The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has unveiled the main competition lineups for its 39th edition and additions to other sections. The complete IDFA 2026 official selection consists of 253 titles from 80 countries.
The 39th edition of IDFA takes place in Amsterdam Nov. 12-22, with the world premiere of White Tiger Column by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, and Bryan Dickie now set to open to fest. The doc, screening in the international competition, follows a group of recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar’s resistance movement. “In a training camp deep in the jungle, the filmmakers capture the daily lives of young volunteers as they prepare to fight for their freedom,” reads a synopsis. IDFA calls the film “a striking example of documentary cinema” and “a moving portrait of a courageous generation.”
The International Competition brings together 13 “works that invite curiosity and critical reflection on our world today,” IDFA organizers said. “Across a wide range of subjects and filmmaking approaches, these films offer complex, layered perspectives on the present.”
Meanwhile, IDFA’s Envision Competition will screen 13 films, in which “form drives the narrative.” Said IDFA: “Through distinctive visual approaches and formal choices, the filmmakers deconstruct and reframe the complexities of our world, offering new ways of seeing and understanding the subjects they explore.” And memory is clearly a key theme in this program, with three titles featuring the word in their titles.
IDFA’s premieres-only Luminous section presents 21 feature-length
IDFA’s premieres-only Luminous section presents 21 feature-length and short films that “grapple with big questions of life through deeply personal, lived experiences.” In this program, 19 titles are world or international premieres, and nine are debut feature films. “In the immersive and poetic Where the Sun Is Born by Laura Bermúdez and Jorge García, a dancer leaves the city in Honduras to travel back to the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community of his youth in search of his roots and a sense of community,” the festival noted. “The IDFA Bertha Fund-supported She Was Not Alone by Hussein Al-asadi closely follows Zaira, an elderly woman living in close communion with nature in the marshlands of southern Iraq – meditatively illuminating an idyllic place, increasingly under threat.”
Also, Raluca Lupaşcu’s A Modern Roma Fairytale follows Nicoleta, 10, the granddaughter of a Roma king, growing up dreaming of a life in a marble palace “while watching the women around her navigate the restrictions of the patriarchal traditions that will shape her future.” And in Every Death Diminishes Me, Sergii Bazhenov trains as a medic to join the front lines, documenting his colleagues as they treat the wounded and confront the human cost of war.
Frontlight, rather than front lines, is the name of the premieres-only IDFA section that will showcase 16 films, “from critical examinations of the truth and urgent issues of our time to portraits of artists and their work,” organizers said. “Several films offer immediate responses to critical current events, while others take time to reflect, examining the social realities and challenges shaping people’s lives.” Among the docs here is Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran, Under the Skin, which explores Tehran’s cosmetic clinics and “the pressures behind Iran’s widespread culture of cosmetic surgery in pursuit of physical perfection in a conservative society that seeks to control women’s beauty.”
IDFA on Tuesday also unveiled additions to its other sections, including Alex Gibney’s Musk, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything, and Sixteen Moments of My Life by Albert Serra.
Check out IDFA’s competitions and other key programs unveiled on Tuesday below.
Bardi, dir. Tala Hadid (Morocco), 108’ – European Premiere
Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky, dir. Mehran Tamadon (France), 120’ – World Premiere
Down the River, dir. Ruslan Fedotov (Germany), 79’ – World Premiere
Hazara Town, dir. Khadim Dai (Belgium/Australia/Germany), 103’ – World Premiere
Here Where the Fire Burns, dir. Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (Mexico), 97’ – World Premiere
An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93, dir. Salomé Jashi (Georgia), 100’ – World Premiere
Lonan Tché, dir. Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou (France/Italy/Ivory
Lonan Tché, dir. Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou (France/Italy/Ivory Coast/Senegal), 95’ – World Premiere
Mangabangabaka, dir. Michaël Andrianaly (France/Madagascar/Burkina Faso), 92’ – World Premiere
Morro Grande, dir. Isabel Joffily, Rita Toledo (Brazil/Netherlands), 88’ – World Premiere
Still Night, Burning House, dir. Carol Nguyen (Canada), 76’ – International Premiere
White Tiger Column, dir. Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, Bryan Dickie (Canada), 95’ – World Premiere
Women and War, dir. Elwira Niewiera (Germany/Poland/Ukraine), 103’ – World Premiere
The Year of the Ghost, dir. Louis Hothothot (Netherlands/China), 95’ – World Premiere
Bahía Honda, dir. Alejandro Alonso Estrella (Cuba/France/Norway), 85’ – World Premiere
Between Revolutions, dir. Ruben Desiere (Belgium/Netherlands), 78’ – World Premiere
The Black Box Is Orange, dir. Yuula Benivolski (Canada), 89’ – International Premiere
Drop! Cover! Hold On!, dir. Stéphanie Roland (Belgium/France), 77’ – World Premiere
Lyrical Vengeance, dir. Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands), 111’ – World Premiere
Memories, dir. Anna Falguères (Belgium/France), 78’ – World Premiere
Memories of Lightning, dir. Riccardo Giacconi (France/Italy), 73’ – International Premiere
My Own Personal Gulag, dir. Lina Gorbaneva (Spain), 84’ – World Premiere
Radiant Mountain, dir. Miguel Moraes Cabral (Belgium/Portugal/France), 75’ – World Premiere
Ragazzi al fiume, dir. Pablo Briones (Switzerland), 75’ – World Premiere
Rivers of Memory, dir. Shishir Jha (India), 72’ – World Premiere
Vertigo Garden, dir. Lei Lei (Hong Kong / SAR /China), 73’ – World Premiere
You Don’t Die Two Times, dir. Ager Oueslati (Algeria/Germany/Netherlands), 90’ – World Premiere
The Big Boom!, dir. Gabriel Tejedor (Switzerland), 79’ – World Premiere
A Derailment, dir. Nathan Truesdell (United States), 26’ – International Premiere
The Dome Sessions, dir. Firas El Hallak (Lebanon), 61’ – World Premiere
Hold Your Breath, dir. Vincent Sparreboom (Netherlands), 75’ – World Premiere
Jenin & the Nakba Between Us, dir. Serene Husni (Canada/Jordan), 89’ – World Premiere
The Message, dir. Guylaine Maroist, Eric Ruel (Canada), 105’ – World Premiere
A Minute of Silence, dir. Laurent Pantaleon (Réunion/France), 87’ – World Premiere
No Man’s Air, dir. Peter Delpeut, Gerco de Ruijter (Netherlands), 42’ – World Premiere
Notes From a Besieged City, dir. Mateusz Mularski (Poland), 78’ – International Premiere
Regarding Memory and Neglect, dir. Ricardo Martensen (Brazil), 86’ – World Premiere
Romare Bearden: A Life in Collage, dir. Deborah Riley Draper (United States), 82’ – International Premiere
Small Expectations, dir. Alexandru Solomon (Romania/Belgium), 118’ – World Premiere
Tehran, Under the Skin, dir. Afsaneh Salari (France/Iran/Sweden), 83’ – European Premiere
Then I Saw a Beautiful Horse, dir. Altay Erlik (Turkey/Germany), 3’ – World Premiere
Water Cooler, dir. Emma V.F. (United States), 12’ – International Premiere
Wood Street, dir. Caron Creighton (United States), 100’ – International Premiere
Agaar, dir. Bo Yang (China/France), 117’ – European Premiere
Alter Ego, dir. Mohammad Ali Atassi (Lebanon/France), 72’ – World Premiere
Back Before 3 P.M., dir. Gaël Lépingle (France), 74’ – International Premiere
The Blood of the Covenant, dir. Fábio Silva (Portugal), 64’ – World Premiere
The Brush in Your Hand, dir. Charlotte Dumas (Netherlands), 51’ – World Premiere
Cuscú, dir. Risseth Yangüez Singh (Panama/United States), 83’ – World Premiere
Dreams of the Wild Oaks, dir. Marjan Khosravi (Iran/Spain/France), 78’ – European Premiere
Every Death Diminishes Me, dir. Sergii Bazhenov (Ukraine), 80’ – World Premiere
How Much Longer, dir. Niels van Koevorden (Netherlands), 83’ – World Premiere
The Last Season, dir. Yohan Guignard (France), 25’ – International Premiere
Mentor, dir. Krzysztof Tomaszewski (Poland), 14’ – International Premiere
The Middle Room, dir. Enrico Maisto (Italy/Switzerland), 79’ – International Premiere
A Modern Roma Fairytale, dir. Raluca Lupaşcu (Netherlands), 80’ – World Premiere
The Sacred Circle, dir. Elahe Esmaili (Iran), 36’ – World Premiere
Scenes From Departure, dir. Ray Kamhei Chan (Taiwan/Hong Kong), 82’ – International Premiere
She Was Not Alone, dir. Hussein Al-asadi (Iraq/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/United States), 88’ – World Premiere
Tonight Is Forever, dir. Fernando Souza (France/Spain/Japan), 93’ – World Premiere
Up in the Air, dir. Oksana Koklonska (Ukraine/Czech Republic/Lithuania), 93’ – World Premiere
Waves of Time, dir. Weicheng Hua (China), 87’ – World Premiere
We Had a Plan, dir. Suzanne Raes (Netherlands/Philippines), 96’ – World Premiere
