These days I’ve been reviewing the most prominent documentary short films so far this year. Documentary shorts are gaining increasing importance, and every year we are surprised by high-quality works.
Furthermore, we recently learned of an important development. The prestigious IDFA, the Amsterdam Documentary Festival, has created a competitive section for documentary short films. Until now, it only had specific sections for feature films and medium-length films, although short films were included in other sections, such as student documentaries, children’s audiences, and experimental films.
The new short film section does not require a premiere, although it values world, international, or European premieres, in line with other sections of the festival. The maximum duration is 40 minutes, and there is a submission fee of €40. There are two submission deadlines: May 1st for documentaries produced before April, and August 1st for more recent ones.
The changes in the IDFA sections also mean an increase in the competition duration for medium-length films and feature films. Now, medium-length films must have a duration of 40 to 69 minutes, and feature films are considered to be 70 minutes or longer.
In addition to the different IDFA sections, I have considered other festivals held in the last months of 2016 and this first quarter of 2017, mostly featuring premiere short films or those with few screenings (with some exceptions). This analysis allows us to see the works that are standing out in the international festival circuit. I have noted the awards at IDFA, Leipzig, Rotterdam, Warsaw, DOC NYC in 2016, and Sundance, Berlin, Big Sky, and Thessaloniki this year, 2017. It should be noted that the awards for the new editions of the Vision du Réel, CPH:DOX (currently taking place), Cinéma du Réel, FID Marseille, and DocumentaMadrid festivals are yet to be announced.
Here is the list of 16 documentary short films:
#1 Close Ties, by Zofia Kowalewska (Poland), has been awarded at the Leipzig and IDFA festivals, receiving the award for best student documentary. It is one of the most strongly emerging proposals in the festival circuit.
#2 Pulse, by Robin Petré (Hungary, Portugal, and Belgium), won the Best Short Film award in the documentary and animation short film section at Leipzig. Although this short film is from 2015, it participated in Vision du Réel in 2016 and was also awarded at DocLisboa in October.
#3 Rocknrollers, by Daan Bol (Netherlands), was the Best Documentary Short Film in the children’s section of IDFA.
#4 Naomi’s Secret Saskia Gubbels (Netherlands) received the Jury Award, also in the Kids&Docs section in Amsterdam.
#5 Alone, by Garrett Bradley (United States), has been the Best Documentary Short Film at Sundance. This short can be viewed online on the New York Times website, in the prestigious Op-Docs section.
#6 Rubber Coated Steel, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Lebanon and Germany) and #7 Sakhisona, by Prantik Basu (India) have been awarded in the short film section at Rotterdam. Of the three awards this festival grants to short films in the Tiger Competition, two of them went to experimental documentaries.
#8 Cidade Pequena, by Diogo Costa Amarante (Portugal), won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale.
#9 Ensueño en la Pradera, by Esteban Arrangoiz (Mexico), director of El buzo, which was already selected in Berlin last year, has won the Silver Bear.
#10 Street of Death by Karam Ghossein (Lebanon and Germany), in this case, won the Audi Award also in Berlin, completing a list of winners dominated by documentary shorts. The main short film section in Berlin, Berlinale Shorts, continues its commitment to documentaries in recent years.
#11 Love bite: laurie lipton and her disturbing black & white drawings, by James Scott (United Kingdom), has been the Best Documentary Short Film at the Warsaw Film Festival.
#12 Bedside Manner, by Corinne Botz (United States) had its world premiere at the last DOC NYC and won the Jury Award for Best Documentary Short Film.
#13 The fourth kingdom, by the Spanish Alex Lora, Adan Aliaga (Spain, United States), had its world premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, winning the main award in the MiniDoc section, for short films up to 15 minutes in length.
#14 Kayayo: the living shopping baskets, by Mari Bakke Riis (Norway), has also won an award at Big Sky, in the section for short films with a duration of 15 to 40 minutes.
#15 The rain will follow, by Eugene Richards (United States) has been awarded the Artistic Vision Award in the short film competition, also at Big Sky.
#16 Ahmad’s hair, by Susan Koenen (Netherlands) won the audience award at the Thessaloniki Festival for documentaries up to 50 minutes in length.
It should be noted that the usual requirements for documentary shorts often differ from fiction and animation. While the typical limit is 30 minutes, for documentaries it is 40 minutes. In any case, duration limits are less strict; many documentary film festivals accept all types of durations and have sections for short, medium-length, and feature films.
Although it is currently difficult to see these documentaries (except for Alone), we hope they will soon be selected in other competitions, and we will have the opportunity to see them, either online or in the festival circuit.
If you know of any other outstanding titles this year, please feel free to leave a comment.