Below The Clouds

Source: Venice International Film Festival

‘Below The Clouds’

Gianfranco Rosi’s Below The Clouds and Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up are among the first titles selected for the 2025 International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA, November 13-23).

Both titles will play in the Signed strand, which aims to showcase ‘the latest cinematic adventures of some of the most original filmmakers of our time’, according to the festival.

Both Below The Clouds and Cover-Up debuted at Venice Film Festival – the former in Competition, where it won the Special Jury Prize; and the latter out of competition.

Below The Clouds is a portrait of the people who live and work in Naples, Italy; while Cover-Up explores the investigative journalism of Seymour Hersh, who covered US Army torture scandals during the Vietnam and Iraq wars.

Other Signed selections include Aboozar Amini’s Kabul, Between Prayers, about a Taliban soldier caught between ideology and reality; Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan In Gaza, about the filmmaker’s 2001 road trip through Gaza; and Claire Simon’s Writing Life – Annie Ernaux Through The Eyes Of High School Students, a portrait of the Nobel Prize-winning French writer. 

The Best of Fests section includes Deni Oumar Pitsaev’s Imago, Mamadou Khouma Gueye’s The Attachment, David Bingong’s The Travelers and Brittany Shyne’s Seeds.

Adjustments to the IDFA programme this year include presenting the youth-focused films as a cross-section programme titled Current Future.

The festival has also made initial selections for its non-fiction film art strand Paradocs, including Kahlil Joseph’s essay film BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions.

The Film Fund DocLab Interactive Grant has also selected four winners for its 2025 edition, all of which will have a world premiere at IDFA DocLab from November 14-22. The titles are Jeroen van Loon’s Life Needs Internet 2010-2025, Claudix Vanesix’s Feedback, un musical antifuturista, Sjef van Beers’ Gamer Keyboard Wall Piece #2 and Victorine van Alphen’s The Oracle: Ritual for the Future.

16 films have been selected for the short documentary competition. The full IDFA selection including feature competition titles will be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, October 14.

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