IDA Grantees at IDFA 2025
Film still from Queer As Punk
Congratulations to the 7 IDA grantee projects premiering at IDFA 2025. IDFA, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam, is the world's largest documentary film festival, held annually since 1988 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The festival explores the best of creative documentaries. IDFA 2025 will take place from November 13 through 23.
Let's take a look at IDA grantee projects premiering at IDFA this year!
Always
Film still from Always
Dutch Premiere | Director: Deming Chen | Producer: Hansen Lin (IDA Member) | 2023 Supported Artist
In a small village in southern China, left-behind children bravely use written word to express their internal worlds. One such child, Gong, uses poetry to bid farewell to the mother who abandoned him at birth and the fleeting days of his youth. - North American Premiere. See tickets and screening times here.
The Broken R
Film still from The Broken R
Dutch Premiere | Director(s): Ricardo Ruales Eguiguren | Producer(s): Soledad Santelices Crovari | 2023 Direct Access Fund
For 24 years, Ricardo struggled to pronounce the letter R, causing them to suppress their voice. Broken R is a documentary essay about the intimate journey in search of their voice’s identity and the effort to liberate it, reflected by Ricardo’s personal journey going back to their parents' home. See tickets and screening times here.
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 - Last Air in Moscow
Film still from My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 - Last Air in Moscow
Dutch Premiere | Director (s): Julia Loktev & Anna Nemzer | Producer(s): Julia Loktev | 2022 Enterprise Fund
Four months before Russia starts a full-scale war in Ukraine, US filmmaker Julia Loktev, who was born in the Soviet Union, travels to Moscow to make a documentary about young female journalists being labeled by Putin’s regime as “foreign agents.” They work for media organizations including TV Rain, Russia’s last remaining independent television channel, under draconian restrictions and the constant threat of imprisonment—at any moment, the government could silence them with a fabricated charge. Several of their peers have already been murdered. See tickets and screening times here.
Powwow People
Film still from Powwow People
European Premiere | Director(s): Sky Hopinka | Producer(s): John Cardellino, Adam Piron | 2023 Pare Lorentz
Powwow People is a feature-length documentary inviting viewers into the world of contemporary Native American powwow culture. Told through the poetic lens of visual artist and filmmaker Sky Hopinka (Ho-Chunk/Pechanga), the film is an intimate portrait of a Native American powwow organized, hosted, and documented through the production of this film. See tickets and screening times here.
Queer As Punk
Film still from Queer As Punk.
Dutch Premiere | Director: Yihwen Chen (IDA Member) | Producer(s): Yihwen Chen, Mandy Marahimin | 2024 Pare Lorentz
Brash, defiant and wickedly funny, punk rockers Shh…Diam! are an underground sensation in Kuala Lumpur. An all-queer band led by charismatic trans man Farris Saad, they’ve won devoted fans with playful anthems like “I Woke Up Gay” and “Lonely Lesbian.” Filming over six years, director Yihwen Chen follows them to practices, gigs, and protests, capturing their irreverent advocacy amid a spate of anti-LGBTQ raids and arrests as well as major developments in their personal lives and relationships. - North American Premiere. See tickets and screening times here.
Seeds
Film still from Seeds.
Dutch Premiere | Director(s): Brittany Shyne (IDA Documentary Awards Honoree) | Producer(s): Brittany Shyne, Danielle Varga | 2021 Enterprise Fund
Seeds is a portrait of a 138-year-old African-American centennial farm in Thomasville, Georgia. Using lyrical black and white imagery, this meditative film examines the decline of generational black farmers and the significance of owning land in the rural South. See tickets and screening times here.
To Use A Mountain
Film still from To Use A Mountain
Dutch Premiere | Director(s): Casey Carter | Producer(s): Colleen Cassingham | 2023 Enterprise Fund
Physics, geology, and democracy collide across the expansive American interior in a series of vignettes from six candidate sites for a sacrificial nuclear dumping ground. See tickets and screening times here.