IDFAcademy announces participants and program for its 2023 edition

Participants

IDFAcademy will take place from November 9 to 12, 2023. This year’s increasingly international selection reflects the IDFAcademy’s continued effort to support new documentary talent and recognize its diversity. The selection is made up of first- and second-time directors and producers who applied through an annual open call as well as filmmakers invited to the training program through collaborations with assorted European and international institutes. As part of such collaborations, IDFAcademy welcomes six recipients of the IDFA Spotlight Award, given out by IDFA at international festivals and markets throughout the year. A number of participants have been invited to IDFAcademy through the festival’s other training programs and year-round connection with the filmmakers. 18 participating directors and producers previously received support for their projects through the IDFA Bertha Fund. 21 alumni of the project-driven program IDFA Project Space will be returning to Amsterdam this November to participate in IDFAcademy. This year, some of the alumni of the workshop will have the opportunity to present their works-in-progress in the IDFA Project Space showcase. The work-in-progress of four international IDFA Project Space projects will be showcased, alongside six projects of its Dutch counterpart.

Talks

This year’s IDFAcademy program will open with a talk featuring acclaimed film director Anand Patwardhan. IDFA's Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia will have an in-depth conversation with Patwardhan about his expansive oeuvre, spanning six decades, and his films that heralded a new era for India’s independent documentary film. Another talk to look forward to features singular talent and esteemed director-cinematographer Joan Churchill, known for a number of landmark documentaries, including the 1970’s Gimme Shelter. The conversation will expound on the filmmaker’s prodigious career and her collaborations with directors as a cameraperson.

The program presents a mix of talks and sessions with both established filmmakers and fresh new voices whose films have taken the industry by the storm in the last few years. Among highlights in the program is IDFAcademy Talk: Constructing the Personal Narrative where French-Palestinian-Algerian filmmaker Lina Soualem will engage with the dilemmas of capturing personal stories, being able to view the material with necessary distance, and building it into a cinematic film that remains universal. The conversation will spotlight Soualem’s two films Their Algeria (2019) and Bye Bye Tiberias (2023), and will be joined by renowned editor Gladys Joujou, with whom she had teamed up on the two documentaries and moderated by fellow director and editor Qutaiba Barhamji. In another IDFAcademy Talk: Releasing Story, director Lea Glob and seasoned sales agent Maëlle Guenegues will discuss different stages of releasing a documentary film and salient moments that punctuate this process. Glob and Guenegues will reflect on their experience releasing Apolonia, Apolonia, a 13-year portrait of Paris-born painter Apolonia, which went on to premiere at IDFA in 2022 and pick up the festival’s highly coveted Best Film award.

One of the emphases of this year’s IDFAcademy program is an exploration and examination of the director-producer relationship. The program offers several sessions that burrow into the varied aspects of this collaboration, from the legal and production aspects to creative and emotional complexities underpinning the director-producer relationship. Placing the human aspect at the heart of this exploration, IDFAcademy Session: Me & the Filmmaker, led by BACP registered psychotherapist and clinical supervisor Rebecca Day (Film in Mind), also probes the potency of a director and the ripple effect it may have not only on the director’s working relationships but also on a film and its protagonists. The program also aims to equip filmmakers with tools to help them navigate any arising uncertainties or quandaries when signing contracts and co-production deals, and lead with foresight and clarity. IDFAcademy Talk: How to Collaborate in a (co-)production, moderated by IDFA’s Markets Manager Selin Murat, takes a deep dive into the making of Motherland, a Sweden-Ukraine-Norway co-production, with director Hanna Badziaka, co-director and producer Alexander Mihalkovich (Voka Films), and co-producer Mario Adamson (Sisyfos Film Production).

Round tables and professional exchanges

The program also boasts several interactive sessions and round tables, providing a platform for various industry professionals from across the industry to exchange their experiences and expertise on distribution, financing, sales, festival strategies, and much more. In one of such round tables, dubbed IDFAcademy Session: Debunking the myths, professionals will discuss all the nuts and bolts of co-producing: from how to balance the need for funding with a co-production deal, to how to do justice to the differences in economic realities, to basic articles that are ought to be included in a memo-deal for an equitable collaboration.

IDFAcademy Round Tables: Finance and funding will further address the topic of meeting the financial needs and demands of a documentary project. During the dedicated round tables, IDFAcademy participants will be able to meet representatives of different funds to inquire about their support programs and selection process as well delve into the do's and don'ts of writing funding applications.

In IDFAcademy: Pitch & trailer workshop, led by experienced film producer Mikael Opstrup, four participants will have the opportunity to pitch their projects and receive feedback from a panel of industry experts, including commissioning editors Erika Dilday (POV), Jenny Westergard (Yle), sales agent Salma Abdalla (Autlook Film Sales), and editor Qutaiba Barhamji.

Stay tuned

IDFAcademy is thrilled to launch yet another exciting edition this November and is looking forward to welcoming participants from all corners of the globe. The packed program of talks, sessions and round tables is made possible thanks to an active participation and support of a broad spectrum of documentary professionals who are eager to share their experience and knowledge of the industry with new talent.