Adventice (France)
The Eyes of Mila Kaos, dir. Yimit Ramírez, Tony Alonso, prod. Patricia Pérez Fernández/Free
Hundred Media (Spain), co-prod. Boris Prieto / Vega Alta Films (France)
