Explore the IDFA DocLab selection

This year’s theme Off the Internet explores our collective urge to disconnect—and the impossibility of ever truly logging off—DocLab turns to digital art that brings people back into physical space.

Caspar Sonnen, Head of New Media, reflects in the press conference: “Instead of keeping us paralysed and locked even further into our screens, could digital and immersive art become part of a more physical and shared experience of reality? Could it offer us different ways to reflect and reconnect, beyond virtual escapism, more in tune with our human bodies and sensibilities?"

With a majority of world premieres, the ten-title Immersive Non-Fiction Competition boldly expands the horizons of the documentary genre. The selection showcases multisensory experiences, artistic VR creations, interactive installations, and live performances that push immersive media beyond conventional boundaries—to foster critical reflection and meaningful connection.

Several artists explore the potential of immersive media in innovative and far-reaching ways, from frontline citizen journalism to provocative explorations of gender identity. Others invite audiences into embodied experiences without headsets, creating physical environments that challenge perceptions of reality, and confront the impact of technology on society and the human condition.

In collaboration with artists worldwide, fulldome projects reflect a growing appetite for collective and communal experiences, where immersive works allow audiences to engage, reflect, and connect in shared spaces. Embracing the interactive and the participatory, these projects demonstrate how immersive media can provoke thought and open new ways of seeing the world.

With nine premiere titles in the selection, the Digital Storytelling Competition continues to expand the possibilities of digital art and interactive storytelling, featuring works by both emerging talent and established creators.

Using the expansive capacity of interactive media and artificial intelligence, several projects explore our physical realities and social and technological changes shaping our world—through parallel universes, bots, and immersive archives, revealing truths about deep-rooted gender binaries, gentrification, and the enduring legacies of colonialism and racism. Multiple projects invite audiences as co-creators, from participatory explorations to decade-long digital archives, tracing how the internet evolved from a space of eager creativity and connection to one where humans have become commodified as product.

DocLab also presents an Interactive Cinema, offering shared, accessible experiences inspired by Twitch and co-op gaming, where audiences engage together in live, playful exploration.

With seven selected titles, the non-competitive DocLab Spotlight section showcases critically acclaimed VR- and fulldome projects next to live performance.

In a time defined by human-machine entanglement, several works reimagine our relationships with artificial intelligence, exposing its quiet manipulations, its quickness to radicalize, and its capacity for introspection. Other projects turn to the fragile terrain of memory and care—using VR and immersive technologies to explore the visceral, the haunting, and the tender experiences that mark a lifetime. These works showcase an evolving landscape of documentary art, where digital systems and human stories collide to reveal new ways of seeing, feeling, and being.

Following last year’s success, DocLab Playrooms return as a space for experimentation and prototyping, allowing artists to share unfinished ideas and engage in dialogue with both professionals and general audiences.

The new media selection is now complete. Dive into our program and learn more about the IDFA DocLab Industry Track for professionals.