The 39^th edition of International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) will open with White Tiger Column, a film set in one of the deadliest corners of the world.

The feature directed by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, and Bryan Dickie closely follows “a group of recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar’s resistance movement,” according to a release. “In a training camp deep in the jungle, the filmmakers capture the daily lives of young volunteers as they prepare to fight for their freedom. A striking example of documentary cinema, the film offers a moving portrait of a courageous generation.”

IDFA, the largest documentary film festival in the world, runs from November 12-22 in the Dutch capital. The festival announced its competition lineups Tuesday, including White Tiger Column, which is slated to premiere in International Competition. That documentary is also nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature. Scroll for the complete lineup.

Thirteen films are screening in International Competition, a dozen of them world or international premieres. Those documentaries hail from around the world – Burkina Faso, Morocco, Senegal, Brazil, Ukraine and other European countries, Canada and more – but interestingly no films from the U.S. in that category.

“The International Competition brings together works that invite curiosity and critical reflection on our world today,” IDFA notes. “Across a wide range of subjects and filmmaking approaches, these films offer complex, layered perspectives on the present.”

The Envision Competition, meanwhile, offers “13 unparalleled films, each of them stylistically arresting, as visionary filmmakers forge new cinematic languages. The selection brings together titles in which form drives the narrative.” Envision titles include Bahía Honda, directed by Alejandro Alonso Estrella; Drop! Cover! Hold On!, directed by Stéphanie Roland; Shishir Jha’s Rivers of Memory, and My Own Personal Gulag, directed by Lina Gorbaneva. All of those films are world premieres.

IDFA announced it is adding two very high-profile documentaries to its lineup: You Can See Everything, the film directed by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes that created a sensation when it premiered in Telluride, and Musk, Alex Gibney’s unflattering examination of world’s richest man Elon Musk. Newly added Sixteen Moments of My Life, directed by Albert Serra, spotlights Ingrid Caven singing live at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris.

The Special Screenings section brings an Eye Filmmuseum restoration of John Leerdam’s 30 mei, 1969 (gritu di un pueblo), revisiting “the historic uprising in Curaçao and the colonial inequalities and racial discrimination that fueled it.”

Luminous

The premiere-only section Luminous presents a wide range of styles and formalist approaches, from observational to personal to experimental. Across both feature-length and short films, the titles grapple with big questions of life through deeply personal, lived experiences. Among the selection of 21 films, 19 titles are world or international premieres, including nine debut feature films.

In the immersive and poetic Where the Sun is Born by Laura Bermúdez and Jorge García, a dancer leaves the city in Honduras to travel back to the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community of his youth—in search of his roots and a sense of community. The IDFA Bertha Fund-supported She Was Not Alone by Hussein Al-asadi closely follows Zaira, an elderly woman living in close communion with nature in the marshlands of southern Iraq—meditatively illuminating an idyllic place, increasingly under threat.

In the IDFA Project Space NL alumni Raluca Lupaşcu’s A Modern Roma Fairytale, ten-year-old Nicoleta, granddaughter of a Roma king, grows up dreaming of a life in a marble palace—while watching the women around her navigate the restrictions of the patriarchal traditions that will shape her future. In Every Death Diminishes Me, Sergii Bazhenov trains as a medic to join the front lines, documenting his colleagues as they treat the wounded and confront the human cost of war.

Frontlight

The premiere-only section Frontlight showcases 16 films, from critically examinations of the truth and urgent issues of our time to portraits of artists and their work. 15 of the selected titles are world or international premieres.

Several films offer immediate responses to critical current events, while others take time to reflect, examining the social realities and challenges shaping people’s lives. The Big Boom! by Gabriel Tejedor explores a Bulgarian arms manufacturer in Kazanlak rife with contradictions and simmering tension, where the machine guns and rockets are destined for Ukraine while many of its employees are pro-Putin. In No Man’s Air by Peter Delpeut and Gerco de Ruijter, a pilot recalls the last flight to Nicosia Airport in July 1974, as a Turkish invasion of Cyprus loomed.

Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran, Under the Skin enters Tehran’s cosmetic clinics to explore the pressures behind Iran’s widespread culture of cosmetic surgery in pursuit of physical perfection, in a conservative society that seeks to control women’s beauty. In Jenin & the Nakba Between Us, Serene Husni returns to her parents’ hometown in the occupied West Bank, weaving family archive and conversations with residents into a portrait of a place shaped by displacement, occupation, and memory.

Selected films: International Competition

• Bardi, dir. Tala Hadid (Morocco), 108’ – European Premiere

• Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky, dir. Mehran Tamadon (France), 120’ – World Premiere

• Down the River, dir. Ruslan Fedotov (Germany), 79’ – World Premiere

• Hazara Town, dir. Khadim Dai (Belgium/Australia/Germany), 103’ – World Premiere

• Here Where the Fire Burns, dir. Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (Mexico), 97’ – World Premiere

• An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93, dir. Salomé Jashi (Georgia), 100’ – World Premiere

• Lonan Tché, dir. Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou (France/Italy/Ivory Coast/Senegal), 95’ – World Premiere

• Mangabangabaka, dir. Michaël Andrianaly (France/Madagascar/Burkina Faso), 92’ – World Premiere

• Morro Grande, dir. Isabel Joffily, Rita Toledo (Brazil/Netherlands), 88’ – World Premiere

• Still Night, Burning House, dir. Carol Nguyen (Canada), 76’ – International Premiere

• White Tiger Column, dir. Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, Bryan Dickie (Canada), 95’ – World Premiere

• Women and War, dir. Elwira Niewiera (Germany/Poland/Ukraine), 103’ – World Premiere

• The Year of the Ghost, dir. Louis Hothothot (Netherlands/China), 95’ – World Premiere

Selected films: Envision Competition

• Bahía Honda, dir. Alejandro Alonso Estrella (Cuba/France/Norway), 85’ – World Premiere

• Between Revolutions, dir. Ruben Desiere (Belgium/Netherlands), 78’ – World Premiere

• The Black Box Is Orange, dir. Yuula Benivolski (Canada), 89’ – International Premiere

• Drop! Cover! Hold On!, dir. Stéphanie Roland (Belgium/France), 77’ – World Premiere

• Lyrical Vengeance, dir. wendelien van oldenborgh (Netherlands), 111’ – World Premiere

• Memories, dir. Anna Falguères (Belgium/France), 78’ – World Premiere

• Memories of Lightning, dir. Riccardo Giacconi (France/Italy), 73’ – International Premiere

• My Own Personal Gulag, dir. Lina Gorbaneva (Spain), 84’ – World Premiere

• Radiant Mountain, dir. Miguel Moraes Cabral (Belgium/Portugal/France), 75’ – World Premiere

• Ragazzi al fiume, dir. Pablo Briones (Switzerland), 75’ – World Premiere

• Rivers of Memory, dir. Shishir Jha (India), 72’ – World Premiere

• Vertigo Garden, dir. Lei Lei (Hong Kong / SAR /China), 73’ – World Premiere

• You Don’t Die Two Times, dir. Ager Oueslati (Algeria/Germany/Netherlands), 90’ – World Premiere

IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction

With ten titles, the IDFA DocLab Competition for Immersive Non-Fiction boldly expands the horizons of the documentary genre, pushing immersive media beyond conventional boundaries. Across VR, live theater performances, fulldome experiences, and multisensory works, the selection explores how immersive art can alter the way we encounter reality—offering unexpected perspectives and opening up new possibilities for agency and resistance.

Several artists use immersive experiences to bring audiences into close, embodied encounters with realities that may otherwise feel distant. Other works deal with the corporeal and the body, from digitally altering our perception of ourselves and inviting our microbiomes to a feast, to examining grief through magnifying the decomposition of a loved one’s body—turning grief and death into a profound reflection on how humans are but a part of a larger ecosystem.

IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling

The nine-title IDFA DocLab Competition for Digital Storytelling expands the possibilities of documentary through digital art, games, interactive installations, and live performance. With artists from across disciplines bringing traditional forms into dialogue with new media, the selection showcases a new wave of cross-disciplinary experimentation.

Several works confront the digital systems shaping contemporary life, subverting algorithms and finding room for human error and agency. Other works invite audiences into interactive open worlds, adapting game and world-building technologies to create participatory experiences that radically depart from everyday reality. Elsewhere, artists explore the ever-evolving relationship between the physical and digital, investigating how technology fundamentally shapes our experience of intimacy, desire, and connection.

Cross-section awards

IDFA has also announced the nominations for the cross-section awards—distinct awards that transcend the program sections to recognize outstanding artistic achievement across the festival program.

The IDFA Award for Best First Feature celebrates the most remarkable debut feature-length films, recognizing works that reveal a distinctive creative voice and the promise of an evolving signature. Drawn from the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, and Frontlight, the award is accompanied by a €5,000 prize, awarded by an international jury.

The films nominated for the IDFA Award for Best First Feature are also eligible for the FIPRESCI Award, chosen by an international jury of film critics.

The IDFA Award for Best Dutch Film highlights exceptional Dutch filmmaking talent across the International Competition, Envision Competition, Luminous, and Frontlight selections. The winning filmmaker with receive €5,000, awarded by an international jury.

The Beeld & Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award for Best Creative Use of Archive honors outstanding archival film, selected from across the film program. The winning film will receive a €5,000 prize, awarded by an international jury.

The winners will be announced during the IDFA 2026 Awards Ceremony on Thursday, November 19.

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) has unveiled the main competition lineups for its 39th edition and additions to other sections. The complete IDFA 2026 official selection consists of 253 titles from 80 countries.

The 39th edition of IDFA takes place in Amsterdam Nov. 12-22, with the world premiere of White Tiger Column by Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, and Bryan Dickie now set to open to fest. The doc, screening in the international competition, follows a group of recruits through 45 days of training with Myanmar’s resistance movement. “In a training camp deep in the jungle, the filmmakers capture the daily lives of young volunteers as they prepare to fight for their freedom,” reads a synopsis. IDFA calls the film “a striking example of documentary cinema” and “a moving portrait of a courageous generation.”

The International Competition brings together 13 “works that invite curiosity and critical reflection on our world today,” IDFA organizers said. “Across a wide range of subjects and filmmaking approaches, these films offer complex, layered perspectives on the present.”

Meanwhile, IDFA’s Envision Competition will screen 13 films, in which “form drives the narrative.” Said IDFA: “Through distinctive visual approaches and formal choices, the filmmakers deconstruct and reframe the complexities of our world, offering new ways of seeing and understanding the subjects they explore.” And memory is clearly a key theme in this program, with three titles featuring the word in their titles.

IDFA’s premieres-only Luminous section presents 21 feature-length and short films that “grapple with big questions of life through deeply personal, lived experiences.” In this program, 19 titles are world or international premieres, and nine are debut feature films. “In the immersive and poetic Where the Sun Is Born by Laura Bermúdez and Jorge García, a dancer leaves the city in Honduras to travel back to the Afro-Caribbean Garifuna community of his youth in search of his roots and a sense of community,” the festival noted. “The IDFA Bertha Fund-supported She Was Not Alone by Hussein Al-asadi closely follows Zaira, an elderly woman living in close communion with nature in the marshlands of southern Iraq – meditatively illuminating an idyllic place, increasingly under threat.”

Also, Raluca Lupaşcu’s A Modern Roma Fairytale follows Nicoleta, 10, the granddaughter of a Roma king, growing up dreaming of a life in a marble palace “while watching the women around her navigate the restrictions of the patriarchal traditions that will shape her future.” And in Every Death Diminishes Me, Sergii Bazhenov trains as a medic to join the front lines, documenting his colleagues as they treat the wounded and confront the human cost of war.

Frontlight, rather than front lines, is the name of the premieres-only IDFA section that will showcase 16 films, “from critical examinations of the truth and urgent issues of our time to portraits of artists and their work,” organizers said. “Several films offer immediate responses to critical current events, while others take time to reflect, examining the social realities and challenges shaping people’s lives.” Among the docs here is Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran, Under the Skin, which explores Tehran’s cosmetic clinics and “the pressures behind Iran’s widespread culture of cosmetic surgery in pursuit of physical perfection in a conservative society that seeks to control women’s beauty.”

IDFA on Tuesday also unveiled additions to its other sections, including Alex Gibney’s Musk, Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s You Can See Everything, and Sixteen Moments of My Life by Albert Serra.

Check out IDFA’s competitions and other key programs unveiled on Tuesday below.

International Competition

Bardi, dir. Tala Hadid (Morocco), 108’ – European Premiere

Crack in the Head, Crack in the Sky, dir. Mehran Tamadon (France), 120’ – World Premiere

Down the River, dir. Ruslan Fedotov (Germany), 79’ – World Premiere

Hazara Town, dir. Khadim Dai (Belgium/Australia/Germany), 103’ – World Premiere

Here Where the Fire Burns, dir. Juan Manuel Sepúlveda (Mexico), 97’ – World Premiere

An Incomplete Day in the History of Georgia 10.06.93, dir. Salomé Jashi (Georgia), 100’ – World Premiere

Lonan Tché, dir. Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou (France/Italy/Ivory Coast/Senegal), 95’ – World Premiere

Mangabangabaka, dir. Michaël Andrianaly (France/Madagascar/Burkina Faso), 92’ – World Premiere

Morro Grande, dir. Isabel Joffily, Rita Toledo (Brazil/Netherlands), 88’ – World Premiere

Still Night, Burning House, dir. Carol Nguyen (Canada), 76’ – International Premiere

White Tiger Column, dir. Robert Mentov, Dwight Jantzi, Bryan Dickie (Canada), 95’ – World Premiere

Women and War, dir. Elwira Niewiera (Germany/Poland/Ukraine), 103’ – World Premiere

The Year of the Ghost, dir. Louis Hothothot (Netherlands/China), 95’ – World Premiere

Envision Competition

Bahía Honda, dir. Alejandro Alonso Estrella (Cuba/France/Norway), 85’ – World Premiere

Between Revolutions, dir. Ruben Desiere (Belgium/Netherlands), 78’ – World Premiere

The Black Box Is Orange, dir. Yuula Benivolski (Canada), 89’ – International Premiere

Drop! Cover! Hold On!, dir. Stéphanie Roland (Belgium/France), 77’ – World Premiere

Lyrical Vengeance, dir. Wendelien van Oldenborgh (Netherlands), 111’ – World Premiere

Memories, dir. Anna Falguères (Belgium/France), 78’ – World Premiere

Memories of Lightning, dir. Riccardo Giacconi (France/Italy), 73’ – International Premiere

My Own Personal Gulag, dir. Lina Gorbaneva (Spain), 84’ – World Premiere

Radiant Mountain, dir. Miguel Moraes Cabral (Belgium/Portugal/France), 75’ – World Premiere

Ragazzi al fiume, dir. Pablo Briones (Switzerland), 75’ – World Premiere

Rivers of Memory, dir. Shishir Jha (India), 72’ – World Premiere

Vertigo Garden, dir. Lei Lei (Hong Kong / SAR /China), 73’ – World Premiere

You Don’t Die Two Times, dir. Ager Oueslati (Algeria/Germany/Netherlands), 90’ – World Premiere

Frontlight

The Big Boom!, dir. Gabriel Tejedor (Switzerland), 79’ – World Premiere

A Derailment, dir. Nathan Truesdell (United States), 26’ – International Premiere

The Dome Sessions, dir. Firas El Hallak (Lebanon), 61’ – World Premiere

Hold Your Breath, dir. Vincent Sparreboom (Netherlands), 75’ – World Premiere

Jenin & the Nakba Between Us, dir. Serene Husni (Canada/Jordan), 89’ – World Premiere

The Message, dir. Guylaine Maroist, Eric Ruel (Canada), 105’ – World Premiere

A Minute of Silence, dir. Laurent Pantaleon (Réunion/France), 87’ – World Premiere

No Man’s Air, dir. Peter Delpeut, Gerco de Ruijter (Netherlands), 42’ – World Premiere

Notes From a Besieged City, dir. Mateusz Mularski (Poland), 78’ – International Premiere

Regarding Memory and Neglect, dir. Ricardo Martensen (Brazil), 86’ – World Premiere

Romare Bearden: A Life in Collage, dir. Deborah Riley Draper (United States), 82’ – International Premiere

Small Expectations, dir. Alexandru Solomon (Romania/Belgium), 118’ – World Premiere

Tehran, Under the Skin, dir. Afsaneh Salari (France/Iran/Sweden), 83’ – European Premiere

Then I Saw a Beautiful Horse, dir. Altay Erlik (Turkey/Germany), 3’ – World Premiere

Water Cooler, dir. Emma V.F. (United States), 12’ – International Premiere

Wood Street, dir. Caron Creighton (United States), 100’ – International Premiere

Luminous

Agaar, dir. Bo Yang (China/France), 117’ – European Premiere

Alter Ego, dir. Mohammad Ali Atassi (Lebanon/France), 72’ – World Premiere

Back Before 3 P.M., dir. Gaël Lépingle (France), 74’ – International Premiere

The Blood of the Covenant, dir. Fábio Silva (Portugal), 64’ – World Premiere

The Brush in Your Hand, dir. Charlotte Dumas (Netherlands), 51’ – World Premiere

Cuscú, dir. Risseth Yangüez Singh (Panama/United States), 83’ – World Premiere

Dreams of the Wild Oaks, dir. Marjan Khosravi (Iran/Spain/France), 78’ – European Premiere

Every Death Diminishes Me, dir. Sergii Bazhenov (Ukraine), 80’ – World Premiere

How Much Longer, dir. Niels van Koevorden (Netherlands), 83’ – World Premiere

The Last Season, dir. Yohan Guignard (France), 25’ – International Premiere

Mentor, dir. Krzysztof Tomaszewski (Poland), 14’ – International Premiere

The Middle Room, dir. Enrico Maisto (Italy/Switzerland), 79’ – International Premiere

A Modern Roma Fairytale, dir. Raluca Lupaşcu (Netherlands), 80’ – World Premiere

The Sacred Circle, dir. Elahe Esmaili (Iran), 36’ – World Premiere

Scenes From Departure, dir. Ray Kamhei Chan (Taiwan/Hong Kong), 82’ – International Premiere

She Was Not Alone, dir. Hussein Al-asadi (Iraq/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/United States), 88’ – World Premiere

Tonight Is Forever, dir. Fernando Souza (France/Spain/Japan), 93’ – World Premiere

Up in the Air, dir. Oksana Koklonska (Ukraine/Czech Republic/Lithuania), 93’ – World Premiere

Waves of Time, dir. Weicheng Hua (China), 87’ – World Premiere

We Had a Plan, dir. Suzanne Raes (Netherlands/Philippines), 96’ – World Premiere

Content creators are crossing over into the traditional film and TV space in a major way, and YouTube is a key driver. Deadline spotlights the established and emerging European creators to keep your eye on.

This past summer the global independent box office was set alight thanks to two twentysomething YouTubers: Curry Barker’s microbudget horror Obsession and Kane Parsons’ low-budget psychological thriller Backrooms took a combined near $1 billion from cinemas worldwide. Finally, it seemed that Hollywood had succeeded in wooing Gen Z — and older generations — back into theaters.

Not only did Barker and Parsons become the two youngest directors in cinema history to top the U.S. box office during their opening weekends — Barker is 27 while Parsons is just 21 — but the tallies proved something more concrete: YouTube really is fertile ground for crossover talent that can deliver big returns.

“Top creators are already operating as next-generation studios,” says Pedro Pina, YouTube’s VP for Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Just a few weeks ago we saw creators walking down red carpets and premiering their work in prestigious film festivals in Venice and Cannes. These storytellers are showcasing their work on the big screen alongside the very best of traditional cinema, proving that great storytelling is great storytelling, wherever it starts. A big shift is that talent no longer needs to wait in boardrooms for permission. On YouTube, creators greenlight themselves.”

Creators benefit from a direct, two-way relationship with their audience, something that is incredibly valuable and, adds Pina, this “authentic, personal connection” is what is driving the world of entertainment.

“Beyond authenticity, creators have an agile, data-driven approach to production that doesn’t match traditional television cycles,” he says. “A creator is essentially a storyteller and data scientist rolled into one. Once the camera turns off, they dive into YouTube Studio to analyze retention curves second-by-second, read community feedback and iterate format, tone and pacing for the very next upload. Forward-thinking broadcasters willing to experiment and embrace this agile approach are seeing the benefits for their reach and revenue.”

But YouTube is vast and it can be hard excavate the right talent, so we’ve pooled together a bespoke selection of established and emerging European talents who are navigating the crossover into the traditional film and TV space and we hear them weigh in on why it’s a good time to be in the content creation space right now.

Max Fosh

U.K.

British YouTuber and comedian Max Fosh, who first launched his channel in 2017, is best known for his viral stunts, cheeky pranks and large-scale social experiments. Some of his most famous work includes placing a “Welcome to Luton” sign near Gatwick Airport — two U.K. airports that are more than 50 miles apart — to confuse landing passengers, as well as infiltrating and competing in the Mr. Universe bodybuilding contest by exploiting a lack of strict entry qualifications.

In 2025, he finished a worldwide standup comedy tour dubbed Loophole, performing 72 shows across 13 countries. His YouTube channel has amassed 5.2 million followers. When he speaks to Deadline, he’s just wrapped shooting BBC’s quiz game show Mastermind, where he was a contestant and he’s also appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in the U.K.

When pressed about the shift of power YouTubers are now seeing in more traditional media spaces, Fosh says that “we’ve seen this coming for years.”

“This is not a new thing for creators,” he says. “There have been waves of creators who have come in and out of the space and made millions of dollars and have retired, but now it’s within the cultural zeitgeist. YouTube is being taken more seriously.”

Pointing to the success of Barker and Parsons, Fosh says their success is down to the fact that “they have had the opportunity to fail and to make stuff through trial and error on YouTube.” “It’s the only place that is a training ground for new talent in the U.K. Back in the day it used to be kids’ TV or radio, but now — with the cutting of local radio and broadcasting budgets — you have to have a name attached to something big now. There’s no other way for new talent to come through other than online. You are the master of your own destiny, and you can fail and you can try things.”

Léna Mahfouf

France

French-Algerian content creator Léna Mahfouf, aka Léna Situations, is perhaps one of the most well-known YouTubers to come out of France. She turned her lifestyle channel Lena Situations, which she launched in 2017, into a broader entertainment and fashion business. Her videos, which covered fashion, travel, friendships and everyday life, saw her earn a loyal fanbase, and her YouTube channel currently has 3.2 million subscribers. Her signature Vlogs d’août series became a defining part of her online profile — she wrapped the 10^th and final season of that series in August.

In 2021, Forbes France included her in their annual 30 Under 30 list for Cinema & Entertainment and the following year she began hosting a podcast dubbed Canapé Six Places. She’s partnered with Adidas and released a collection of sneakers, written a bestselling book titled Always More, has been a guest judge on Drag Race France and launched her own lifestyle and fashion brand Hôtel Mahfouf. In 2022, she made history as the first French content creator invited to the Met Gala.

Torge Oelrich

Germany

German comedian Torge Oelrich, better known as Freshtorge, started making videos on YouTube two decades ago from his hometown in Wesselburen, Germany. His comedy sketches and wide range of fictional characters has seen him become one of the most successful German-speaking YouTube creators.

Before becoming a full-time entertainer, Oelrich trained and worked as teacher. He has since worked as an actor, writer and voice artist, making appearances in German projects such as Look Who’s Back in 2015 and 2020’s Potato Salad 3: The Musical.

Citing his favorite comedy show as Little Britain, he admits that the show probably couldn’t be made today due to its borderline offensive humor, with the BBC recently removing some sketches from the iPlayer. He stresses the need to be mindful of content given that audiences are often quick to respond in the comments section.

“For me, as a comedian and when I’m writing my scripts, I have to think about making sure my humor is not offensive,” he says. “You have to be really careful that you don’t hurt anyone.”

He’s been working with German pubcaster ZDF on Battle of the Flags, an adventure-reality competition program which he created and stars in. Belgian distributor Primitives is presenting the format to buyers in MIPCOM this year. Developed in collaboration with production company Roses Are Blue to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his YouTube channel, the show blends an expansive outdoor game world with strategy, technological innovation and immersive visual storytelling.

But outside of TV, Oelrich admits he loves the freedom and speed of being able to connect directly to his audience via YouTube and other forms of social media.

“In the traditional space it takes sometimes years to see your idea come to life, whereas when I’m uploading my own content and sketches, I can do it right from my home.

“The great thing is I can wake up in the morning, have an idea and upload the video in the evening so I can react to things happening in the world faster,” he adds. “With big TV companies it can take years.”

Yes Theory

Sweden-U.S.-Canada-Egypt

Although founded in Montreal, Canada, Yes Theory members have diverse cultural backgrounds, with its founders hailing from Sweden, Egypt, the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 2015 by Thomas Brag, Matt Dajer, Ammar Kandil and Derin Emre, the group gained traction through their videos about travel, adventure and, in the wake of terror attacks in Beirut and Paris, inclusivity.

Content often involves spontaneous trips, unusual challenges and interactions with strangers over the world. They became known for their motto “Seek Discomfort”, which encourages people to step outside their comfort zones and embrace new experiences.

Over time the channel has grown into a large online community, and it’s seen members expand into the documentary space as well as live events. In 2022, Kandil directed Project Iceman, which followed extreme athlete Anders Hofman as he attempted the world’s first full-distance triathlon in Antarctica. They have more than 10 million subscribers on YouTube.

“Creators can move so much faster than traditional TV and stay relevant to culture, which is evolving at an increasing speed,” Brag tells Deadline. “Creators have also learned to tell high-quality stories with much smaller budgets, often wearing many hats — from talent, to producer, director and editor. Serving as a jack-of-all-trades means that they’re able to add personal touches to every part of the process, ultimately making their stories feel more personal and approachable.”

Francesco Oggiano

Italy

After working as a reporter at Vanity Fair Italia for nine years, Italian journalist Francesco Oggiano decided to go it alone with the launch of his own digital newsletters in 2019 before joining startup Will Media in 2020. He eventually launched his own YouTube channel in 2024. His content, which he also posts on Instagram, focuses on current affairs, seeing him weigh in on stories such as the recent Macklemore and Ed Sheeran fallout, Prince Harry and Megan and the ICE shootings in Minneapolis earlier this year.

While his subscriber base sits in the mid-tier (on YouTube he has 57,400 subscribers and 298,000 on Instagram), Oggiano believes that what matters is the “quality of the interaction — how much the audience responds, shares, returns and trusts you.”

“That is where the strength of a community is measured,” he says. “A vertical niche of 20,000 passionate people is much better than a less focussed project with 200,000 followers.”

He continues: “What I like most about YouTube is choosing topics, formats, duration and tone with a freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. I would love to combine this freedom with the resources and expertise of entities like Netflix or major studios to think bigger when it comes to production, writing, and formats. I see those entities as amplifiers of creativity.”

Anna Cramling

Sweden

Swedish-Spanish chess player Anna Cramling is one of Sweden’s largest and most internationally successful YouTubers. She holds the title of Woman FIDE Master, having represented Sweden in multiple Chess Olympiads. She boasts more than 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube and 500,000 on Twitch, and she regularly features in chess competitions, in interviews, where she plays with other chess champions, as well as travel vlogs.

“Traditional media doesn’t always fully understand the storytelling that goes behind each video,” Cramling says. “A video on YouTube is essentially one story, and the better it performs, the more compelling the story probably is. I also think that traditional media, and people in general, underestimate the thinking that goes behind each title, thumbnail, and concept. It is all carefully thought through, to create the best packaging for the story as possible.”

Natalia Sisik

Poland

Prominent Polish internet personality Natalia Sisik has grown to become one of the top content creators in Poland. Initially building her presence on TikTok, she focused on lip-syncing, dancing and music cover videos with an ambition to break into the music industry. Her boyfriend and manager Jarek Kostrzewa, who was working at Universal Music at the time, helped her experiment with comedy and different types of content before the pair came up with News na dziś, a now highly successful daily news format aimed at younger audiences.

“During the pandemic, we saw how much misinformation was spreading online, and we felt that it was the perfect moment to use what we had learned over the years and create something more meaningful,” she says. “That’s when we came up with the idea for News na dziś.” She continues: “We don’t think it’s really about competing with traditional media. We’re doing something different. Creators understand the audience on a very personal level. We’re in direct contact with our audience every day, so we can quickly see what they care about, what they don’t understand and what makes them stop scrolling. Traditional media sometimes forgets that people don’t consume information the same way they did 10 or 20 years ago.”

Elena Herraiz Medina

Spain

Elena Herraiz Medina, whose online handle is Linguriosa, started creating content on YouTube in 2019. Initially, videos were geared towards people looking to learn Spanish as a foreign language and understand grammar topics. After uploading videos that were more about breaking down different Spanish dialects, she got a huge influx of native Spanish-speaking followers.

She has since co-hosted the revived Spanish public television game show Cifras y letras — the Spanish version of the long-running U.K. quiz show Countdown, on the La 2 channel — and she’s also co-hosted science and humanities podcast Tú de ciencias y yo de letras (literally “You’re a scientist, and I’m a humanities specialist”).

“The main difference between traditional media and content creators is that traditional outlets always link professionalism with rigid seriousness,” she says. “Normally, there are strict rules on how you should dress, speak, and behave, it’s all far more formal than the authenticity expected on social platforms.

“With the rise of AI, content that feels raw and human, proving that what you’re watching came directly from a real person and not a machine, has become immensely valuable. The less polished the content feels, the deeper it connects with a real audience. That’s why social media is so powerful: People relate much more to creators being themselves than to traditional media personalities.”