The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam once again reaffirmed its place as the most influential documentary festival in the world. The 2025 edition brought forward a remarkable collection of films that reflect the emotional, political and artistic forces shaping contemporary nonfiction cinema.
Below you will find an in depth guide to every winning film, including full synopses and jury statements. Throughout the article, you will also find reminders to explore all the IDFA selected and IDFA awarded films currently available on GuideDoc, a growing collection of festival favorites and internationally acclaimed works.
Iran, France, United Kingdom, United States, Denmark
Directed by Mehrdad Oskouei
The jury described this film as a work that “opens a window onto the power of art and hope during the difficult times through which we are living.” Filmed remotely over five years, this self portrait follows Soraya, a sixteen year old Afghan sculptor and illustrator trapped between repression, domestic violence and her longing to reach her mother in Austria.
Soraya films every moment of her life with her phone, capturing escape attempts, political news from Afghanistan, bruises left by her husband and moments of song, dance and artistic creation. Her drawings and sculptures become both testimony and refuge. Recurring images of a loyal fox, a pink moon and a clown who never laughs anchor her inner world.
This deeply intimate collaboration between filmmaker and protagonist reveals a young artist who insists on creating her own future.
If you are curious to explore more IDFA selected works, remember to visit the dedicated section on GuideDoc where many festival films are already available to stream.
Georgia, France, Qatar
Directed by Tamar Kalandadze and Julien Pebrel
The jury praised this film as “a visual labyrinth that takes us deep inside a single location yet continuously reveals new facets and faces.” The Kartli Kingdom documents a community of families who fled the 1993 war in Abkhazia and found temporary refuge in a former government sanatorium. Thirty years later, nearly two hundred families remain there.
The building is literally splitting in two while the lights of Tbilisi shine in the distance. Despite the everyday challenges, the film focuses on the community’s intimate life, supported by home videos of weddings, birthdays and moments of celebration. Leaving is both necessary and painful, as it means being uprooted once again.
The Kartli Kingdom also received a Special Mention in the First Feature Competition, highlighting its central place in this year’s festival.
Argentina, Uruguay
Directed by Lucas Gallo
Editing by Fernando Epstein
December is constructed entirely from archival footage recorded between December 1, 2001 and January 3, 2002, when Argentina experienced one of the most dramatic political and economic collapses in its history. What begins with fragmented news items gradually becomes a chronicle of mass protests, riots, political turmoil and the fall of multiple presidents within weeks.
The film demonstrates how public despair grows when political institutions ignore the demands of their people. Its meticulous editing creates a gripping portrait of a nation on edge.
Ukraine, Germany
Directed by Dmytro Sukholytkyy Sobchuk
Cinematography by Ivan Morarash, Oleksandr Korotun, Viacheslav Tsvietkov and Dmytro Sukholytkyy Sobchuk
Silent Flood was honored for its extraordinary visual craft. The film’s cinematography captures a world shaped by environmental and social upheaval, revealing the fragile relationship between humans and the landscapes they inhabit. Each frame is a work of observation and empathy.
United States
Directed by Katy Scoggin
In her first feature length documentary, Katy Scoggin returns home to reconnect with her religious father, a man devoted to disproving the theory of evolution. Through family films, highlighted children’s Bibles and newly discovered photos, Flood explores generational beliefs, love, faith and the difficulty of bridging emotional distances.
As the family prepares to move, years of memories resurface, revealing the fragile dynamics between parents and children.
For more powerful family centered documentaries from IDFA, make sure to explore the IDFA collection on GuideDoc.
Winner of the IDFA Award for Best Film in the Envision Competition
Iran, Norway, Italy
Directed by Morteza Ahmadvand and Firouzeh Khosrovani
The jury called this film “an unusual and poignant cinematic experiment” where time and space exist both concretely and suspended. Maryam, now living in the United States, convinces her elderly parents in Tehran to install cameras throughout their home so she can stay connected with them.
Through this surveillance footage, combined with home videos and poetic reflections, the film meditates on distance, diaspora, memory and the impossibility of return. Stylized images of birds symbolize both confinement and the desire to break free.
Lithuania, France, Latvia
Directed by Aistė Žegulytė Zapolska
Holy Destructors is a poetic exploration of microfungi, organisms that predate humanity and will likely outlast us. The film combines macroscopic imagery of fungal growth with scenes of art restoration, relic preservation and the conservation of the bodies of religious figures.
It becomes a meditation on decay, transformation and the human desire to resist time. Fungus consumes everything, including us, and yet there is beauty in this perpetual cycle.
Spain, Portugal, France, Sweden, Cape Verde
Directed by Miguel Eek
Using fungi as metaphor and storytelling framework, Amílcar weaves together questions of memory, preservation and rebirth. The film shifts between meticulous restoration processes, humorous conversations among conservators and moments of devotion from believers contemplating a restored Virgin Mary.
It suggests that nothing truly disappears. Everything transforms.
To explore more boundary pushing nonfiction works similar to the Envision winners, browse the IDFA category available on GuideDoc.
Winner of the IDFA Award for Best Short Documentary
South Africa, France, Germany
Directed by Teboho Edkins
An Open Field follows the director and his father as they travel to the crash site where the filmmaker’s younger brother died in the 2019 Boeing 737 MAX disaster. The villagers who witnessed the crash consider the victims as visiting guests and have integrated them into their spiritual lives.
This compassionate encounter between the grieving family and the local community becomes a deeply moving reflection on collective mourning.
Netherlands, Spain
Directed by Albert Kuhn
Dreams for a Better Past examines the aftermath of the same plane crash, focusing on memory, trauma and the search for meaning following an unexpected tragedy.
Winner of the IDFA Award for Best First Feature
Netherlands, Afghanistan
Directed by Dawood Hilmandi
Paikar is both a family journey and a meditation on home. Dawood Hilmandi returns to Iran and Afghanistan to reconnect with his authoritarian father after years of distance. He reflects on migration, faith, childhood and the burden of being called a warrior, a name given to him by his family.
The film traces the scattered paths of Hilmandi’s siblings across multiple countries and the attempt to rebuild bonds despite years of separation.
Directed by Sara Shaverdi
Cutting Through Rocks won the NPO Doc IDFA Audience Award after an enthusiastic reception from viewers. The film follows Sara Shaverdi, the first woman elected to the council of her village in rural Iran, as she fights to curb child marriage, defend girls’ education and secure basic infrastructure for her community.
Working mostly behind closed doors, Sara teaches teenage girls to ride motorbikes, protects a young woman from an arranged marriage and challenges the men who doubt her integrity. Her resilience and determination have already resonated with audiences worldwide.
Many IDFA selected and IDFA awarded documentaries are already available to stream on GuideDoc, with new titles added every day.
If you want to explore more groundbreaking nonfiction cinema, including films that premiered and competed at IDFA across multiple years, visit the IDFA collection on GuideDoc.
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