IDFA 2026: An Interview with Isabel Arrate Fernandez
We spoke to Isabel Arrate Fernandez, artistic director of IDFA, ahead of the 2026 edition of the prestigious documentary festival.
IDFA
A Want in Her
Drawing on her own troubled family background, Irish visual artist and first-time feature director Myrid Carten paints a slightly muddled but emotionally powerful portrait of addiction and depression, shame and blame with ‘A Want in Her’.
“No Ukraine, no Ukrainian movies”: an interview with film director and military commander Oleh Sentsov
The Ukrainian director of accidental one-shot war documentary ‘Real’ talks to The Film Verdict about war and peace, boycotting Russian propaganda, and Donald Trump’s prospects for ending the conflict.
Higher Than Acidic Clouds
Iranian director Ali Asgari delivers an elegant response to government censorship with ‘Higher Than Acidic Clouds’, an achingly beautiful essay-film about memory, imagination and Tehran’s toxic skies.
IDFA 2022: The Awards
Lea Glob’s ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’, an exploration of what’s at stake in an artist’s life, wins the International Competition at IDFA 2022.
Colette and Justin
Alain Kassanda connects Congolese history to family history in this revealing debut documentary.
Money, Freedom, a Story of CFA Franc
Lena Ndiaye’s documentary may be the most important contemporary document on Francophone Africa’s malignant economic relations with France.
Much Ado About Dying
Simon Chambers’ family-filming-family masterpiece is a tender and often funny chronicle of a dying man who secretes his brilliant charisma every moment the camera finds him awake.
Stuntwomen
A fascinating and troubling behind-the-scenes look into the work of female stuntwomen, who must frequently portray victims at the hands of violent men.
Apolonia, Apolonia
A multi-layered, intensely personal exploration of what’s at stake in an artistic life, through a sprawling portrait of French painter Apolonia Sokol.
All You See
A highly stylised, thought-provoking meditation on being stared at without being truly seen, as female immigrants to the Netherlands reflect on their experiences across generations.
Aurora’s Sunrise
A powerful, accessible blend of animation and archive that bears witness to the Armenian genocide through the eyes of survivor and Hollywood silent star Aurora Mardiganian.
F@ck This Job
Vera Krichevskaya’s lively documentary ‘F@ck This Job’ chronicles how a rebellious gang of champagne-loving Moscow socialites ended up running the last independent TV news channel in Putin’s increasingly repressive Russia.
The Last Shelter
A sobering look at African migrants waylaid between their homelands and the dangerous trek to Europe.
A Thousand Fires
Family life in rural Myanmar is intimately explored in this earnest if somewhat obtuse chronicle.
The Hostilities
The winner of Morelia’s best documentary award is a raw, honest chronicle of the violence afflicting Mexico, seen through the lives of the filmmaker’s own family.
Words of Negroes
Workers in an outdated sugar cane factory in Guadeloupe read from the transcripts of an 1842 trial against a slave owner in Sylvaine Dampierre’s powerful act of reclaiming history, Words of Negroes. Stunningly shot by Renaud Personnaz in crisp, vivid images, the film is a documentary only in as much as it’s a work of...
Read more
May God Be With You
The act of exile is never a single-generation event; its ever-mutating ramifications shift down the family tree, undergoing a change as each generation grapples with questions of identity and belonging. Given that the person who flees their country often rejects shared introspection, preferring to contain memories rather than admit to the host of emotions that...
Read more
Marx Can Wait
The most fascinating aspect of Marco Bellocchio’s guilt-streaked revisitation of the suicide of his twin brother in 1968 is the insight it offers into the Italian master’s creative font–his own family.
A Night of Knowing Nothing
A haunting low-fi meditation on memory, social class and political protest that won the Golden Eye documentary award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Listening to Kenny G
One of the best-selling instrumentalists of all time is both unaware and charming in Penny Lane’s engaging documentary.
Tonight’s Homework
Abbas Kiarostami’s trailblazing ‘Homework’ (1989) gets a brilliant update in a documentary that is equal parts hilarious and saddening in its portrayal of Iranian schoolkids.
Darkness There and Nothing More
Tea Tupajic’s documentary will find its audience among those for whom Srebrenica and other European brutalities have never really ended.
Day After…
The second film in Kamar Ahmad Simon’s ‘Water Trilogy’ is redeemed by its selection of characters.
In the Billowing Night
A melancholic, intimate exploration of the personal cost of migration, told by the filmmaker’s father, who left the island of Réunion in his youth.