Wednesday, November 29----Alan Berliner, the American documentarian who is the Special Guest of the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), will be giving a Master Class on his approach to filmmaking today. In honor of Berliner's presence in Amsterdam, here is part two of an Interview conducted last week by Online Festival Dailies Editor Sandy Mandelberger with the man himself.
Sandy Mandelberger (SM): In your newest film WIDE AWAKE, which is screening at IDFA, you deal very...
Tuesday, November 28----With Amsterdam experiencing a rare warm wave in late November, and with Christmas lights and decorations going up all over the city, the beauty of this special place, especially at night, is pleasing to the eye and warming to the soul. A few impressions.....
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Tuesday, November 28---Director Michael Apted swung into Amsterdam for a brief junket, mainly to introduce the screening of his latest film MARRIED IN AMERICA 2, the second entry in his ambitious series about being married in america. The film had its world premiere at IDFA on Sunday evening. Following the same methodology that he has used in his very successful 7 UP series (which has been following the same group of people every seven years since they were seven), MARRIED IN AMERICA 2 follow...
Monday, November 27---Aside from the extensive public events and screenings here at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), a number of professional events are in high gear as the Festival moves into its mid-way point.
The IDFA FORUM, a co-production and financing networking extravaganza, creates networking opportunities for a number of selected documentary producers and directors, who get a chance to pitch and dialogue with visiting commissioning television editors, dis...
Monday, November 27----Nick Broomfield has won or been nominated for every award in the book in his varied career. He won a BAFTA Award for SOLDIER GIRLS (1981). His unforgettable portrait of serial killer Aileen Wuornos in the celebrated AILEEN WUORNOS: THE SELLING OF A SERIAL KILLER (1992) and its follow up AILEEN: LIFE AND DEATH OF A SERIAL KILLER (2002) were nominated for prizes from the European Film Academy, the International Documentary Association and the Sundance Film Festival. The l...
Monday, November 27----Three of the fifteen documentary feature films selected by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as contenders for this year's Best Documentary Oscar are associated with the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA). The 79th Academy Awards will be given out on Sunday, February 27, 2007 in Los Angeles.
SISTERS IN LAW, co-directed by Kim Longinotto and Florence Ayisi, opened last year's Festival and also copped the prestigious IDFA Audi...
Sunday, November 26----The on-going struggle of combatting AIDS in Africa is the focus of UK director Paul Taylor's powerful film WE ARE TOGETHER, which is having its world premiere screening this evening at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (idfa). The film, a debut by its director, is competing in the First Appearances section of the Festival.
The devastation of the AIDS epidemic is told through the story of a 12 year old South African girl named Slindile, who lives at ...
Sunday, November 26----Geoffrey McNab reported yesterday in the printed IDFA Dagkrant Daily about a new online outlet for documentary films. Lychee-Films.com, founded a few months ago by the Belgian team of Regina De Martelaare and Barend Wayens, is set to provide a "comprehensive international sales channel for non-commercial films, DVDs, CDs and books about film.". The site will also allow film sellers to post information on their film library, along with links and video trailers.
The init...
Sunday, November 26---American documentarian Alan Berliner, who is receiving a Retrospective of his films here at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (idfa), has also been invited to choose and screen his Top Ten Picks of the best documentaries ever made. That list has since expanded to 11 titles, and in the first of two interviews with Online Festival Dailies Editor Sandy Mandelberger, the director explains his choices and other inspirations in his unique career. Berliner, a ...
Saturday, November 25----The Dutch documentary FOREVER by Heddy Honigmann has been recognised with a Crystal Film Award for achieving over 10,000 tickets sold since its release. The award will be presented at IDFA on Monday, November 27 in the Filmmuseum, prior to the screening of the film.
FOREVER is a film about the power and vitality of art and about a place where beauty lives on: the Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. The film already won a Golden Calf for Best Documentary at The Netherla...
2004 VPRO Joris Ivens Award Winners for STAND VAN DE MAAN
Saturday, November 25----Members of the juries for the major competitions at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) have begun their process of screening films in contention and evaluating their worthiness for a series of top awards. Jurors in four separate competition categories will be among the busiest people as the Festival enters its first big weekend of screenings and events.
In the Joris Ivens Competition, ...
Friday, November 24---Among the more than 2000 international guests expected at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), which opened last evening, are veteran directors Michael Apted and Jennifer Fox, both of whom have new film projects making their debuts at the event.
Michael Apted, whose career has embraced both narrative and documentary features, will be giving a Press Conference on Monday, November 27 at the Salon de Balie, IDFA's headquarters. Apted will be represen...
Thursday, November 23----One of the exciting events of the Opening Night festivities of the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the international premiere of acclaimed American director Spike Lee's moving opus WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS.
The film, which was produced by television cable giant Home Box Office and had its world premiere last month to honor the first anniversary of the devastation in New Orleans due to Hurricane Katrina, will be shown in ...
Thursday, November 23----The International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), the largest showcase and market for non-fiction films, kicked off in high style this evening, with the world premiere of the film 4 ELEMENTS, the feature directorial debut of Dutch director Jiska Rickels.
Throngs crowded the City Cinemas for two almost parallel screenings of the film (one beginning at 8:00pm, the other beginning at 8:30pm), followed by the Festival's Opening Night bash....one of the major events o...
Wednesday, November 22---A financial assistance fund that has helped several dozen documentary films from developing countries get made over the past 10 years is having its future status debated during the upcoming International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), the largest showcase of international documentaries on the festival circuit.
The Jan Vrijman Fund, founded by IDFA in 1998, has provided financial funding to 36 projects from 29 countries, investing a total sum of over US $5...
Tuesday, November 21---Those interested in the renaissance of non-fiction films are turning their attention to Amsterdam, where the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) launches its 14th session this coming Thursday. IDFA has become the most important showcase and market for documentary film, making its main competition section a critical platform for international films.
This year's Joris Ivens Competition, named in honor of the documentary pioneer, is among the strongest...
Helen Mirren at New York Film Festival
Monday, November 20----The London Observer has reported that the documentary film THE ANGELMAKERS, which won the Silver Wolf Award at the 2005 IDFA for Dutch director Astrid Bussink, will be made into a feature film starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt. The film will be a fictionalized version of the gripping short documentary, which investigated the story of the mysterious killing by hundreds of women of their husbands in a small Hungarian village in the...
Monday, November 20----One of the unique professional programs at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), which will begin this coming Thursday, is the IDFA Forum, a major co-production and co-financing professional conference that parallels the public screening event. The Forum is Europe's largest gathering of television commissioning editors and independent documentary producers.
IDFA first organized the Forum in 1993, as a way for documentary producers to interest bro...
The International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA), which begins next week, will be a bell weather on the current state of the art of non-fiction film and video production. High on its priority list is the charting of technological innovations that are transforming the medium. IDFA will present three exciting programs that will help attending filmmakers, distributors and new media mavens examine the changes ahead in the media landscape.
To focus attention on how the "new media" will...
The dramatic economic growth amidst potent political struggles makes the People's Republic of China one of the most fascinating countries in the world today. Along with the growth of the Chinese film industry as a whole, documentaries from the country of almost 2 billion people have also become objects of fascination. Even more than the fiction films emerging from the former "Red China", non-fiction works portray the conflicts and opportunities as China emerges as one of the most powerful and i...
Innovative American documentary filmmaker Alan Berliner will be a Special Guest of the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (idfa), the leading showcase and market for non-fiction film. The Festival, which brings together film, television and industry professionals, as well as a local enthusiastic audience, opens on November 23 in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Berliner has been chosen as a Master of Documentary and will give a special lecture on his varied film...
One of the ways that the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (known as IDFA for short) has built strong loyalties with the local audience and visiting professionals is the platform it offers for documentary films of local filmmakers.
The first such showcase will be the Opening Night Film, to screen on November 23, of 4 ELEMENTS by Jiska Rickels. The film mixes documentary technique with visual poetry, which illustrates man's battle with his environment. The film focuses on four...
Amsterdam At Night
Monday, October 30----The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, one of the most prestigious film events devoted to the non-fiction form, will take place this year from November 23 to December 3, 2006 in the beautiful city of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.
Known for its acronym of IDFA, the Festival brings together filmmakers, buyers, programmers, critics and the general public in a mix of professional and audience events that highlight the trends and accomplishme...
