CAREER HIGHLIGHT(S):
Held since 1988, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is the world’s largest documentary festival, featuring lectures, workshops, and over 300 docs from around the globe. Meanwhile, the IDFA Bertha Fund (IBF) is the only global fund dedicated solely to stimulating and empowering the creative documentary sector in developing countries. The fund also actively promotes the harvest of IBF-supported documentaries each year at IDFA.

TWELVE-MONTH HIGHLIGHT(S):
Among the seven Arab films that premiered at the 2023 IDFA were HIDING SADDAM HUSSEIN from Iraq and DONGA about the 10-year Libyan civil war, in addition to the more famous MACHTAT, BYE BYE TIBERIAS and THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES, which won the IBF Classic Grant in 2020. Among the beneficiary projects of IBF in 2023 were Iraqi actress-turned-director Zahraa Ghandour’s project WOMEN OF MY LIFE and Karim Kassem MOONDOVE from Lebanon.