IDFA 2023

Festival Reviews

IDFA 2023: The Verdict

by TheFilmVerdict | Nov 20, 2023 | IDFA 2023, Festivals

IDFA 2023 received a staggering dose of real-life events on its opening night; the quality of its film selection and a few political moves helped it recover.

IDFA: The Awards

by TheFilmVerdict | Nov 20, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Shoghakat Vardanyan’s ‘1489’ wins Best Film at IDFA for its humor and humanity in what the jury called “a vivid evocation of 100 years of history in less than 100 minutes of cinema.”

The Burden

by Oris Aigbokhaevbolo | Nov 15, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Elvis Sabin Ngaibino’s IDFA 2023 documentary, ‘The Burden’, walks a familiar path of African misery, but his compelling subjects lends this sophomore feature documentary a deserved poignancy.

14 Paintings

by Ben Nicholson | Nov 15, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023, Verdict Shorts

Just over a dozen artworks are observed in situ in 14 Paintings, a patient but cumulatively fascinating cross-section portrait of contemporary China.

Peter Greenaway at IDFA 2023

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

A star guest at the Dutch documentary festival, 81-year-old art-house provocateur Peter Greenaway discusses his two new feature projects, his fears for the future of cinema, and his own feelings of mortality.

The Kyiv Files

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Dutch director Walter Stokman digs into recently declassified KGB archives in ‘The Kyiv Files’, an uneven but timely documentary about Ukraine, Russia and Cold War paranoia.

As the Tide Comes In

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 14, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Directors Juan Palacios and Sofie Husum Johannesen find beauty and sadness in ‘As the Tide Comes In’, a visually exquisite documentary about a tiny Danish island community menaced by climate change.

Tehachapi

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 13, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

French visual artist and film-maker JR chronicles his grand-scale collaboration with the inmates of a maximum-security prison in his didactic but uplifting documentary ‘Tehachapi’.

Limitation

by Carmen Gray | Nov 13, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

A raw and immediate found-footage assemblage, ‘Limitation’ traces Russia’s hand in the coup that overthrew Georgia’s first post-Soviet president Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

Biljana Tutorov and Melissa Thackway Talk IDFA 2023 and the Power of Archives

by Oris Aigbokhaevbolo | Nov 12, 2023 | IDFA 2023, Festivals

Melissa Thackway and Biljana Tutorov, jury members for the Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award at IDFA 2023, join TFV’s Oris Aigbokhaevbolo, the jury’s third member, in a discussion about the evolution of archives and the festival’s controversial opening night.

Alreadymade

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 12, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Director Barbara Visser explores the controversial links between pioneering Dadaist artists Marcel Duchamp and Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven in her lively, adventurous, unconventional documentary ‘Alreadymade’.

Between Delicate and Violent

by Ben Nicholson | Nov 12, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023, Verdict Shorts

Sirin Bahar Demirel’s stimulating bricolage short, Between Delicate and Violent, combines archival imagery with animation to examine how pictures tell stories and whether they can be mined for truth.

In Wolf Country

by Carmen Gray | Nov 12, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Fear-stoking myths around wolves, back in Germany after a century, are dismantled in Ralf Bücheler’s doc ‘In Wolf Country’, appealing to nature management via science.

Magic Mountain

by Carmen Gray | Nov 9, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

A haunting, poetic doc with political undercurrents, ‘Magic Mountain’ examines a once-grand sanitorium in the Georgian mountains lost to the vultures of capitalism.

This Blessed Plot

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 9, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Director Marc Isaacs takes a bumpy but engaging journey into post-Brexit England in his eccentric docu-fiction pageant ‘This Blessed Plot’.

I Would Like to Rage

by Ben Nicholson | Nov 9, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023, Verdict Shorts

Chloe Galibert-Laine’s latest video essay, I Would Like to Rage, reflects on the place of rage online and through this lens explores the blurred lines between authenticity and performativity

A Picture to Remember

by Carmen Gray | Nov 8, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Olga Chernykh’s poetic, vividly sensorial essay-doc debut ‘A Picture to Remember’ reconstitutes Donetsk as a cinematic site of memories for three family generations of women.

IDFA’s Orwa Nyrabia on Making Space for the Unclassifiable

by Carmen Gray | Nov 8, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

IDFA’s artistic director Orwa Nyrabia talks with TFV critic Carmen Gray about the festival’s role in times of tension, and where documentary might be heading.

While the Green Grass Grows

by Carmen Gray | Nov 8, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Peter Mettler’s multi-layered, monumental cine-diary is a meditation on our obsession with the other side that is as playful and surprising as it is frequently sublime.

IDFA 2023: The Verdict

by TheFilmVerdict | Nov 20, 2023 | IDFA 2023, Festivals

IDFA 2023 received a staggering dose of real-life events on its opening night; the quality of its film selection and a few political moves helped it recover.

IDFA: The Awards

by TheFilmVerdict | Nov 20, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Shoghakat Vardanyan’s ‘1489’ wins Best Film at IDFA for its humor and humanity in what the jury called “a vivid evocation of 100 years of history in less than 100 minutes of cinema.”

The Burden

by Oris Aigbokhaevbolo | Nov 15, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

Elvis Sabin Ngaibino’s IDFA 2023 documentary, ‘The Burden’, walks a familiar path of African misery, but his compelling subjects lends this sophomore feature documentary a deserved poignancy.

14 Paintings

by Ben Nicholson | Nov 15, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023, Verdict Shorts

Just over a dozen artworks are observed in situ in 14 Paintings, a patient but cumulatively fascinating cross-section portrait of contemporary China.

Peter Greenaway at IDFA 2023

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

The Kyiv Files

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 15, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Dutch director Walter Stokman digs into recently declassified KGB archives in ‘The Kyiv Files’, an uneven but timely documentary about Ukraine, Russia and Cold War paranoia.

As the Tide Comes In

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 14, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

Tehachapi

by Stephen Dalton | Nov 13, 2023 | Featured, Festivals, IDFA 2023

French visual artist and film-maker JR chronicles his grand-scale collaboration with the inmates of a maximum-security prison in his didactic but uplifting documentary ‘Tehachapi’.

Limitation

by Carmen Gray | Nov 13, 2023 | Festivals, IDFA 2023

A raw and immediate found-footage assemblage, ‘Limitation’ traces Russia’s hand in the coup that overthrew Georgia’s first post-Soviet president Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

Festival Reviews

Awards Corner