IDFA to open with Myanmar training film as 253-title lineup revealed
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam will open its 39th edition with White Tiger Column, as organisers set out the main competition line-ups, according to Variety. The festival runs from Nov. 12 to 22 in Amsterdam. The full edition will screen 253 titles from 80 countries.
White Tiger Column follows recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar's resistance movement. The film was directed by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi and Bryan Dickie. It will receive its world premiere as the opening film, meaning its first public screening anywhere, Variety reported.
The opening title will compete in the International Competition, the festival's main contest section. It is also nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature, an award for debut films. The selection puts a first-time feature in the opening slot and in the centre of the awards race.
That International Competition comprises 13 titles this year. Twelve of them are world or international premieres, meaning they have not been shown publicly before, or not outside their home country, according to Variety. Thirteen is a tight field. Almost every slot is a fresh launch.
The latest announcement also detailed the Envision Competition, a second contest section, which comprises 13 films. It added the Luminous, Frontlight and IDFA DocLab competition selections, which cover artistically driven work, socially urgent films and interactive and immersive projects. Nominations for all cross-section awards, prizes that cut across programme sections, were unveiled at the same time, Variety reported.
The reveal builds on earlier programme news. More than 100 titles had already been added across the Signed, Paradocs, Best of Fests and Short sections, according to Yahoo. Those strands bring together new signed films, experimental work, festival favourites from the year and short documentaries. The festival is widely described as the world's largest documentary event.
For the industry, the IDFA Forum selected 47 projects for its 2026 edition. The line-up includes projects linked to Wang Bing, Rachel Leah Jones, Vitaly Mansky, Juanjo Pereira and Liang Zhao, Deadline reported. The Forum is the festival's pitching and co-production market, where makers present unfinished films to buyers, broadcasters and funds.
What makes this stand out is the clarity of the November calendar. The opening film is fixed. The two main competitions are set at 13 titles each. Audiences in Amsterdam now know the scale of the choice, with the festival's site noting a focus programme titled Common Ground with 17 films and in-depth conversations, according to IDFA.
