The 2026 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which takes place Nov. 12-22, has unveiled the 47 projects for the 34th edition of its IDFA Forum co-production and co-financing market. The Dutch doc fest said the projects on the slate “stretch and reimagine the documentary form, opening new ways of engaging with the world today.”

The IDFA Forum, running Nov. 15–18, had received 859 entries, which were assessed by 42 external experts. The doc in development, in production and near completion will be showcased across the Forum Pitches, Roundtable Presentations, Rough Cut Presentations and IDFA DocLab Forum, for new media, sections.

“As the documentary market becomes increasingly fragmented and harder to navigate, IDFA Forum has revised its presentation formats to help projects communicate more clearly the support they need and to foster their meaningful engagement with funders, broadcasters, producers, and other collaborators, enabling those potential partners to better understand the role they can play in supporting a film,” organizers said. “Under the revised structure, selected projects will be showcased either to a larger audience at the Forum Pitches or in the more intimate setting of the Roundtable Presentations, allowing for more in-depth conversations. Both formats offer access to the Forum’s one-on-one meetings with industry professionals.” Co-production and producer-to-producer meetings also remain central to Forum.

“Despite the challenges of the market, both in terms of finance and distribution, we strongly believe that IDFA Forum should provide space for filmmakers who approach their craft with courage and curiosity,” said Adriek van Nieuwenhuijzen, head of IDFA Industry. “We champion works that surprise, reveal, and embrace complexity, and we hope to see all of these projects find audiences, whether on screens, big or small, via headsets, or in immersive installations.”

Mixing emerging talent and some of the most recognized documentary filmmakers, this year’s lineup features new works by Wang Bing, Vitaly Mansky, Rachel Leah Jones and Liang Zhao.

“Spanning five continents, the selection features projects from Paraguay, Tunisia, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, Namibia, and Palestine, among others, reflecting a broad range of geographies, production contexts, and perspectives,” organizers highlighted. “Gender balance has been achieved across all the formats, with a commitment to wider diversity beyond parity alone.”

Check out the list of IDFA Forum projects right here.

Forum Pitch and Roundtable Presentations
Being North Korean, dir. Roxy Rezvany, prod. Aya Kaido / Besheh Meesheh Films Ltd, Roxy Rezvany (United Kingdom)

Dr. Hedgehog, dir. Peter Alsted, prod. Birgitte Keseler / Elk Film, Katrine Dolmer / Elk Film (Denmark)

Examination, dir. Juanjo Pereira, prod. Ivana Urízar / Cine Mío (Paraguay)

Fur, dir. Joakim Demmer, prod. Thomas Kufus / zero one film GmbH (Germany)

Game of Replacing Gods, dir. An Chu, prod. Kei Yiu Kathy Wong / In-sight Practice Ltd. (Taiwan)

How Love Moves, dir. Pallavi Paul, prod. Aman Mann, Shaunak Sen / Kiterabbit Films (India)

Jiabiangou, dir. Wang Bing, prod. Mao Hui / CS Productions, Sonia Buchman / Gladys Glover Films, Nicolas R. De La Mothe / Gladys Glover Films, Serge Lalou / Les Films d’ici (France, Hong Kong)

La Linda, dir. Francina Carbonell, prod. Gema Juárez Allen / Gema Films (Argentina, Chile)

My Father Killed Bourguiba, dir. Fatma Riahi, prod. Dorra Bouchoucha / Nomadis Images, Lina Chaabane / Nomadis Images, Fatma Riahi (Tunisia)

My Rebel Heart, dir. Ida Kat Balslev, prod. Sidsel Lønvig Siersted (Denmark)

Near Life, dir. Marta Miskaryan, prod. Alice Hughes / Beehive Films Ltd (United Kingdom)

Odesa.Mama, dir. Vitaly Mansky, prod. Filip Remunda (Czech Republic, Latvia)

One Step Closer, dir. Mehran Tamadon, prod. Rebecca Houzel / Petit à petit production, Marianne Romeo/Petit à petit production (France)

Podium (You Have Three Minutes), dir. Rachel Leah Jones, prod. Rachel Leah Jones / Home Made Docs, Philippe Bellaiche / Home Made Docs (France, Switzerland, Canada)

Re:collection, dir. Dane Dodds, prod. Antoinette Engel (South Africa, Denmark)

Recovery, dir. Roman Bondarchuk, Vadym Ilkov, prod. Darya Bassel / Moon Man (Ukraine)

Ship of Fools, dir. Liang Zhao, prod. Jia Zhao / Muyi Film (Netherlands)

Shooting Stars, dir. Parsa Ansari, prod. Milad Khosravi / Seven Springs Pictures (Iran)

Silence Diaries, dir. Daniela Muñoz Barroso, prod. Daniela Muñoz Barroso / Estudio ST, Leila Montero / Estudio ST (Spain, Cuba)

Sisters in War, dir. Lay Thida, prod. Lay Thida / Lavender Productions, Maya Newell / Closer Productions (Myanmar)

Sonia – Searching for Balance, dir. Rita Balogh, Peter Akar, prod. Sára László / Campfilm, Marcell Gerő / Campfilm (Hungary)

Stitch by Stitch, dir. Alina Baitokova, prod. Adilet Karzhoev / Karzhoev Films (Kyrgyzstan)

Super Sila, dir. Mohammed Alshareef, prod. Ala’ Abu Ghoush (Palestine)

The Contract of the Century, dir. Christina D. Bartson, prod. Elijah Stevens / Space Time Films (United Kingdom, United States

The Earth Beneath Our Feet, dir. Jack Wolf, Janvier Murairi, prod. Arne Buettner / Kino Adagio, Quentin Laurent / Les Films de l’oeil sauvage, Quentin Noirfalisse / Dancing Dog Productions SPRL (Germany, France, Belgium)

The Night I Return, dir. Ehsan Fardjadniya, prod. Pieter van Huystee / Pieter van Huystee Film (Netherlands)

This Body Is My Final Address, dir. August Joensalo, prod. Emilia Haukka / Aamu Film Company (Finland)

This Version of Me, dir. Gabrielle Zilkha, prod. Ina Fichman (Canada)

Wild Goose Days, dir. Andrew H. Brown, prod. Andrew H. Brown, Katie Basile (United States)

Rough Cut Presentations

Artificial Clouds, dir. Josefina Buschmann Mardones, prod. Daniela Camino / Mimbre Films, Boris Garavini/Les Films Invisibles (Chile, France)

Camels of the Sea, dir. Vikram Singh, prod. Mandakini Gahlot / Elefant Films (India)

Moon Is Watching You, dir. Chi Hang MA, prod. Chi Hang MA, Catherine CHAN (Hong Kong)

My Mother & I, dir. Dilpak Mjaeed, prod. Marwa Tammam / Patchwork Productions (Egypt)

Oh Heart, Don’t be Afraid, dir. Ana Kvichidze, prod. Avtandil Khorava / Moonbow Productions, Mariam Bitsadze / 17/07 Productions, Ana Kvichidze (Georgia)

Resisting Residents, dir. Nikos Pilos, Arsinoi Pilou, prod. Dafni Kalafati / Filmiki (Greece)

IDFA DocLab Forum

Artificial (Body) Intuition, dir. Amit Palgi, prod. Amit Palgi (Netherlands)

The Atlas of Sound, dir. Siobhan Silén, prod. Annika Hagemann (United Kingdom)

The Bridge, dir. Brandon Powers, prod. Brandon Powers / Our Time Projects (United States)

How to Make a Chiffon Cake, dir. Hyeunjoo Woo, Jiyun Park, prod. Ubac Studio (South Korea)

Just a game?, dir. Jo Sol, prod. Georgina Oliva / Shaktimetta Produccions (Spain)

Lidscape XR, dir. Sebastian Carrasco, prod. Andrés Piñeros / Scrmbld Studio (Colombia)

Mine Land, dir. Katja Verheul (Netherlands)

The Passage, dir. Nicole-Christine Strasser, prod. Sebastian Herbst / Arkanum Pictures (Germany)

This Pleasant Lady, dir. Victoria Mapplebeck, prod. Victoria Mapplebeck (United Kingdom)

Time Hunter XR: Colonial Protocols, dir. Mark Mushiva, Daniel Chein, prod. Laura Kloeckner / Seera Films (Germany, Namibia, United States)

TKHAFSH / تخفش (working title), dir. Noor Abed, Haig Aivazian, prod. AFAC Arab Fund for Art and Culture (Lebanon), with Time Based Editions (Belgium)

We Walk the Bridge of Worlds, dir. Sara de Gouveia, Inka Kendzia, Zinhle Purity Mkhize, prod. Sara de Gouveia / Lionfish Productions (South Africa)

EXCLUSIVE: Some BBC employees would like Matt Brittin to travel back in time and scrub from the record his comments about an AI-generated episode of Doctor Who.

During a staff town hall on Wednesday, BBC insiders voiced concerns about Brittin’s comments at the Royal Television Society London Convention last week, in which the director-general said that an AI Doctor Who was “pretty good.”

In a question that received 86 upvotes, one staffer wrote: “Matt, can you please rethink your fascination with AI-generated programmes? You recently mentioned a Dr Who one. Dr Who is made in Cardiff. What happened to the BBC’s commitment to bringing arts and the creative industries to all corners of the UK? Young people especially do not want this [AI] content.”

In a second comment seen by Deadline, another insider said: “Is it not time for the BBC to fully reject generative AI? I think Matt’s comments about AI Dr Who and news presenters haven’t been helpful. We’re not a content machine like Netflix and should surely focus on doing things better (not just faster).” The question received more than 30 upvotes.

Brittin joked during the town hall that he “got in trouble” for his Doctor Who comments, which generated headlines in national newspapers. He also expanded on his thinking, stressing that human-led creativity would always be at the heart of the BBC’s mission.

“I was just trying to make the point: Look at the pace of change and what this stuff can do. It’s really important. I’ve spent a lot of time on this, as you can imagine,” he explained.

“We have to understand what it’s capable of, for good and for ill, and that means things like the risk of our journalistic integrity being undermined. You want to know that that is Steve Rosenberg in Moscow and not an AI-generated state actor-backed facsimile of him, and we need to understand those risks.”

He continued: “Equally, AI can help tools on research, journalists using things like Notebook is hugely powerful. So we’ve got to put it to work. What I want to do is accelerate the velocity of testing and learning in this space because it’s vital to the integrity of what we do. It will help us to be more effective in a more efficient in some ways, and there are some creative opportunities that come through too.”

“But I want to be really clear: Humans are leading, and I believe in human creativity, enhanced by whatever tools. We’re surrounded by technology today. It’ll be different technology tomorrow. But the BBC has to stand for human trust, using the best technology.”

The AI Doctor Who debate followed Deadline revealing that producers are bidding to reboot the series on the BBC as part of a competitive tender process. Line of Duty showrunner Jed Mercurio is spearheading a pitch from Hat Trick Mercurio, while STV Studios, the production group behind Blue Lights and Criminal Record, has made an audacious bid to move the show to Scotland for Season 17.

Microsoft Xbox, hoping to replicate the success of franchises like Minecraft and Fallout, is launching a new division called XP designed to extend properties beyond video games.

The XP name is described as a play on “experience points.” It has four main components: Xbox Pictures for film and TV adaptations; Xbox Products for licensing and merchandise; Xbox Partnerships for sponsors and brand partners; and Xbox Places for broadcast and in-person events.

“Our franchises can mean more to people than the time they spend playing them,” CEO Asha Sharma explained to employees in a staff memo Thursday.

Expanding properties beyond video games then creates a virtuous cycle, Xbox says. Fallout titles on Xbox Game Pass saw a 5x increase in hours played during Fallout‘s first season on Prime Video. Minecraft saw over a 75% increase in weekly active users of the game year-over-year since the movie’s release in the spring of 2025.

Hollywood, meanwhile, has finally found its groove with adapting games into films and series. Sony revived Resident Evil last month and HBO drew big viewership and critical praise with The Last of Us, just to name a couple of recent success stories.

The XP news comes after Xbox has initiated a self-described “reset” with multiple rounds of layoffs and restructured its studio businesses to adapt to a changing operating environment in the games sector. In 2023, Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard for $23 billion at a moment when mobile and casual gaming was starting to upend the traditional console business.

Kayleen Walters, a former Lucasfilm executive, has been named president of XP. She is expected to build a team at the division from staffer both internal and external. Maria Angelidou-Smith is joining Xbox as CEO of Mojang and Minecraft after nearly a decade at Meta.

After spending 13 years at Lucasfilm working on Star Wars, Walters helped grow Xbox’s consumer products arm into a mult-billion-dollar business with more than 250 licenses. She was an executive producer of A Minecraft Movie, and is a full producer on its sequel, which is currently in production.

“Fans don’t just play our franchises,” Walters wrote to employees in an email to her team. “They watch them, wear them, attend them, celebrate them, and connect with them in countless ways.”