Reason wins the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary

Tonight we had the great pleasure of announcing the award-winners in the IDFA competition programs. The award ceremony for the 31st edition of the festival took place in Amsterdam's Stadsschouwburg.

Reason by Anand Patwardhan won the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, and Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary.

Giacinto Scelsi. The First Motion of the Immovable by Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva was awarded the IDFA Award for Best First Appearance, and Kabul, City in the Wind by Aboozar Amini won the IDFA Special Jury Award for First Appearance.

The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary went to 'Now something is slowly changing' by mint film office. But Now Is Perfect by Carin Goeijers received the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary. At the beginning of the evening, Reber Dosky presented the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds Documentary Stipend (€ 50.000) to filmmaker Sophie Dros.

On the evening of Friday, November 23, the winner of the VPRO IDFA Audience Award will be announced.

Anand Patwardhan won the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (€ 15.000) with Reason (India). The film is a broad-ranging examination of Indian society, where secular rationalists are hunted down as they attempt to stem the rising tide of religious and nationalist fundamentalism.

"The IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary is unanimously given to Reason by Anand Patwardhan for the epic storytelling of the rise of the far right in one of the most populated countries of this planet, the violence of religious and ultranationalist militias with the support of authorities and dominant medias, the dignity of resistance in multiple forms, often at life-cost, in a way that acknowledges the complexity of the situation but put it in a very understandable shape," the jury reported.

In addition, the jury presented the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary (€ 2.500) to Los Reyes (Chile, Germany) by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff. In this almost fairy-tale-like film, the phenomenal, dreamlike camerawork centers almost entirely on the subtle interaction between two dogs, as they play with a ball, a stick, a stone, and each other.

"The IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary goes to Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Iván Osnivikoff (Chile, Germany) for the creative and beautiful way it displaces the viewer gaze by associating a sensible look at non-human wonderful characters and the soundtrack that connects daily lives of animal and human stray dogs," the jury said.

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary this year were Daniela Elstner, Jean-Michel Frodon, Tala Hadid, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, and Alina Marazzi.

Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva won the IDFA Award for Best First Appearance (€ 10.000) for Giacinto Scelsi. The First Motion of the Immovable (France, Italy).

Aboozar Amini won the IDFA Special Jury Award for First Appearance, in memory of Peter Wintonick (€ 2.500) for Kabul, City in the Wind (Netherlands, Afghanistan, Japan, Germany).

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for First Appearance this year were Catherine Dussart, Ross McElwee, Avi Mograbi, Jean Perret, and Adina Pintilie.

Made possible by the Friends of IDFA.

The IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (€ 10.000) was awarded to Andrei Kutsila for Summa (Poland, Belarus).

The IDFA Special Jury Award for Mid-Length Documentary (€ 2.500) went to In Touch (Poland, Iceland) by Pawel Ziemilski.

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Mid-Length Documentary this year were Leah Giblin, Everardo Gonzalez, and Marc Isaacs.

Ross Goodwin won the IDFA DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling (€ 5.000) for 1 the Road (United States).

The jury members for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling this year were Dries Depoorter, Joël Ronez, and Mandy Rose.

The IDFA DocLab Award for Immersive Non-Fiction (€ 5,000) went to Eat | Tech | Kitchen (Netherlands, United States) by Klasien van de Zandschulp and Emilie Baltz.

The jury members for the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction this year were Mads Damsbo, Ali Eslami, and Luna Maurer.

The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary (€ 7.500) went to 'Now something is slowly changing' by mint film office.

Carin Goeijers received the IDFA Special Jury Award for Dutch Documentary (€ 2.500) for But Now Is Perfect.

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary this year were Catherine Bizern, Eduardo Escorel, and Alisa Lebow.

Made possible by the Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid.

I Signed the Petition (United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland) by Mahdi Fleifel won the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary (€ 5.000).

The IDFA Special Jury Award for Short Documentary (€ 2.500) went to And What Is the Summer Saying (India) by Payal Kapadia.

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary this year were Catherine van Campen, Inadelso Cossa, and Haruka Hama.

Beryl Magoko won the IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary (€ 5.000) for In Search... (Germany, Kenya).

The IDFA Special Jury Award for Student Documentary (€ 2.500) was presented to Dana Gelman for Backwards (Israel).

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary this year were Klaudiusz Chrostowski, Serra Ciliv, and Pauline Terreehorst.

The IDFA Award for Best Children’s Documentary (€ 5.000) went to Dancing for You (Poland) by Katarzyna Lesisz.

Martijn Blekendaal received the IDFA Special Jury Award for Children’s Documentary (€ 2.500) for The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon (the Netherlands).

The jury members for the IDFA Competition for Kids & Docs this year were Ingvil Giske, Pawel Lozinski, and Shamira Raphaëla.

The IDFA competition program 2018 is made possible by Ammodo.

Los Reyes, winner of the IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary, and Kabul, City in the Wind, winner of the IDFA Special Jury Award for First Appearance, received support from the IDFA Bertha Fund Europe International Co-production program, made possible by Creative Europe Media Program and Bertha Foundation.

Photo: Nichon Glerum