DFA 2025 officially kicked off its 38th edition with an opening ceremony held at the historic Koninklijk Theater Carré, marking the beginning of eleven days devoted to documentary cinema and contemporary audiovisual storytelling. This year’s festival, spread across cinemas and cultural venues throughout Amsterdam, presents more than 250 film and new-media projects from 76 countries, reaffirming its position as one of the world’s most influential platforms for documentary film.

The opening ceremony embraced a renewed format: instead of a traditional feature-length opener, IDFA presented a selection of three short films conceived as a thematic unit. The chosen works — As I Lay Dying by Mohammadreza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani, Intersecting Memory by Shayma’ Awawdeh, and happiness by Firat Yücel — were received with great interest by the audience in attendance.

During her remarks, the festival’s Artistic Director, Isabel Arrate Fernandez, emphasized the conceptual strength of this audiovisual triptych. “Tonight’s three films are an anatomy of protest,” she said. “How does protest become part of one’s identity? What sparks the moment of uprising that leads to revolution? And finally, how can we understand and feel its impact, its aftermath, the fading of its fire? That is how I see this evening — as a journey through a revolution in three completely different forms.”

Her words resonated as a statement of purpose for this year’s edition, which aims to critically examine the present through works that explore memory, resistance, historical trauma, and the intimate dimensions of political identity.

In addition to the screenings, the evening was marked by the presentation of the Cultuurfonds Documentaire Stipendium, a €50,000 grant supporting the development of new documentary work. This year’s recipient was filmmaker Lidija Zelovic, honored for her career and especially for Home Game, which premiered in IDFA’s International Competition in 2024. In the film, Zelovic draws a striking parallel between populist politics in the former Yugoslavia and current social tensions in the Netherlands. The award was handed to her by last year’s recipient, Festus Toll, underscoring a sense of continuity and intergenerational support within the documentary community.

The 2025 edition also celebrates its Guest of Honor, filmmaker, curator, and academic Susana de Sousa Dias, whose work is showcased through an extensive Retrospective and a personally curated Top 10 selection. On Sunday, November 16, she will participate in the highly anticipated Guest of Honor Talk, an open conversation with Isabel Arrate Fernandez that promises to be one of the festival’s highlights.

Meanwhile, the Industry Program, running from November 15 to 19, will bring together more than 2,500 documentary film professionals, reinforcing IDFA’s role as a central hub for production, financing, distribution, and critical discourse at the international level.