15 Chicken & Egg Supported films at IDFA!
We are extremely proud to see 15 Chicken & Egg Supported films and 17 films from our community of alumni featured in the lineup and Forum sections of this year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The festival will take place between Wednesday, November 8 to Sunday, November 19 in Amsterdam. If you are attending the festival, feel free to say hi to our team who will participate in person to support our filmmakers. See below for more details.

- 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab Participant Against The Tide | Dutch Premiere | Best of Fests | dir. & prod. Sarvnik Kaur | prod. Koval Bhatia
- 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist Alis | Online Program | dirs. & prods. Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck
- Project: Hatched 2023 Participant Bad Press | Dutch Premiere | Best of Fests | dir. & prod. Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler | prods. Conrad Beilharz, Garrett Baker, Tyler Graim
- Nest-supported film Blue ID | School Program | dirs. & prods. Burcu Melekoglu, Vuslat Karan
- 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Machtat | Dutch Premiere | Best of Fests | dir. Sonia Ben Slama | prods. Tania el Khoury, Elise Hug, Cécile Lestrade
- 2020 (Egg)celerator Lab Grantee Milisuthando | Dutch Premiere | Best of Fests | dir. & prod. Milisuthando Bongela | prod. Marion Isaacs
- Our Land, Our Freedom | World Premiere | dirs. & prods. Meena Nanji, Zippy Kumundu |
prod. Eliane Ferreira
- 2022 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Margreth Olin’s Songs of Earth | Dutch Premiere | Signed | dir. & prod. Margreth Olin | prod. Lena Faye-Lund Sandvik
- 2021 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Tatiana Huezo’s The Echo | Dutch Premiere | Signed | dir. & prod. Tatiana Huezo Sánchez | prods. Dalia Rocío Reyes Campos, Viviana Zuñiga
- 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Maite Alberdi’s The Eternal Memory | Dutch Premiere | Signed | dir. & prod. Maite Alberdi | prods. Juan de Dios Larraín, Pablo Larraín, Rocío Jadue
- 2021 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee The Tuba Thieves | Dutch Premiere | Best of Fests | dir. & prod. Alison O’Daniel | prods. Su Kim, Maya E. Rudolph
IDFA Forum

At the IDFA Forum, innovators, including filmmakers, creators, producers, and industry professionals, unite to present their pioneering creative feature documentaries and new media projects. Over its 30-year history, this event has evolved into a global hub for discussing co-production, co-financing, and distribution strategies. The IDFA Forum offers backing to film and XR production teams at various production stages across four presentation categories. We take pride in having Chicken & Egg Pictures Supported films featured in three out of these four categories.
- 2023 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill Their Secrets (to the Sea) | Pitch Project | In Production | dir. & prod. Jeanie Finlay | prod. Charlie Phillips
- 2022 Critical Issue Fund Grantee Displaced (working title) | Rough Cut Project | In Production | dir. Olha Zhurba | prods. Darya Bassel, Anne Köhncke, Kerstin Übelacker
- 2022 Critical Issue Fund Grantee Red Zone | Producers Connection Project | Development | dir. Darya Bassel | prod. Iryna Tsilyk
- 2022 (Egg)celerator Lab Finalist There Was, There Was Not | Rough Cut Project | In Post-Production | dir. & prod. Emily Mkrtichian | prod. Brock Williams
From the AlumNest
In the program:
- (this conversation is) Off the Record | World Premiere
dirs. Nirit Peled, Anne Maike Mertens
prod. Nienke Huitenga, Titus Nouwens
- Another Body | Dutch Premiere
dirs. & prods. Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn
prod. Elizabeth Woodward
- The Burden | World Premiere
dir. Elvis Ngaibino Sabin
prod. Quentin Laurent, Makongo Films
- Facing Darkness | Dutch Premiere
dir. Jean-Gabriel Périot
prod. Cécile Lestrade
- Four Holes | World Premiere
dir. & prod. Daniela Muñoz Barroso
prod. Boris Prieto
- Girl Away from Home | World Premiere
dirs. Alisa Kovalenko, Simon Lereng Wilmont
prod. Maria Westergren, Knut Skoglund, Karl Emil Rikardsen
- We Will Not Fade Away | Dutch Premiere
dir. Alisa Kovalenko
prods. Valery Kalmykov, Yana Kalmykova, Oleksiy Kobelev
- Last Train Home
dir. Lixin Fan
prod. Mila Aung-Thwin, Daniel Cross
- Nieuw
dir. Eefje Blankevoort
prod. Iris Lammertsma
- Our Land, Our Freedom | World Premiere
dirs. & prods. Meena Nanji, Zippy Kumundu
prod. Eliane Ferreira
- małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore
dir & prod Sky Hopinka (2018 Art of Nonfiction fellow)
- Zinder
dir. Aicha Mackyprod. Clara Vuillermoz, Ousmane Samassekou, Erik Winker
In the forum:
- Coexistence My Ass | Rough Cut Project
dir. & prod. Amber Fares
prod. Rachel Leah Jones
- The Long Cuban Night | Pitch Project
dir. Sergio Fernández Borrás
prods. Clare Weiskopf, Nicolas van Hemelryck, Sergio Fernández Borrás
- Untitled Mary Kathryn Nagle Project | Producers Connection Project
dir. Sky Hopinka (2018 Art of Nonfiction fellow)
prods. Karin Chien, Maya E. Rudolph
- Shadows of the Forest | Pitch Project
dirs. Akash Basumatari, Shrutiman Deori
prod. Nishtha Jain
- To Use a Mountain | Rough Cut Project
dir. Casey Carter
prod. Colleen Cassingham, Brett Story
- Queens Ballroom | Producers Connection Project
dir. Siyi Chen, Hansen Lin
prod. Siyi Chen, Violet Feng
Meet our Team at IDFA

Our Program Director Kiyoko McCrae and Senior Program Manager Elaisha Stokes will be in attendance at the festival. They will be speaking at the IDFA academy (a training program for 110 selected emerging filmmakers coming to IDFA), taking 1:1 meetings and giving presentations on our programs and funding opportunities at the Industry Hub. They will also be hosting an IDFA industry lunch as an opportunity for us to celebrate our 2023 Chicken & Egg Award recipients.
Nest-supported Films at IDFA
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam kicked off yesterday, celebrating their 31st year offering an independent meeting place for audiences and film industry professionals to see film projects from all over the world. IDFA runs from Wednesday, November 14 to Sunday, November 25 at cultural centers and cinemas across Amsterdam.
We are very excited to say Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported projects Freedom Fields, A Thousand Girls Like Me, and Survivors will have their Dutch premieres at IDFA this year.
Freedom Fields, directed by Naziha Arebi
Filmed over five years, Freedom Fields follows three women and their football team in post-revolution Libya, as the country descends into civil war and the utopian hopes of the Arab Spring begin to fade. Through the eyes of these accidental activists, we see the reality of a country in transition, where the personal stories of love and aspirations collide with History. A love letter to sisterhood and the power of ‘team’.
Freedom Fields will run in the Best of Fests program which showcases prize-winners, public favorites, and high-profile documentaries from the past year. For tickets to one of six screenings of Freedom Fields at IDFA, see here.
Survivors, co-directed by Anna Fitch, Banker White, Arthur Pratt, and Barmmy Boy
Through the eyes of Sierra Leonean filmmakers, Survivors presents a portrait of their country during the Ebola outbreak, exposing the complexity of the epidemic and the socio-political turmoil that lies in its wake. The film chronicles the remarkable stories of Sierra Leonean heroes during what is now widely regarded as the most acute public health crisis of the modern era.
Survivors is nominated for the inaugural Amsterdam Human Rights Award, for films with strong cinematography and that best present the theme of human rights. For tickets to IDFA screenings of Survivors, see here.
A Thousand Girls Like Me, directed by Sahra Mani (2016 Diversity Fellows Initiative)
In Afghanistan where systematic abuses of girls rarely come to light, and seeking justice can be deadly, one young woman says “Enough.” Khatera was brutally raped by her father since the age of nine and today she raises two precious and precocious children whom he sired. Against her family’s and many Afghanis’ wishes, Khatera forces her father to stand trial. This is her incredible story of love, hope, bravery, forgiveness, and truth.
A Thousand Girls Like Me will run in the Best of Fests program and also received a nomination for the inaugural Amsterdam Human Rights Award. See here for tickets to screenings.
(T)ERROR and Something Better to Come are heading to True/False
The True/False Film Fest, the Columbia, Missouri-based documentary film festival, announced their lineup late last night.
Two Chicken & Egg Pictures grantees will head to the festival: (T)ERROR, directed by Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe, and Something Better to Come, directed by Hanna Pollak.
(T)ERROR recently had its world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival where it won the US Documentary Special Jury Prize for Breakout First Feature. Something Better to Come made its debut at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA).
Congratulations to these stellar Chicken & Egg Pictures grantees!