The 7th West Lake International Documentary Festival (IDF2024) was hosted by China Academy of Art by the West Lake in Hangzhou from October 25 to 27, 2024.

Centered on the annual theme Co-existing, the festival consisted of three core sections: IDF Competition (West Lake Honors), IDF Forum (Academic Sessions), and Glory of Documentary (Screening Sessions). Documentary filmmakers, production and distribution companies, cultural scholars and media practitioners from China and abroad gathered by the West Lake to appreciate outstanding non-fiction works presented at the festival. Taking the Xiangshan Campus of China Academy of Art as its main venue, the event delivered activities across its three flagship sections.

The IDF Forum hosted a total of 5 forums and lectures with nearly 1,000 participants. The Glory of Documentary Screening Sessions presented 44 documentaries across ten thematic strands in 56 screenings. Among them, reservations for 37 documentaries were fully booked within five minutes, alongside 42 post-screening Q&A sessions drawing over 7,390 audience visits. The mini-program platform recorded more than 129,640 total page views.

Four documentaries screened at the festival held their world premieres: Shadow 1948, The Third Child, Flames, White Snow, Yellow Roses, and Icon. Another ten works including Sting Like A Bee premiered in Asia. Also showcased were award-winning titles from top international film festivals such as Venice, Berlin and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA): Photophobia, Rising Up at Night, The Cats of Gokogu Shrine, and Between Delicate and Violent.

The IDF Competition received 613 submissions from 92 countries and regions across six continents. Fifteen documentaries were shortlisted for the competition. After three days of evaluation by the jury panel, four honors were conferred: IDF Best Documentary, IDF Jury’s Honor, IDF Best Chinese-language Documentary, and IDF Best Short Documentary.

A dedicated VR Zone opened to visitors throughout the festival. The IDF Open-Air Special Screenings were held on the lawn of Tongwu Village Park, where Xu Xiaoming, Dean of the School of Film, China Academy of Art, serves as the village cultural director, allowing audiences to experience the unique charm of cinema unfolding amid nature.

The IDF Forum featured three academic conferences—the Asian Documentary Alliance Forum, Visual Anthropology Forum and Creation Forum—as well as two keynote lectures by renowned documentary director Kevin Macdonald and scholar-writer Liang Hong. The Asian Documentary Alliance Forum was academically hosted by Chen Lingzhen, Professor at the School of Film (China Academy of Art), Dean of China Advanced Institute of Film Studies, Co-founder & CEO of CNEX, and Oscar Documentary Selection Committee member. Invited panelists included Marco Müller, former artistic director of major film festivals and international film producer; Paul Lewis, Director of World Congress of Science & Factual Producers and President & General Manager of Canada’s Discovery Networks; Ding Tian, writer, film interviewer and filmmaker; Pan Zhiqi, documentary director and Associate Professor at Zhejiang University of Media and Communications; and Lin Jianjun, Director of Macau International Documentary Festival. They exchanged insights and discussed the documentary industry from upstream and downstream industrial chain perspectives.

The festival welcomed 87 distinguished guests from 20 countries spanning four continents, including Italy, the United States, Germany, Canada, France, Japan and Spain. There were 121 registered industry delegates, representatives from 87 media outlets, and 70 volunteer staff. Over 20 relevant news reports were released by mainstream media outlets including Global Times, People’s Daily, Guangming Online, The Paper, Phoenix News, Sohu News, China News Service, Tide News, Zhejiang Television, Hangzhou Voice and Metropolis Express. The IDF official team conducted 17 exclusive interviews. The festival organizing committee maintained extensive interaction with audiences via social media platforms including WeChat Official Account, Weibo, Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, Douyin and WeChat Channels, releasing over 540 pieces of promotional content in total