POSITION AMONG THE STARS (Stand van de Sterren) by Dutch/Indonesian filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich was the big winner at the awards ceremony of IDFA: International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The film won both the VPRO IDFA Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary (the Festival’s top honor and winner of a cash prize of 12,500 euros) and the Dioraphte IDFA Award for Best Dutch Documentary. The director won the same top prize at the 2004 IDFA for the second film in his trilo...

Over 2000 national and international guests are descending on the historic city of Amsterdam as the 23rd edition of IDFA: the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam begins its 11-day marathon of film premieres, professional activities and special events. Showcasing more than 300 films and with evening “talk shows” and a full series of conferences and market social networking, this year’s event is a must for makers and lovers of non-fiction film. The unique challenges of producing...

  Over 2000 national and international guests are descending on the historic city of Amsterdam as the 23rd edition of IDFA: the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam begins its 11-day marathon of film premieres, professional activities and special events. Showcasing more than 300 films and with evening “talk shows” and a full series of conferences and market social networking, this year’s event is a must for makers and lovers of non-fiction film. The unique challenges of ...

  All eyes are turning to Amsterdam starting today when the the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the largest and most prestigious non-fiction media event in the world, kicks off its 23rd edition. The Festival, which will show nearly 250 films over 11 days, opens with the Dutch documentary POSITION AMONG THE STARS by veteran director Leonard Retel Helmrich. The film, which also competes in the IDFA Competition for Feature Length Documentary, will have its premi...

Retrospective Leonard Retel Helmrich’s films at Visions du Réel – Nyon 2007The director’s ‘Single Shot Cinema’ method in focus The international documentary film festival Visions du Réel – Nyon will screen a retrospective of the works of Dutch filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich at the festival’s 2007 edition which runs from April 20 – 26.Leonard Retel Helmrich has achieved worldwide success with his feature documentaries THE EYE OF THE DAY and SHAPE OF THE MOON both part of a tri...

The Dutch documentary PROMISED PARADISE by Leonard Retel Helmrich is banned from the Jakarta International Film Festival. Saturday the film had its Asian première at the festival. Afterwards, the Censorship Commision asked the festival organisation to cancell all further screenings. According to producer Scarabee Films the Governmental Censorship Commision did not give a reason for this cancellation. Scarabee imagines the film is banned because it contains images of Imam Samudra, one of the peo...

Thursday, November 23----The International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), the largest showcase and market for non-fiction films, kicked off in high style this evening, with the world premiere of the film 4 ELEMENTS, the feature directorial debut of Dutch director Jiska Rickels. Throngs crowded the City Cinemas for two almost parallel screenings of the film (one beginning at 8:00pm, the other beginning at 8:30pm), followed by the Festival's Opening Night bash....one of the major events o...

Sundance Film Festival now in it’s 24th year held its award ceremony at the Park City Racquet Club this past weekend and announced it’s winners. Leading the way for Best Feature Film is 40 Shades of Blue and for Best Documentary is What IS IT?With over 6,500 films submitted to the Festival the 16-member jury had an auspicious task set before them to decide on the top winners for the Festival. Sundance known as one of the top festivals in the US and draws in a dedicated independent audience...