IDFA on this year's campaign
After a turbulent festival season, IDFA embarked on a process of introspection in 2024, with the development of the festival campaign playing a pivotal role. IDFA made the deliberate choice to invite two critical artists, Raul Balai and Ehsan Fardjadniya to engage in an intensive dialogue. The result was a campaign in the form of an open letter to IDFA, reflecting on their critiques and our response.
The 2023 edition of IDFA was marked by intense debate. Following the events of the opening night, criticism emerged from various corners, initially centering on IDFA’s perceived silence regarding the crisis in Gaza. The discourse then broadened into more strategic questions surrounding inclusion and diversity: Is inclusion truly a fundamental value for IDFA and other Western cultural institutions? Additional concerns arose about the independence of institutions like IDFA from their financial backers, politics, and government influence. In short, IDFA faced a call to examine its foundational principles in these challenging times.
This year, we have taken up that challenge. We are committed to (self-)reflection, dialogue, learning, and evolving. In August 2024, we organized an international symposium to discuss these and other pressing questions alongside colleagues from across the globe. We also engaged in conversations with our staff and partners, both locally and internationally, including filmmakers who had criticized IDFA and withdrawn their films. One of the most visible components of this self-examination was our collaboration with Balai and Fardjadniya, two Amsterdam-based artists whose work IDFA deeply values. We entered into this dialogue with the freedom of artistic expression as our guiding principle, believing that such societal debates can only be meaningful if we share this process with Amsterdam and the wider world.
Our engagement with these artists has been enlightening, enriching our perspective. We take their critiques seriously and reaffirm our commitment to being an open, inclusive, and self-critical organization—one that seeks to be socially relevant through the art of documentary filmmaking. We stand by the filmmakers we invite to IDFA and their work, particularly those who are marginalized, underrepresented, or oppressed. Amplifying these voices remains one of our most vital tasks. In doing so, we also stand against war and violence, expressing our solidarity with the most vulnerable among us.
