# International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world's largest documentary film festival held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

## Description

IDFA is an independent, international meeting place for audiences and professionals to see a diverse (in form, content, and cultural background) program of high-quality documentaries. IDFA selects creative and accessible documentaries, which offer new insights into society. By 2009, IDFA had achieved the reputation of the most important doc fest. Every year in November, the festival takes place over the period of 11 days, in more than 40 venues around the city, welcoming an audience of 295.000 (2019), and a record number of documentary film professionals, as over 3500 gather for the festival, from more than 100 countries every year.
The festival was initially held at the Leidseplein area in the centre of Amsterdam. It has since spread to a number of other locations, including the Tuschinski Theatre and EYE Filmmuseum. Apart from its international film program, the variety of genres, and the many European and world premieres featured each year, the festival also hosts debates, forums, and workshops. Since 2007, the festival's New Media program IDFA DocLab showcases the best interactive non-fiction storytelling and explores how the digital revolution is reshaping documentary art. By that year, IDFA had grown to an audience of 145,000.
In addition to the festival, IDFA has developed several professional activities, contributing to the development of filmmakers and their films at all stages. At the co-financing and co-production market IDFA Forum filmmakers and producers pitch their plans to financiers; at Docs for Sale new documentaries are on offer to programmers and distributors; the IDFA Bertha Fund supports filmmakers and documentary projects in developing countries, and the IDFAcademy offers international training programs for up-and-coming doc talents.

## History

IDFA was founded as a successor to the Festikon, a festival of educational cinema founded by the Dutch Film Institute in 1961 and closed in 1987 due to the lack of interest of the audience. Menno van der Molen, Festikon's director, envisioned the new festival, entirely dedicated to documentaries. Van der Molen invited Ally Derks, who had joined Festikon's team as an intern in 1985, to prompt the idea and create IDFA. Derks headed IDFA from 1988 until 2017, when she stepped down. First colleagues that were invited to join the team were Derks' fellow Theatre and Film Studies graduates Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen and Willemien van Aalst. As the festival's undoubted leader, Derks was nicknamed ‘Madam IDFA’ and ‘the High Priestess of Documentaries’, her vision was the one that shaped the event's program and profile for almost 30 years. In 2001, she installed 7 official ‘pre-selectors’, the Dutch film professionals, who evaluated the submissions and chose 500 that would qualify for further evaluation by Derks.
IDFA has always been politically charged and prioritised the socio-cultural impact of documentary cinema. As explained by the team, it was opened to “to be a platform for voices that are usually not listened to”.
In 2013, IDFA inaugurated the Emerging Voices from Southeast Asia program.
In 2016, Derks announced stepping down. In almost three decades under her rule, IFDA grew into the largest and most prestigious doc festival in the world. After Derks' resignation, Barbara Visser oversaw the 2017 edition as interim director. In January 2018, Syrian film producer Orwa Nyrabia was appointed new artistic director of IDFA.
At the opening ceremony in held on 8 November 2023 in the shadow of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, three activists burst onto the stage and waved a sign saying "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free", to show solidarity with the people of Gaza. The audience, which included the festival director Orwa Nyrabia, applauded the activists. On 10 November members of Israel's film community condemned the use of the slogan and Nyrabia's applause. Following the IDFA's official apology, the Palestinian Film Institute withdrew its three documentaries from the festival and started a petition in protest. In the aftermath, Orwa Nyrabia was forced to resign after the 2024 edition.

## Prizes

In the first few years the festival had only the Joris Ivens competition. By 2007, it had four competition programs and the Audience Award, but the Joris Ivens Award (for feature-length documentaries) remained the main prize. Films in competition films must be world, international, or European premieres. The Joris Ivens Award was renamed the IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary after the 2008 edition, it was presented annually until 2020.
In 2021, IDFA announced a new program structure and introduced new central sections: Envision and International Competitions for over 40 and 60 min, respectively, flanked by several cross-section awards (Best Dutch Film, Best First Feature and ReFrame Award). As before, only premieres are allowed to compete in the main competition.
The best new documentaries of the year compete in IDFA's main competition programs:
* The IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary for best documentary longer than 70 minutes (€15,000 prize) + Special Jury Award
* The IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary for best documentary between 40 and 70 minutes (€10,000 prize) + Special Jury Award
* The IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary for best documentary under 40 minutes (€5,000 prize) + Special Jury Award
* The IDFA Award for Best First Appearance for best debut film (€10,000 prize) + Special Jury Award
* The IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary for best student documentary from film academies around the world (€5,000 prize) + Special Jury Award
* The Beeld en Geluid IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary for best Dutch documentary (€7,500 prize) + the Special Jury Award
* The Peter Wintonick Special Jury Award for First Appearance (inaugurated 2013, €7,500 prize).
Alongside the competition programs, five awards are awarded during IDFA:
* VPRO IDFA Audience Award for best film as voted by the audience (prize €5,000);
* Amsterdam Human Rights Award for the documentary that best depicts the theme of human rights (€25,000 prize);
* Prins Bernard Cultuurfonds Documentary Scholarship, a €50,000 grant for a documentary talent, allowing the recipient to make a documentary about a subject of their choice;
* Filmfonds DocLab Interactive Grant, a cash prize for the development of interactive projects within the Netherlands;
* Karen de Bok Talent Award for the winner of the IDFAcademy & NPO-fonds workshop. It is the successor of the Media Fund Award Documentary. The NPO Fund awards the winner €25,000 to further develop the project in collaboration with a producer and a broadcast.

## Program sections

In addition to the competitions, IDFA presents several non-competitive film programs:

### Regular programs

* Masters
In this program section, the festival presents the latest documentaries by renowned documentary auteurs.
* Best of Fests
In Best of Fests, the festival presents films that have made an impact on the international festival circuit this year.
* Panorama
In this section, the festival presents films from all over the world, which are thought-provoking in their form and choice of theme.
* Paradocs
The films in this section showcase what is going on beyond the frame of traditional documentary filmmaking, on the borders between film and art, truth and fiction, and narrative and design.
* Music Documentary
Screenings of many films from this program are accompanied by live performances connected to the films.

### Specials

In addition to the regular programs, each year the festival presents programs like Queer Day, featuring new documentaries about LGBTQ-related topics; Focus programs which zoom in on aspects like sound design, editing, and cinematography or a topical theme; a themed program by DocLab, featuring live events and an interactive exhibition; and a retrospective of a filmmaker who also chooses a personal documentary Top 10.

## Award winners
### Best film
#### IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (Until 2020, formerly: Joris Ivens Award)

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1988 | Birthplace Unknown | Karin Junger [fr] | Netherlands |
| 1988 | Ksjsiner | Ruben Gevorksjanz | Soviet Union |
| 1989 | Šķērsiela | Ivars Seleckis [et; fr; lv; ru] | Soviet Union |
| 1990 | Christo in Paris | D. Maysles | United States |
| 1991 | Dreams and Silence | Omar Al-Quattan | Belgium |
| 1992 | La Memoria del agua | Hector Faver | Spain |
| 1993 | Belovy | Viktor Kossakovsky | Russia |
| 1994 | Solo, de wet van de Favela | Jos de Putter | Netherlands |
| 1995 | Délits Flagrants [fr] | Raymond Depardon | France |
| 1996 | Atman | Pirjo Honkasalo | Finland / Germany |
| 1997 | Auf der Kippe | Andrei Schwartz | Germany |
| 1998 | Fotoamator / Photographer | Dariusz Jablonski | Poland |
| 1999 | André Hazes – Zij gelooft in mij | John Appel | Netherlands |
| 2000 | The Sea That Thinks | Gert de Graaff [nl] | Netherlands |
| 2001 | Family | Phie Ambo [da; fr] & Sami Saif | Denmark |
| 2002 | Stevie | Steve James | United States |
| 2003 | Checkpoint | Yoav Shamir | Israel |
| 2004 | Stand van de maan | Leonard Retel Helmrich | Netherlands |
| 2005 | My Grandmother's House [ca] | Adán Aliaga [ca; es] | Spain |
| 2006 | The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun | Pernille Rose Grønkjær | Denmark |
| 2007 | Stranded | Gonzalo Arijon [pt] | France |
| 2008 | Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country | Anders Østergaard [ar; arz; da; de; fi; fr; pt] | Denmark |
| 2009 | Last Train Home | Lixin Fan | Canada |
| 2010 | Position Among the Stars | Leonard Retel Helmrich | Netherlands |
| 2011 | Planet of Snail | Seung-jun Yi [ko] | South Korea |
| 2012 | First Cousin Once Removed | Alan Berliner | United States |
| 2013 | Song from the Forest | Michael Obert | Germany |
| 2014 | Of Men and War | Laurent Bécue-Renard | France / Switzerland |
| 2015 | Don Juan | Jerzy Sladkowski | Sweden / Finland |
| 2016 | Nowhere to Hide | Zaradasht Ahmed | Norway / Sweden |
| 2017 | The Other Side of Everything | Mila Turajlić | Serbia |
| 2018 | Reason | Anand Patwardhan | India |
| 2019 | In a Whisper | Heidi Hassan & Patricia Pérez Fernández | Cuba / Cuba |
| 2020 | Radiograph of a Family | Firouzeh Khosrovani | Iran |
| Category split as of 2020 ||||

#### Best Film Award International Competition

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2021 | Octopus | Karim Kassem | Lebanon / Qatar / United States |
| 2022 | Manifesto | Angie Vinchito | Russia |
| 2023 | 1489 | Shoghakat Vardanyan | Armenia |
| 2024 | Trains | Maciej J. Drygas | Poland |

### Best Cinematography Award International Competition

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2021 | Where Are We Headed | Ruslan Fedotow | Belarus / Russia |
| 2022 | Paradise | Paul Guilhaume | France / Switzerland |
| 2023 | Flickering Lights | Anirban Dutta & Anupama Srinivasan | India |
| 2024 | The Guest | Zvika Gregory Portnoy & Zuzanna Solakiewicz | Poland / Qatar |

### Best Directing Award International Competition

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2021 | Children of the Mist | Diem Ha Le | Vietnam |
| 2022 | Apolonia, Apolonia | Lea Glob | Denmark |
| 2023 | Life is Beautiful | Mohamed Jabaly | Norway / Palestine |
| 2024 | An American Pastoral | Auberi Edler | France |

### Best Editing Award International Competition

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2021 | Mr. Landsbergis | Danielius Kokanauskis | Lithuania / Netherlands |
| 2022 | Journey Through Our World | Mario Steenbergen | Netherlands |
| 2023 | The World Is Family | Anand Patwardhan | India |
| 2024 | Trains | Maciej J. Drygas | Poland |

### DFA Audience Award

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1988 | The Last Judgement | Herz Frank [arz; de; fr; he; it; lt; lv; ru; uk] | Soviet Union |
| 1989 | Skierskala | Ivars Seleckis [et; fr; lv; ru] | Soviet Union |
| 1990 | In Memory of the Day Passed By | Šarūnas Bartas | Lithuania |
| 1991 | Djembéfola | Laurent Chevallier [fr] | France |
| 1992 | Black Harvest | Robin Anderson & Bob Connolly | Australia |
| 1993 | Belovy | V. Kossakovsky | Russia |
| 1994 | Choice and Destiny | Tsipi Reibenbach | Israel |
| 1995 | Anne Frank Remembered | Jon Blair | United Kingdom |
| 1996 | Blue Eyed | B. Verhaag | Germany |
| 1997 | Vision Man | W. Long | Sweden |
| 1998 | Twee Vaders | Ko van Reenen | Netherlands |
| 1999 | Crazy | Heddy Honigmann | Netherlands |
| 2000 | Desi | Maria Ramos | Netherlands |
| 2001 | Offspring, B | B. Stevens | Canada |
| 2002 | Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore | United States |
| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | United States |
| 2004 | The Yes Men | Dan Ollman & Sarah Price & Chris Smith | United States |
| 2005 | Sisters in Law | Kim Longinotto & Florence Ayisi | United Kingdom |
| 2006 | We Are Together / Thina simunye | Paul Taylor | United Kingdom |
| 2007 | To See If I'm Smiling | Tamar Yarom | Israel |
| 2008 | RiP: A Remix Manifesto | Brett Gaylor | Canada |
| 2009 | The Cove | Louie Psihoyos | United States |
| 2010 | Waste Land | Lucy Walker | United Kingdom / Brazil |
| 2011 | Broken Cameras | Emad Burnat & Guy Davidi | Palestine / Israel / Netherlands / France |
| 2012 | Searching for Sugar Man | Malik Bendjelloul | Sweden / United Kingdom |
| 2013 | Twin Sisters | Mona Friis Bertheussen | Norway |
| 2014 | Naziha's Spring | Gülsah Dogan | Netherlands |
| 2015 | Sonita | Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami | Iran |
| 2016 | La Chana | Lucija Stojevic | Spain / Iceland / United States |
| 2017 | Deaf Child | Alex de Ronde | Netherlands |
| 2018 | Don't Be a Dick About It | Benjamin Mullinkosson | United States |
| 2019 | For Sama | Waad al-Kateab & Edward Watts | United Kingdom |
| 2021 | Writing with Fire | Sushmit Ghosh & Rintu Thomas | India |
| 2022 | Blue ID | Burcu Melekoglu &Vuslat Karan | Turkey |
| 2023 | 20 Days in Mariupol | Mstyslav Chernov | Ukraine |
| 2024 | No Other Land | Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor | Palestine / Norway |

### Special Jury Prize

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1988 | Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie | Marcel Ophüls | France / United States |
| 1988 | The Power of Solovki | Marina Goldovskaya | Soviet Union |
| 1989 | Skierskala | Ivars Seleckis [et; fr; lv; ru] | Soviet Union |
| 1990 | The Collector | E. Strömdahl | Sweden |
| 1991 | Djembéfola | Laurent Chevallier [fr] | France |
| 1992 | Black Harvest | Robin Anderson & Bob Connolly | Australia |
| 1993 | Mit Verlust ist zu Rechnen | Ulrich Seidl | Austria |
| 1994 | Choice and Destiny | Tsipi Reibenbach | Israel |
| 1995 | Picasso Would Have Made a Glorious Waiter | Jonathan Schell | United States |
| 1996 | The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera | Adam Simon | England |
| 1997 | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | Werner Herzog | Germany |
| 1998 | Pavel and Lyalya / a Jerusalem Romance | Viktor Kossakovsky | Russia |
| 1999 | A Cry from the Grave | Leslie Woodhead | England |
| 2000 | Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale | Laurie Gwen & David Shapiro | United States |
| 2001 | Elsewhere | Nikolaus Geyrhalter | Austria |
| 2002 | On Hitler's Highway | Lech Kowalski | France |
| 2003 | The Corporation | Mark Achbar | Canada |
| 2004 | Liberia: An Uncivil War | Jonathan Stack & James Brabazon | United States |
| 2005 | Our Daily Bread | Nikolaus Geyrhalter | Austria |
| 2006 | Tender's Heat. Wild Wild beach | Alexander Rastorguev | Russia |
| 2007 | Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go | Kim Longinotto | United Kingdom |
| 2008 | Forgetting Dad | Rick Minnich & Matthew Sweetwood | Germany / United States |
| 2009 | The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers | Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith [de; pt] | United States |
| 2012 | Teached | Kelly Amis | United States |
| 2013 | A Letter to Nelson Mandela | Khalo Matabane | South Africa / Germany |
| 2014 | Something Better to Come | Hanna Polak | Denmark / Poland |
| 2015 | Ukrainian Sheriffs | Roman Bondarchuk | Ukraine / Latvia / Germany |
| 2016 | Still Tomorrow | Jian Fan | People's Republic of China |
| 2017 | The Deminer | Hogir Hirori | Sweden / Iraq |
| 2018 | Los Reyes | Bettina Perut & Iván Osnovikoff | Chile / Chile |

### IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary (formerly: Silver Wolf Award)

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1995 | 6 Open, 21 Closed | Amit Goren | Israel |
| 1996 | Mr. Behrmann – Leben Traum Tod | Andreas Voigt (director) [de] | Germany |
| 1997 | Gigi, Monica...& Bianca | Yasmina Abdellaoui & Benoït Dervaux | Belgium |
| 1998 | Hephzibah | Curtis Levy | Australia |
| 1999 | Les Enfants du Borinage – Lettre à Henri Storck | Patric Jean [fr] | Belgium |
| 2000 | Jung (War) in the Land of the Mujaheddin | Fabrizio Lazzaretti [it], Alberto Vendemmiati [it], Giuseppe Petitto | Italy |
| 2001 | Haj-Abba's Wives | Mohsen Abdolvahab [fa] | Iran |
| 2002 | Interesting Times: The Secret of My Success | Jinchuan Duan | Chile |
| 2003 | Surplus: Terrorized into Being Consumers | Erik Gandini | Sweden |
| 2004 | Georgi and the butterflies | Andrey Paounov | Bulgaria |
| 2005 | Before Flying Back to the Earth | Arūnas Matelis | Lithuania |
| 2006 | Enemies of Happiness | Eva Mulvad | Denmark |
| 2007 | To See If I'm Smiling | Tamar Yarom | Israel |
| 2008 | Boris Ryzhy | Aliona van der Horst [nl] | Netherlands |
| 2009 | Iron Crows | Bong-Nam Park | South Korea |
| 2010 | People I Could Have Been And Maybe Am | Boris Gerrets | Netherlands |
| 2011 | Montenegro | Jorge Gaggero | Argentina |
| 2012 | Red Wedding | Lida Chan & Guillaume Suon | Cambodia / France |
| 2013 | Pussy Versus Putin | Gogol's Wives | Russia |
| 2014 | Kamchatka — The Cure for Hatred | Julia Mironova | Russia |
| 2015 | At Home in the World | Andreas Koefoed [da] | Denmark |
| 2016 | Death in the Terminal | Tali Shemesh & Asaf Sudra | Israel |
| 2017 | The Dread | Martin Benchimol & Pablo Aparo | Argentina / Argentina |
| 2018 | Summa | Andrei Kutsila [be] | Belarus |
| 2019 | Articlockwise | Jalal Vafaei | Iran |
| 2020 | The Wheel | Nomin Lkhagvasuren | Mongolia |

### IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary (formerly: Silver Cub Award)

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2005 | Butterfly Man | Samantha Rebillet | Australia |
| 2006 | My Eyes | Erlend E. Mo | Denmark |
| 2007 | The Tailor | Oscar Pérez | Spain |
| 2008 | Slaves – An animated documentary | Hanna Heilborn & David Aronowitsch | Sweden / Denmark |
| 2009 | Six Weeks | Marcin Janos Krawczyk [pl] | Poland |
| 2017 | Vi bara lyder (we merely obey) | Erik Holmström och Fredrik Wenzel | Sweden |
| 2018 | I Signed the Petition | Mahdi Fleifel | Denmark |
| 2019 | Up at Night | Nelson Makengo | Republic of the Congo |
| 2020 | Unforgivable | Marlén Viñayo | El Salvador |
| 2021 | Handbook | Pavel Mozhar | Germany / Belarus |
| 2022 | Away | Ruslan Fedotow | Russia |

### IDFA Award for Best First Appearance

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1997 | Anthem, an American Road Story | Shainee Gabel & Kristin Hahn | United States |
| 1998 | Les Amoureux de Dieu / Howling for God | Dan Alexe | Belgium |
| 1999 | Zwischen 2 Welten | Bettina Haasen | Germany |
| 2000 | Hybrid | Monteith McCollum | United States |
| 2001 | Suka | Igor Voloshin [it; ru] | Russia |
| 2002 | Barbeiros | M. Junkkonen | Finland |
| 2003 | My Flesh and Blood | Jonathan Karsh | United States |
| 2003 | The Very Best Day | Pavel Medvedev | Russia |
| 2004 | Podul Peste Tisa | Ileana Stanculescu | Romania |
| 2005 | The Angelmakers | Astrid Bussink | Netherlands / Scotland |
| 2006 | We Are Together / Thina simunye | Paul Taylor | United Kingdom |
| 2007 | End of the Rainbow | Robert Nugent | France / Australia |
| 2008 | Constantin and Elena | Andrei Dascalescu | Romania |
| 2009 | Colony | Ross McDonnell & Carter Gunn | Ireland / United States |
| 2010 | Kano: An American and His Harem | Monster Jimenez | Philippines |
| 2011 | The Vanishing Spring Light | Xun Yu | China / Canada |
| 2012 | Soldier on the Roof | Esther Hertog | Netherlands |
| 2013 | My Name Is Salt | Farida Pacha | Switzerland / India |
| 2014 | Drifter | Gábor Hörcher | Hungary / Germany |
| 2015 | When the Earth Seems to Be Light | Salome Machaidze & Tamuna Karumidze & David Meskhi | Georgia |
| 2016 | Who We Were | Sine Skibsholt | Denmark |
| 2017 | The Distant Barking of Dogs | Simon Lereng Wilmont | Denmark |
| 2018 | Giacinto Scelsi. The First Motion of the Immovable | Sebastiano d'Ayala Valva | France |
| 2019 | Solidarity | Lucy Parker | United Kingdom |
| 2020 | This Rain Will Never Stop | Alina Gorlova | Ukraine |

### Movies that Matter Human Rights Award

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2002 | The Day I Will Never Forget | Kim Longinotto | United Kingdom |
| 2002 | The Trials of Henry Kissinger | Eugene Jarecki | United States / United Kingdom / Chile |
| 2003 | Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | Nick Broomsfield & Joan Churchill | United Kingdom |
| 2004 | The 3 Rooms of Melancholia | Pirjo Honkasalo | Finland |
| 2005 | China Blue | Micha X Peled | United States |
| 2006 | New Year Baby | Socheata Poeuv | United States |
| 2007 | Jerusalem Is Proud to Present | Nitzan Gilady | Israel |
| 2008 | Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country | Anders Østergaard [ar; arz; da; de; fi; fr; pt] | Denmark |

### IDFA DOC U! Award for the youth jury's favorite film (formerly: Moviesquad DOC U! Award)

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2005 | Shadya, Roy | Roy Westler | Israel |
| 2006 | A Lesson of Belarusian | Miroslaw Dembinski | Poland |
| 2007 | Planet B-Boy | Benson Lee | United States |
| 2008 | Kassim the Dream | Kief Davidson | United States |
| 2009 | The Yes Men Fix the World | Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno | France / United States |
| 2010 | Autumn Gold | Jan Tenhaven [de] | Germany |
| 2011 | The Last Days of Winter | Mehrdad Oskouei | Iran |
| 2012 | Little World | Marcel Barrena | Spain |
| 2013 | #chicagoGirl – The Social Network Takes on a Dictator | Joe Piscatella | United States / Syria |

### IDFA Award for Best Student Documentary

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 2007 | Paradise – Three Journeys in This World | Elina Hirvonen | Finland |
| 2008 | Shakespeare and Victor Hugo's Intimacies | Yulene Olaizola | Mexico |
| 2009 | Redemption | Sabrina Wulff | Germany |
| 2015 | My Aleppo | Melissa Langer | United States |

### IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

The IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction rewards the best immersive non-fiction of the festival.
| Year | Work | Artist(s) | Nationality of artist (at time of work release) |
| 2021 | Museum of Austerity | Sacha Wares, John Pring | United Kingdom |
| 2022 | In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats | Darren Emerson | United Kingdom |
| 2023 | Turbulence Jamais Vu | Ben Joseph Andrews, Emma Roberts | Australia |
| 2024 | Me, a Depiction | Lisa Schamlé | Netherlands |

#### Special Jury Award for Creative Technology

| Year | Work | Artist(s) | Nationality of artist (at time of work release) |
| 2021 | Symbiosis | Marcel van Brakel, Mark Meeuwenoord, | Netherlands |
| 2022 | Plastisapiens | Miri Chekhanovic, Edith Jorisch | Canada / Israel |
| 2023 | Natalie's Trifecta | Natalie Paneng | South Africa |
| 2024 | The Liminal | Alaa Al Minawi | Netherlands / Lebanon / Palestine |

### IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

The IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling rewards the best Digital Storytelling.

#### Award-winning works

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film or website's release) |
| 2010 | Out My Window | Katerina Cizek | Canada |
| 2011 | In Situ | Antoine Viviani | France |
| 2018 | 1 the Road | Ross Goodwin | United States |
| 2019 | The Waiting Room VR | Victoria Mapplebeck | United Kingdom |
| 2021 | Un(re)solved | Tamara Shogaolu | United States |
| 2022 | He Fucked the Girl Out of Me | Taylor McCue | United States |
| 2023 | Anouschka | Tamara Shogaolu | The Netherlands, United-States, Switzerland |

### Zapper Award (1994–1996)

| Year | Film | Director | Nationality of director (at time of film's release) |
| 1994 | Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy | David Munro | England |
| 1995 | My Vote is My Secret Chroniques Sud Africaines 1994 | Julie Henderson & Thulani Mokoena & Donne Rundle | France |
| 1996 | Grenzeloze Liefde – Made in Japan | Puck de Leeuw | Netherlands |