Selection of projects and tutors for IDFA Project Space 2023 announced

From June to September, the program will provide tailored support to the selected projects, each in a different stage of production, adapting the guidance to their creative development and specific needs.

June

The IDFA Project Space program will launch online from May 26 to June 9, offering participants online meetings and Filmmaker Talks—taking inspiration as its starting point. The June program will include a session with psychotherapist and documentary producer Rebecca Day, and Filmmaker Talks with Alina Marazzi (For One More Hour With You) and Lea Glob & editor Andreas Bøggild Monies (Apolonia, Apolonia). Lea is IDFA Project Space alumni (2015 & 2018), having participated with the film Apolonia, Apolonia (2023). Both filmmaker talks are inspired by the challenges the filmmakers faced in dealing with personal stories, following characters for longer periods, and the uses of (archival) footage.

July

The in-person week in Amsterdam, from July 3 to 8, will revolve around developing their projects—with in-depth one-on-one meetings with their assigned tutors. We are thrilled to share the renowned tutors for IDFA Project Space 2023: Editors Ollie Huddleston, Gladys Joujou, Anne Fabini; editor-director Qutaiba Barhamji; producers Gitte Hansen and Bianca Oana, directors Ester Gould and Audrius Stonys.

Participants will also be invited to exchange experiences and feedback with each other, and to be inspired by the accomplished directors, editors, and producers present as tutors. The filmmakers selected for the Dutch speaking workshop IDFA Project Space NL will also kick-off their program this week. These filmmakers, as well as a variety of Dutch filmmakers, will be invited to attend the week’s screenings and talks.

September

The program will conclude during a week in September, with an online program to follow up on the projects process— made up of additional talks and meetings.

During IDFA

Participants of IDFA Project Space will be invited to attend IDFAcademy during IDFA in November with a free accreditation. This will help continue the development of the project and connect the participants to the documentary industry.

50 Meters
Egypt – dir. Yomna Khattab
50 Meters features Yomna the female director making her debut film about her father and his water aerobics team, a group of men over sixty, as her way to approach her father in a confined pool. Will she be able to regain her own life narrative, find reconciliation, and move forward with her life choices in such a patriarchal society?

Ashes Settling in Layers on the Surface
Ukraine - dir. Zoia Laktionova - IBF Selected Project
Based on diaries and photographs found in the houses destroyed during the Russian war against Ukraine, the film captures the stories of Mariupol, including that of the director’s family. It centers on the value of freedom and human life itself over the nonsensical statements repeated by totalitarian regimes, as witnessed throughout the history of the Azovstal plant.

Don't Call Me Mad
United Kingdom – dir. Zora Kuettner
After uncovering never-before-seen archive her psychologist father filmed decades ago, director Zora Kuettner discovers the impact of his radical treatment of mental illness and how it holds up 30 years on.

Like a flame lit on a dark night
Costa Rica – dir. Carolina Arias Ortiz - IBF Selected Project
In the ‘70s, nurses traveled through the mountains of Costa Rica to the sound of the mysticism and poetry of Dr. Ortiz. Together they built the innovative community health program "hospital without walls". How to integrate the memory of a macho grandfather with the image of the revolutionary doctor?

Losing tails and the afterlife of forgetting
Netherlands, Bosnia-Herzegovina – dir. Stefan Pavlović, Temra Pavlovic
Two sibling filmmakers look at the vacation footage their father filmed during the weeks spent with him each year. To entertain them on the road trip, he asked, “Why is music so much more powerful than geology?” Now, some twenty years later, through the categories of ‘music’ and ‘geology,’ the brother and sister ask themselves what they see, what they remember, and, through filmmaking, attempt at a means of collective memory.

Morro Grande
Brazil – dir. Isabel Joffily - IBF Selected Project
Scientific research indicates a correlation between long exposure to pesticide and depression cases. Armed with this knowledge, Rodolpho, a young novelist, returns to the rural farming town where he was born to investigate suicides in the community.

Sweet Belonging
Switzerland, China - dir. Benjamin Bucher
Torn between family, countries, cultures, obligations, and her own aspirations, Joyce, a young and talented Chinese-Gabonese dancer, embarks on a quest for identity and the freedom she has so far only felt when dancing.

Until the Buzzing Stops
United Kingdom, Lebanon – dir. Abd al Kader Habak
Can bees, a camera, and a newfound friendship turn a traumatic past into a prosperous future?

We Are Volcanoes
Hong Kong – dir. Natalie Chao, Sharon Yeung
The logline for the project is not available.

Witch!
Denmark, Sweden – dir. Emil Nørgaard Munk
This is a film about whether there’s any room for magic in modern society. Main character Andrea Hejlskov is trying to change the world from her position as a writer, public debater, and a teacher of witchcraft. Fighting her schizophrenia, she has to balance saving herself and the society surrounding her.

Untitled Project
India - IBF Selected Project
The logline for the project is not available.

Fakir
Slovakia – dir. Roman Ďuriš
On the escape from the traumatic past, Dalibor hides in the nomadic circus. Fascinated by the magic of circus artistry, he finds his own creative way that helps to overcome his inner pain.

Hawa
France – dir. Najiba Noori, Rasul Ali Noori
40 years after her arranged marriage as a child, Hawa is eager to finally begin an independent life and to be literate. With the return of the Taliban to power, however, her dreams, and those of her daughter and grand-daughter, are shattered.

Light Memories
Ecuador – dir. Misha Vallejo Prut - IBF Selected Project
Family issues, if not solved, recur is the premise that drives Misha, a young photographer, to challenge his own family’s history only to understand that memory has multiple facades.

A Picture to Remember
Ukraine – dir. Olga Chernykh - IBF Selected Project
Twice displaced by war, a pathologist, and her filmmaker daughter—originally from Donetsk—attempt to find something to hold onto in life in order to cope with the recurring loss caused by death and war.

Untitled Project
Myanmar - dir. Min Min Hein
The logline for the project is not available.