‘Dry Sky,’ ‘Do You Love Me,’ ‘Looking for the Mermaid,’ ‘Amorphous’ Win Top Prizes At IDFA Forum Awards

Ibrahim Omar’s project Dry Sky won Best Pitch at the IDFA Forum Awards presented in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Among the other winners were Lana Y. Daher’s Do You Love Me, “an archival journey through Beirut… [that] weaves together past & present to explore Lebanon’s current status and psyche,” which earned the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and Amorphous, “an immersive multiplayer experience about how you feel in your skin” directed by May Abdalla winner of the DocLab Forum Award.

IDFA Forum introduced a new honor this year — the Producers Connection Award. That went to Looking for the Mermaid, directed by Yara Costa (logline: “A chanted love promise between a fisherman and a mermaid and a story of part of humanity betraying Earth.”).

Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500. Do You Love Me also will receive closed captioning and subtitles from inVision Subtitling.

Dry Sky received a 2024 IDFA Bertha Fund grant. The film’s logline reads, “On his way back to his hometown, Ibrahim endeavors to build what he has dreamt of all his life. However, he faces a fate intertwined with the memories of the past in the village. Alongside his friend and their donkey, he strives relentlessly to break free from this constraint.”

IDFA Forum Award jurors Dorota Lech and Malin Huber, announcing their choice, wrote of Dry Sky, “For an articulation of a subtle cinematic language and a courageous proposal of healing. Told through a unique and critical inside perspective we look forward to a collective endeavor to imagine new futures. It takes a village.”

The jury additionally recognized Concrete Land by Asmahan Bkerat and The Beauty of Errors by Jukka Kärkkäinen with Special Mentions for Best Pitch. The jurors said, “Very special mentions to Concrete Land and The Beauty of Errors for their respective heartfelt films and pitches.”

Burcu Melekoglu and Mandisa Zitha sat on the IDFA Rough Cut Award jury. They wrote of winner Do You Love Me, “We are delighted to present the Jury Award for the most outstanding film about to be released to the filmmaking team of Do You Love Me. Lana Y. Daher masterfully weaves a delicate and poignant story of a city and its heartbreaking yet resilient history. Through the evocative use of archival materials from Lebanese cinema, she appropriates the visuals of the city from films as a representation of the cyclical history and nature of memories, bringing to life a narrative that is both deeply personal and profoundly universal. The work stands as a testament to the power of memory and art in navigating collective grief and renewal.”

The IDFA DocLab Forum jury, consisting of Jazia Hammoudi and Liz Rosenthal, wrote of May Abdalla’s film, “Amorphous is this year’s winner because of its ingenious use of play for a transformational purpose in relation to the crisis in self-image and body dysmorphia. Its messaging is experiential rather than didactic, making it appropriate for all kinds of audiences and demographics. Its design and format present a viable path forward for the immersive field and will appeal to diverse immersive media spaces.”

The DocLab Forum jurors awarded an Honorable Mention to The Four Floors of Faneuil Hall, directed by Simon Wood and Meghna Singh. “The use of space and architecture to ground their story imbues the project with narrative clarity that makes their point crystal clear about the contradiction of democratic society built on legacies of slavery, genocide and colonialism,” the jury said. “The project’s installation format makes it adaptable to many contexts, which opens up the possibility of future iterations beyond Faneuil Hall itself.”

Bianca Oana and Daan Vermeulen served as jurors for the Producers Connection Award. They said of Yara Costa’s Looking for the Mermaid, “The world is disappearing before our eyes. That is a strong statement in itself. But the winning project also brings forth the idea that cinema can help preserve dying worlds while at the same time enriching our imagination with new possibilities of being together and of making films. The presentation we witnessed here at Producers Connection has inspired us to award the Producers Connection Award for most creative project with exciting collaborative potential to Looking for the Mermaid by Yara Costa. We hope this incentive will spark interest for the creative collaborations the filmmaker is looking for.”