Orwa Nyrabia to step down in 2025 as Artistic Director

Since taking the job in January 2018, Nyrabia and the team of IDFA revamped the festival’s film and industry programs and launched new platforms and initiatives that have become mainstays of the festival, such as the Envision Competition, IDFA On Stage, and the Producers Connection.

Also, during this period, the organization achieved gender parity in its various offers. IDFA’s focus on expanding global representation in the sector was a key aspect throughout his tenure, now embedded into all processes, making it a one-of-a-kind gathering where the film community with all its diversity meet up and feel at home. During the past seven years, IDFA successfully navigated a pandemic, adapted and evolved with the shifting social and political realities, and the ever-changing documentary landscape.

Together with the Board of Directors, Nyrabia oversaw major projects, most significantly the restructuring of IDFA as an institute for documentary culture, and the opening of Het Documentaire Paviljoen, a unique year-round space for IDFA in the heart of Amsterdam.

Orwa Nyrabia comments: "I have always seen this great role as an artistic endeavor, as a responsibility much more important and critical than being merely a job. I recognize a natural ending for it coming up; a good moment for starting a new chapter. My decision is one more way of expressing my love to IDFA and its remarkable team. Change is necessary, especially when at the right moment. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, as a team, and with the global film community, over the past meaningful and challenging years.”

“I am grateful for having been trusted to do this, to work with such a great team, and I will gradually, and happily, return soon to the other side, that of those sending their ideas, films, and funding applications and waiting anxiously, and critically, for answers,” continues Orwa Nyrabia. “I am also full of optimism, and certain that IDFA will grow stronger and sharper with time, no matter from which direction the wind will blow. It is all about this great art, Cinema, about the filmmakers, and all those who need film to heal, to grow, and to see meaning beyond the immediate. I am looking forward to welcoming the world to the 2024 edition of IDFA, and dare to say that it will be one of the best editions ever.”

Marry de Gaay Fortman, Chair of IDFA’s Supervisory Board, thanks Nyrabia for his tremendous and impactful contribution in the last seven years: “His influence in the artistic field lifted IDFA and has driven the festival as well as the organization to places we never knew they existed. Orwa’s vision drives the ambition and while his departure saddens us on the one hand, we also want to give him the opportunity to pursue his ambition and discover new paths. After the festival, IDFA will start the search process for a new Artistic Director. We are thankful that Orwa is here in the transition period until the end of his contract on July 1, 2025."