The Feature-Length Documentary jury wishes to congratulate IDFA for the diversity of the selection. Among the twelve feature films we had to judge, many testify to a worrying state of the contemporary world, where intolerance, racism, refusal of the other, and political manipulation is more and more prevalent in so many parts of the world. Facing the misuse of so-called “alternative truth” or “post-truth,” the ethics of documentary cinema become even more crucial than ever.

Coming from Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and Latin America, the set of films in this competition also addresses the historical backgrounds of our contemporary situation, offering alternative points of view on our reality, with a special focus on non-dominant components of our world, as well as providing a wide range of visual strategies. The jury wishes to underline the importance of the political approaches by many of the filmmakers, not only in terms of topics but of the use of camera, sound, and editing, that were translated in significantly different cinematic responses.

Our special jury award goes to a film that was chosen because of the creative and beautiful way it displaces the viewer gaze by associating a sensible look at non-human wonderful characters and the soundtrack that connects daily lives of animal and human stray dogs. The IDFA Special Jury Award for Feature-Length Documentary goes to Los Reyes by Bettina Perut and Ivan Osnivikoff.

The IDFA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary goes to a film that was chosen because of its epic storytelling of the rise of the far right in one of the most populated countries of this planet, the violence of religious and ultranationalist militias with the support of authorities and dominant medias, the dignity of resistance in multiple forms, often at life-cost, in a way that acknowledges the complexity of the situation but put it in a very understandable shape. The IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary is unanimously given to Reason by Anand Patwardhan.