IDFA Artistic Director Isabel Arrate Fernandez On Festival’s Competition Lineups, “Huge” Interest In Elizabeth Holmes Doc, And AI In Documentaries

The 39th edition of IDFA – the world’s biggest nonfiction film festival – is underway in Amsterdam, gathering the documentary field’s top talents, Oscar seekers and emerging filmmakers with dynamic work. “It’s hectic, all the last-minute things,” artistic director Isabel Arrate Fernandez told Deadline just before the kickoff. “From the lineup competitions to also the industry program we have, there are many exciting things going on.” The opening night slot Friday evening goes to White Tiger Column, a world premiere directed by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, and Bryan Dickie that’s set within the resistance movement opposing Myanmar’s military-dominated regime. The festival calls it “a striking example of documentary cinema… The film offers a moving portrait of a courageous generation.” ‘White Tiger Column’ Courtesy of IDFA White Tiger Column is programmed in International Competition, along with films from Morocco, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Brazil, France, Germany, the Republic of Georgia, and other countries. An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93, directed by Salomé Jashi, examines a critical moment for Georgia in 1993 when the country, recently freed from Soviet domination, debated measures to replace the Russian ruble. Considering Vladimir Putin’s attempt to reassert Russian dominance over much of the old USSR – including Ukraine – it’s a film with immediate relevance. Watch on Deadline A baker’s dozen of features is programmed in the festival’s Envision section, which platforms films with bold stylistic choices. “The way we look at both of our competitions,” Arrate Fernandez notes, “they are of equal value… In Envision, we are really looking at filmmakers that are challenging documentary, are challenging the form.” Arrate Fernandez adds, “If we don’t have that, then how does a genre, how does cinema evolve?” ‘Ragazzi al fiume’ Courtesy of IDFA One of the Envision titles, Ragazzi al fiume, examines the experience of three young Afghan immigrants to Switzerland. The IDFA program notes the documentary directed by Pablo Briones “gradually evolves into an observational portrait of isolation, loss, and the longing for a peaceful future.” Fellow Envision Competition documentary The Black Box Is Orange focuses on the Israeli town of Shlomi that “was built on land belonging to the destroyed Palestinian village of Al-Bassa, near the Lebanese border,” according to the IDFA program. “Beginning with the Nakba mass displacement of Palestinians in 1948, its residents were forced out and citizens of the newly established state of Israel were settled there. All traces of the previous inhabitants were to be destroyed, including all Palestinian archives.” Filmmaker Yuula Benivolski as a girl in ‘The Black Box Is Orange.’ Courtesy of IDFA That film is directed by Yuula Benivolski, an Israeli Jewish filmmaker born in Canada and raised in the village of Shlomi. (Two years ago, she posted a video on YouTube discussing her decision to renounce her Israeli citizenship. “It wasn’t a decision I made lightly… Yes, I did it in response to Israel’s horrific assault on Gaza,” she explained, before adding, “Whether Israel realizes it or not, all this death harms its own people as well.”). More than 250 films are programmed across the festival’s sections. Among them are some of the strongest contenders for Oscars, including To Hold a Mountain, the Sundance winner directed by Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić; Once Upon a Time in Harlem, directed by David Greaves and based upon material shot by his father, William Greaves (this festival is separately screening a large selection of William Greaves’s work); Musk, directed by Alex Gibney; Closure, directed by Michał Marczak, and You Can See Everything, the box office sensation about Elizabeth Holmes that’s directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. Do they know the imprisoned Theranos founder in the Netherlands? Maybe so, maybe not, but enthusiasm for the film has certainly crossed the Atlantic. Elizabeth Holmes in ‘You Can See Everything.’ A24 /Courtesy Everett Collection Interest in You Can See Everything “has been huge,” Arrate Fernandez affirms. “The festival screenings sold out very quickly… It’s definitely generated some attention, to put it mildly.” IDFA has become an increasingly important stop for filmmakers in Oscar contention, in part because of the plethora of Academy documentary branch voters who are expected to attend. (“It’s difficult to count them, I can tell you,” Arrate Fernandez notes. “Let’s see.”). Last year’s winner in IDFA’s International Competition, A Fox Under a Pink Moon, has become a leading contender for Oscar consideration this year. (That film’s protagonist and co-director, the young artist Soraya Akhlaghi, designed this year’s IDFA’s poster and contributed artwork used in the festival trailer. Watch it below). Arrate Fernandez mentions other films in the 2026 IDFA lineup making a strong bid for Oscar recognition. ‘Rehearsals for a Revolution’ Sony Pictures Classics “The winner of Cannes, Rehearsals for a Revolution; Traces, a Ukrainian film talking about sexual assault as a war crime against women; Closure, NAZA… there are many interesting films there that I hope will make it,” she says. “Even though they are not the films with the bigger budgets and everything for their campaigning, I really hope they get far.” 14th, another top Oscar contender that will screen at IDFA, is among the documentaries that make use of AI – in the case of Ava DuVernay’s film, to animate vintage photographs. For the first time ever, the artistic director tells us, IDFA asked filmmakers to complete a form indicating if they had incorporated AI into their film’s production. “Last year, we noticed that sometimes we were wondering while watching films and now we have this, we can go back and see what they filled out just to understand,” Arrate Fernandez comments. “But also, it’s part of the conversations that are taking place with regards to how to use [AI], what is acceptable? There are so many questions, so I think that really [speaks] to conversations that are being held within the industry.” ICE deportation flights in ‘They’re Here’ Arte France To that end, IDFA will be hosting two panel discussions on AI, part of a robust lineup of industry talks. A panel titled “Fighting Back – Cinema as an act of resistance?” will feature Oscar winner Laura Poitras, who is bringing They’re Here to IDFA, a short film she directed with Rachel Lauren Mueller that examines the fatal ICE surge in Minneapolis. Fellow panelists include Sofía Bordenave, director of Forest Up in the Mountain, and Mohanad Yaqubi, director of Revolutionaries Never Die. Fernandez is slated to moderate a conversation with this year’s IDFA Guest of Honor, filmmaker Tatiana Huezo. This is the second year of Arrate Fernandez’s leadership as artistic director. Last year, she faced questions after IDFA revealed it would not invite to the festival what it considered to be Israeli state-supported organizations, such as DocAviv. On its website, IDFA spells out its position under a section titled “Principles and guidelines” governing the 2026 festival. “For films, makers, and organizations from countries where freedom of expression is under pressure or human rights are violated, it is essential to assess and investigate their independence carefully, alongside the artistic selection process,” IDFA writes. “In this way, we aim to prevent governments and organizations involved in and/or suspected of serious human rights violations from gaining a platform at IDFA.” The IDFA policy statement continues, “Films, makers, and organizations are never excluded on the basis of their origin and/or nationality, but rather on the basis of any possible relationship with regimes or organizations held internationally accountable for serious human rights violations.” Arrate Fernandez tells Deadline, “We also really looked at what we did last year, how we’re implementing things, what are our internal processes. And basically, for… a film work or a film project, everything just went through the regular route of being evaluated by our different teams of programmers on the creative criteria. And the moment that films make it through the different phases and end up on a short list, then in cases of countries… that are known for human rights violations, we check the independence of this film or of this project in the sense of also going about checking credits, who are financiers. At the same time, it’s not a blanket approach in the sense of, ‘Oh, this financier, it’s out.’ We also look at the film, so we still have our case-by-case approach.” She continued, “Then in terms of accreditations… we have the similar line in the sense of having this case-by-case approach.” American Israeli filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones (Advocate) will be presenting her new project, Podium (You Have Three Minutes), at IDFA Forum, the event’s pitching, co-financing and co-production market for nonfiction and new media projects. Logline: “What does resistance sound like when delivered from the parliamentary podium? Since Israel’s founding, Palestinian lawmakers have taken the mic to appeal, demand, denounce, and warn — articulating a powerful counter-history of the state itself.” ‘Collapse’ Courtesy of IDFA Avi Mograbi, described in the IDFA program as “one of Israel’s most distinguished filmmakers,” heads to the festival for the Dutch premiere of his short documentary Wild Asparagus (Halayon), which bowed at the Venice Film Festival. In Collapse, Israeli director Anat Even returns to Kibbutz Nir Oz, where she lost her home and friends in the Hamas sneak attack of October 7, 2023. She films what remains there and also attempts to enter Gaza, documenting “a gathering of settlers who plan to build in Gaza and proclaim this by chanting, ‘Occupy, expel, settle,’” the festival program reads. “An introspective and revealing film essay on loss, grief, revenge, dehumanization and indifference.” (The program description includes this note: “This film contains content on potentially sensitive topics.”). The production company for Collapse is listed as France. “You won’t find films that have as a production country Israel” in this year’s festival, Arrate Fernandez indicates, “but there are Israeli filmmakers. The thing is also that we don’t ask people for their nationality… We have several films that are taking place in Israel and others that are taking place in Palestine or in the Occupied Territories.” Just about every corner of the globe is reflected in the festival lineup. IDFA runs through November 22, a chance for documentary filmmakers and lovers of the form to gather in person in one of the world’s great cities. Says Arrate Fernandez, “In a world where storytelling is being formatted by decision makers, AI, algorithm, numbers, I think it’s important to treasure these spaces.” You can watch the festival’s trailer here, featuring the contributions of the team behind A Fox Under a Pink Moon, including artist, protagonist and co-director Soraya Akhlaghi, co-director Mehrdad Oskouei, and composer Afshin Azizi