IDF Competition - West Lake International Documentary Festival

IDF Competition

IDF Competition is aimed to highlight outstanding documentary filmmakers, all the while encouraging documentary filmmakers to be curious and persistent on their journey of creation. The festival conducts an open call for submission. The submission opens to feature-length documentaries (60 minutes and above), short documentaries (less than 60 minutes) completed after 1st January, 2023.

After two rounds of evaluation and selection, the outstanding documentaries will be shortlisted for IDF Competition of the 7th West Lake International Documentary Festival. The finalists will be evaluated by an international jury committee and compete for awards.

* for more details please refer to【IDF2024】IDF Competition Call for Entries

Submission

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2023 IDF Best Short Documentary

Neighbour Abdi

Country/Area of Production： The Netherlands
Language of Dialogue： Dutch, Somali
Runtime： 29 min
Director： Douwe Dijkstra
Type of Work： Short Documentary
Producer： Richard Valk

Introduction: How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painfu…

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2023 IDF Special Mention

The Balcony Movie

Country/Area of Production： Poland
Language of Dialogue： Polish
Runtime： 100 min
Director： Paweł Łoziński
Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
Producer： Paweł Lozinski, Agnieszka Mankiewicz

Introduction: Can anyone be a movie hero? Can the world be locked in one film frame? Director Paweł Łoziński is watching people from his balcony as they are passing by, he accosts them, asks questions, talks about how they deal with life. Every story is unique, and life always surpasses imagination. Maybe it’s enough to stop for a moment to get a deepe…

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2023 IDF Best Chinese Documentary

Trashy Boy

Country/Area of Production： China
Language of Dialogue： Chinese
Runtime： 97min
Director： Yifei ZHENG
Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
Producer： Lixue WANG, Emma LONG, Vincent DU

Introduction: Big Sponge is a young man living in a small town in China’s west who long ago broke out of the education system, left his parents, and struck out on his own. He wanders the streets, aimlessly getting through one long night after another. Big Sponge loves rap music and has a lot of musical talent, but his daily reality doesn’t allow him to…

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2023 IDF Best Documentary

Geographies Of Solitude

Country/Area of Production： Canada
Language of Dialogue： English
Runtime： 103min
Director： Jacquelyn Mills
Type of Work： Feature-Length Documentary
Producer： Jacquelyn Mills, Rosalie Chicoine Perreault

Introduction: GEOGRAPHIES OF SOLITUDE is an immersion into the rich ecosystem of Sable Island, guided by naturalist and environmentalist Zoe Lucas who has lived over 40 years on this remote sliver of land in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Shot on 16mm and created using a scope of innovative eco-friendly filmmaking techniques, this feature-length experim…

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IDF 2023 | IDF Nominated Films