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IDF Competition

The "West Lake Honor" excellence evaluation unit aims to discover and honor "documentary authors with attitude" and "documentary works with warmth", promoting and encouraging documentary filmmakers to explore and persist on their creative growth path. The conference adopts an open solicitation format, inviting documentary production, distribution, broadcasting and other institutions around the world, as well as documentary authors, to submit feature documentaries (60 minutes or longer) and short documentaries (within 60 minutes) completed after July 1, 2024.

 

This unit will select the shortlisted film list through initial and re-evaluation. After confirmation by the academic committee of the conference, the final evaluation will be conducted during the conference, and the documentary representing the honor of West Lake will be ultimately selected.

 

* for more details please refer to【IDF2026】IDF Competition Call for Entries.pdf

Submission
2024
2023
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2024  IDF Excellent Documentary
CANUTO‘S TRANSFORMATION
  • Country/Area of Production： Brazil
  • Language of Dialogue： Guarani, Spanish, Portugues
  • Runtime： 131 min
  • Director： Ariel Kuaray Ortega, Ernesto de Carvalho
  • Type of Work： Feature-Length
  • Producer： Leonardo Mecchi
Introduction: In a small Mbya-Guarani community between Brazil and Argentina, everyone knows the name Canuto: a man who many years ago suffered the dreaded transformation into a Jaguar, and then died tragically. Now, a film is being made to tell his story. Why did this happen to him? But more importantly: who in the village should play his role?  
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2024  IDF Special Mention
FLAMES, WHITE SNOW, YELLOW ROSES
  • Country/Area of Production： China
  • Language of Dialogue： Mandarin, Northeast Chinese Dialect
  • Runtime： 79 min
  • Director： WANG Chao
  • Type of Work： Feature-Length
  • Producer： XIA Yu
Introduction: The story begins in 2020, in a small county in Northeast China, where WANG Zhanyi, a bachelor in his 50s, lives an ordinary life day after day. One day, he suddenly sold his ancestral home where he had lived for 50 years and moved to a warm and tidy small apartment. On the day of selling the house, he had so much money for the first time …
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2024  IDF Best Chinese Documentary
ANĜELO IN 1948
  • Country/Area of Production： China
  • Language of Dialogue： Mandarin
  • Runtime： 71 min
  • Director： HUANG Ruoyi
  • Type of Work： Feature-Length
  • Producer： HUANG Ruoyi
Introduction: In the spring of 1948, Anĝelo faced the impending birth of her seventh child in solitude, as her husband Ahmed was absent, occupied with arrangements for his departure abroad. During her pregnancy, Anĝelo unexpectedly discovered a cache of intimate letters exchanged between Ahmed and another woman, plunging her into a storm of intertwined…
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2024  IDF Best Short Documentary
THE MEATSELLER
  • Country/Area of Production： Italy
  • Language of Dialogue： English
  • Runtime： 17 min
  • Director： Margherita Giusti
  • Type of Work： Short
  • Producer： Luca Guadagnino
Introduction: THE MEATSELLER is the true story of Selinna Ajamikoko, a young Nigerian woman who dreams of becoming a meatseller like her mom. In order to achieve her dream, she begins her voyage towards Italy, an experience full of atrocity and inhumanity.  
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