IDFA 2024 festival report
IDFA is projected to welcome a total of 260,000 visits in 2024. The 37th edition of the festival attracted 162,000 film visits from the general audience and school groups—a growth of over 6% compared to 2023. Attendance for IDFA’s professional program reached approximately 34,000 visits, with nearly 3,000 film professionals participating this year. Throughout the year, IDFA is expected to generate around 64,000 additional visits.
Awards and juries
Guest of Honor
Renowned filmmaker and artist Johan Grimonprez was honored with a Retrospective and a Top 10 program.
IDFA in pictures
Catch a glimpse of the festival experience.
Audience recap
DocLab at the Planetarium
Program publications
Uncover the many layers of the IDFA 2024 program with our print publication, Notes on a festival.
Festival campaign
For the third consecutive year, IDFA has invited artists to create the festival’s campaign, asking them to capture their interpretation of IDFA, the art of documentary filmmaking, or both. This year’s campaign was entrusted to Ehsan Fardjadniya and Raul Balai. The duo, who merge art and activism, crafted a campaign that reflects their critical stance towards cultural institutions—IDFA included—and how they address diversity, inclusion and accountability. From an idyllic picnic scene disrupted by distant explosions to AI-generated symbolism, the campaign is a visual critique of how these social issues are often marketed but not fully embraced.
Read all about the campaign.
Festival trailer
Background articles
Interviews, reports and essays about this year's festival.
- Tracks of history: an interview with the filmmaker behind Trains
- Shaking up the Youth Competition: Niki Padidar’s fresh approach
- Spotlight on Cuba: Writing Sara Gómez back into militant film history
- Dead Angle: illuminating the dark corners of our awareness
- Lessons of Indigenous and anti-colonial practices
Press conference
Our annual press conference was livestreamed from our permanent home, Het Documentaire Paviljoen in Amsterdam. Watch Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia revealing the final competition selections and opening film, as well as Head of IDFA New Media Caspar Sonnen announcing the DocLab program.
IDFA 2024 press conference