Festivals and Distribution
Film still: The New Greatness Case, dir. Anna Shishova-Bogoliubova
IBF films around the world
Documentary films realized with the support of the IDFA Bertha Fund are premiering and screened at international festivals and broadcasted on television worldwide. They are internationally acclaimed by film critics and winning a variety of awards. More and more of these films also find an audience through theatrical distribution and grassroot screenings.
Festivals and Awards
The year 2022 had a successful start with a couple of IBF-supported films having their world premieres and winning awards at prestigious film festivals, including Sundance, the Berlinale, Visions du Réel, and the Venice Film Festival. All that Breathes by Shaunak Sen won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition at Sundance. Alis by Clare Weiskopf and Nicolás van Hemelryck won the Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the Generation 14plus section at the Berlinale. And Anhell69 by Theo Montoya won the Verona Film Club Award and the Mario Serandrei Award in Venice.
In 2022, a total of 36 films that previously received IBF support circulated festivals worldwide—together amounting to 827 festival screenings.
Film still: Anhell69, dir. Theo Montoya.
Top 10 worldwide festival screenings in 2022
All That Breathes – 75 festivals
Writing with Fire – 74
A Night of Knowing Nothing – 72
Children of the Mist – 68
As I Want – 51
Fly So Far – 48
Zinder - 42
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange – 41
Alis – 38
No Simple Way Home – 32
Film still: All that Breathes, dir. Shaunak Sen.
Distribution Stories
Multiple films booked impressive distribution, outreach, or impact successes internationally and in their home countries or regions. For example, Zinder and The Earth Is Blue as an Orange. Read more about their outreach and impact stories below.
The Earth Is Blue as an Orange by Iryna Tsilyk
To cope with the daily trauma of living in a war zone, Anna and her children are making a film about their life in the most surreal surroundings.
Having world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, Tsilyk's documentary The Earth is Blue as an Orange, about the war in Eastern Ukraine that started in 2014, travelled to more than 113 festivals around the world. After receiving the IBF Europe distribution grant in 2021, the film was able to continue to reach new audiences in Ukraine, Lithuania and the Balkans. Due to covid restrictions the film was released on VOD in Ukraine in 2021 and physical screenings were postponed till the autumn of 2021. But even more unexpected was the release in Lithuania. Originally, it was foreseen that the film would have a red-carpet premiere on February 28th, 2022, with the attendance of the film team and the film characters – Anna and her five children.
However, on February 24th, 2022, the news of the war in Ukraine reached Lithuania. The premiere on 28th was no longer regular but became a campaign in solidarity with Ukraine.
A week after the event, by the initiative of the Lithuanian co-production company, the team managed to evacuate the family depicted in film. The day after their arrival, a press conference was held followed by a special sold-out screening in the biggest cinema hall in Lithuania. The team and family answered the audience's questions and shared their emotional journey, experience, and the current situation in Ukraine.
Trailer: The Earth is Blue as an Orange, dir. Iryna Tsilyk.
Trailer: Zinder, dir. Aicha Macky.
Zinder by Aicha Macky
Returning to her home city of Zinder in Niger, Aicha Macky shows how her young compatriots are faring there. A powerful, candid, and surprisingly hopeful glimpse into the world of the local gangs.
Since the world premiere of Zinder in 2021 at two major European documentary festivals—Visions du Réel and CPH:Dox—the film went on to screen at over 90 festivals and win 27 awards. An IBF Europe distribution grant helped the filmmaking team to have this big release, as well as contributed to a distribution and outreach campaign in France, and a very extended outreach and impact campaign in Niger. The campaign in Niger started with a national premiere of the film in Niamey, the capital of Niger, in the International Conference Center which brought together 2,500 spectators. The screening was presented by Macky and the protagonists of the film and was a big success. It was followed by an invitation from the newly elected president of Niger, requesting a private screening and congratulating Macky on the film. Read the interview with Aicha Macky about the outreach and impact campaign in Niger on the next page.
Read the interview with Aicha Macky about the outreach and impact campaign in Niger on the next page.
Film still: Loving Martha, dir. Daniela López