At a typically informal gathering at the Festival's resident club on Wednesday evening, the jurors in various categories in the IDFA Awards competitions announced the three-film nominees before a packed house of anxious filmmakers and guests. The Awards themselves will be annnounced on Friday afternoon at the official awards ceremony held at the art nouveau palace, the Tuschinksi. Film screenings of the winners and other titles continues through Sunday.

IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary
The nominees of the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary (films longer than 60 minutes) are: Enemies of the People (England/Cambodia) by Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath, Last Train Home (China/Canada) by Lixin Fan and The Player (Netherlands) by John Appel.
The winner of this competition receives the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (€ 12,500).

IDFA Competition for Mid-Length and Short Documentary
The following films have been nominated for the IDFA Competition for Best Mid-Length Documentary (films up to 60 minutes): The Accidental Terrorist (Denmark/ Bosnia-Herzegovina) by Miki Mistrati and Nagieb Khaja, Girls on the Air (Italy) by Valentina Monti and Iron Crows (South Korea) by Bong-Nam Park. The NPS IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary is a cash prize worth € 10,000. The nominations for the IDFA Competition for Best Short Documentary, for films up to 30 minutes, are: Albert’s Winter (Denmark) by Andreas Koefoed, Mum (Netherlands) by Adelheid Roosen and Six Weeks (Poland) by Marcin Janos Krawczyk.

IDFA Competition for First Appearance
The jury of the IDFA Competition for Best First Appearance nominated Colony (Ireland/US) by Ross McDonnell and Carter Gunn, Garbo: The Spy (Spain) by Edmon Roch and Talhotblond (US) by Barbara Schroeder for the IDFA Award for Best First Appearance, the prize for the best first or second film. The IDFA Award for Best First Appearance amounts to € 5.000.

IDFA Competition for Student Documentary
For the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary, the competition for international student films, the following films were nominated: Book of Miri (Denmark) by Katrine Philp, Redemption (Germany) by Sabrina Wulff and Time within Time (Netherlands) by Menno Otten. The IDFA Award for Student Competition consists of a cash prize of € 2,500.

IDFA Competition for Dutch Documentary
For the first time, all Dutch premières, both the documentaries included in the Premieres from the Lowlands section and in other competition programmes, compete for the IDFA Award for Dutch Documentary (€ 5,000, made available by the Dioraphte Foundation). The nominees are: Farewell by Ditteke Mensink, The Player by John Appel and The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Island by Suzanne Raes.

DOC U! Award
A jury of youngsters between the ages of 15 and 18 years old will choose the best film from the DOC U! programme, selected from the IDFA programme. Nominations for  IDFA DOC U! Award (€ 1,500) are: Crips Strapped 'n Strong by Mags Gavan and Joost van der Valk, Soundtrack for a Revolution by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, and The Yes Men Fix the World by Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.