This afternoon in Amsterdam, IDFA named the films that will move forward in competition for the fest's various awards. From three nominees for each award, winners will be announced on Friday.
For perspective, last year's finalists for the fest's top award included eventual winner LAST TRAIN HOME (which leads nominations at this year's Cinema Eye Honors) and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (which was just named to the Academy's feature documentary shortlist). Both films went on to play in Park City, Full Frame and were mainstays on the fest circuit.
This year's nominees for Feature-Length Documentary are Stephen Marshall's HOLYWARS (which screened earlier this year at True/False), Gemma Atwal's MARATHON BOY (which premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest) and Leonard Retel Helmrich's POSITION AMONG THE STARS. STARS, which is also nominated for the Dutch Documentary prize, was IDFA's opening night film.
Aside from the Dutch, who get their own category, and the Germans, who are represented on three different films, the nominations seem almost purposefully even-handed. No other country is represented more than twice.
Full list of announced nominees after the jump.
HOLYWARS (US/Canada)
Directed by Stephen Marshall
MARATHON BOY (England)
Directed by Gemma Atwal
POSITION AMONG THE STARS (Netherlands)
Directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich
Competition for Mid-Length and Short Documentary
FAMILY INSTINCT (Latvia)
Directed by Andris Gauja
THE HANGMAN (Isreal)
Directed by Netalie Braun and Avigail Sperber
PEOPLE I COULD HAVE BEEN AND MAYBE AM (Netherlands)
Directed by Boris Gerrets
Competition for First Appearance
ABUELOS (Equador/Chile)
Directed by Carla Valencia Dávila
FEATHERED COCAINE (Iceland)
Directed by Thorkell S. Hardarson and Örn Marino Arnarson
KANO: AN AMERICAN AND HIS HAREM (Philippines)
Directed by Monster Jimenez
Competition for Student Documentary
ALL MY FATHERS (Germany)
Directed by Jan Raiber
A SCREENING AT THE TATRY CINEMA (Poland)
Directed by Igor Chojna
WHAT'S IN A NAME (Belgium)
Directed by Eva Küpper
Competition for Dutch Documentary
PARRADOX
Directed by In-Soo Radstake
STAND BY ME
Directed by Monique Lesterhuis and Suzanne Raes
POSITION AMONG THE STARS
Directed by Leonard Retel Helmrich
DOC U Award
ARMADILLO (Denmark)
Directed by Janus Metz
AUTUMN GOLD (Germany/Austria)
Directed by Jan Tenhaven
REVOLUTION (Cuba)
Directed by Mayckell Pedrero Mariol
Competition for Green Screen Documentary
No Nominees were named
DocLab Award for Digital Storytelling
CALIFORNIA IS A PLACE (US)
Directed by Zackary Canepari and Drea Cooper
HIGHRISE/OUT MY WINDOW (Canada)
Directed by Katerina Cizek
SOUL PATRON (Germany/Japan)
Directed by Frederik Rieckher
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