Babi Yar. Context, directed by Sergei Loznitsa and produced by Atoms & Void, is selected for the main competition of the festival and will be competing for the Grand Prix Bank Millennium Award. The film reconstructs the historical context of the Babi Yar massacre through archive footage documenting the German occupation of Ukraine and the subsequent decade. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received a Special Mention at IDFA.

A special screening will take place of Three minutes – A Lengthening, written and directed by Bianca Stigter and produced by Family Affair Films (NL) in co-production with Lammas Park (UK). The film examines a home movie shot in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland and delays its ending. An essay about film, history and memory. The documentary world premiered in Venice Giornate degli Autori and also screened at a.o. Toronto, Telluride, IDFA and Sundance. International sales are handled by Autlook Filmsales. 

Selected for the Amnesty International Poland Competition is the hybrid film Myanmar Diaries by the anonymous Myanmar Film Collective. The film is about life under Myanmar’s junta regime of terror, told via intimate and personal stories. Produced by ZINDOC, the film had its world premiere at the Berlinale 2022, where it won the Berlinale Documentary Award. International sales are handled by Autlook Filmsales.
                                
No less than three Dutch docs will be competing for the Chopin’s Nose Award, which will be awarded to the best documentary on music and art. Dutch director Oeke Hoogendijk is represented by two docs: Light – Stockhausen’s Legacy (prod. Witfilm) and The Treasures of Crimea (prod. Zeppers Film). Dutch minority doc Dreaming Walls, directed by Amélie van Elmbt & Maya Duverdier (NL co-prod. Basalt Film) is also selected for this competition.

Jason, directed by Maasja Ooms and Housewitz, yet another doc directed by Oeke Hoogendijk, will be competiting for the Best film on Psychology. Jason (prod. Cerutti Film) won the award for Best Dutch Documentary at IDFA. Housewitz (prod. Discours Film) premiered at IDFA and was selected for Thessaloniki Int. Doc FF, Hotdocs and Dokfest Munich a.o. Sales are handled by Go2Films.

Dutch minority feature-length documentary Outside, directed by Olha Zhurba, is selected for the First Appearance Competition. Dutch co-producer is Tangerine Tree and international sales are handled by Deckert Distribution. The film world premiered at CPH:Dox.

Two short docs are selected for the Young Audience Competition: Ref! Replacement!, directed by Tim van Gils and From that Moment On, Everything Changed, directed by Eef Hilgers. Both films are produced by Cerutti Film and international sales are handled by Dutch Core. 

Furthermore, Dutch-Swiss co-production Descending the Mountain, directed by Maartje Nevejan, will screen in programme section Places. The film examines what happens when you administer psilocybin to experienced Zen meditators. A neuroscientist and a Zen master carry out a double-blind experiment on a sphinxlike mountain in Switzerland. Their goal: to examine the nature of consciousness.

For more information:
Millennium Docs Against Gravity