IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, concluded this weekend in Amsterdam having presented a program of more than 250 films, many of which are world and international premieres.
The 38th edition of IDFA marked the debut of Isabel Arrate Fernandez as artistic director, a position she assumed in July following the resignation of Orwa Nyrabia, who had led the festival for seven years. This year’s festival attracted some of the biggest talents in documentary, including Gianfranco Rosi, Raoul Peck, Laura Poitras, Tia Lessin, Carl Deal, Susana de Sousa Dias, Mstyslav Chernov, Victor Kossakovsky, Stanley Nelson, David France and many others. But the event was not without controversy.
In the new edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, Arrate Fernandez addresses the festival’s decision to ban Israeli organizations that receive financial support from the Israeli government (she stressed that individual Israeli filmmakers are not prohibited from attending). Some have criticized the ban as completely unfair, but Arrate Fernandez tells us that the IDFA felt compelled to act in solidarity with Palestinians who suffered two years of Israeli bombing and a ground campaign launched in retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack.
We also visit Oscar-nominated filmmaker Petra Costa, who presented a new project at IDFA and finds herself in the thick of the Oscar race with her award-winning documentary. Apocalypse in the tropics. Its follow-up to At the edge of democracy traces the rise of Christian nationalism in his native Brazil. Costa tells us that the film’s launch on Netflix in July had dramatic repercussions for its protagonist – arsonist pastor Silas Malafaia, a Christian nationalist and key supporter of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who was convicted of attempting to stage a coup after losing his 2022 re-election bid.
The images of Malafaia captured by Costa made him the target of the same investigation that landed Bolsonaro a 27-year prison sentence. She highlights the specific scene in the film that puts the pastor in legal danger.
This is what emerges from the latest edition of Doc Talk, hosted by Oscar-winning actor John Ridley (12 years a slave, Shirley) and Deadline Documentary Editor Matt Carey. Doc Talk is a production of Deadline and Ridley’s Nō Studios.
Listen to the episode above or on major podcast platforms including Spotify, iHeart and Apple.
