Nordic docs in Official Selection
IDFA 2026
Denmark
Signed - Dutch Premiere
Directed by: Adam Nielsen, Eva Mulvad, Andreas Koefoed
Producer: Pernille Rose Grønkjær for Danish Documentary
How was a Danish cult leader able to exert such great influence over her followers? The Christian evangelical community Faderhuset turned its back on the outside world. Cult leaders manipulated members by first pressuring and humiliating them, and then drawing them back in with warmth and affection. Several former members share their experiences, which are reenacted by actors.
Father’s House
If Luck Will Come
Best of Fests - Dutch Premiere
Directed by Camille Bildsøe
Producer Sofie Husum Johannesen for ELK FILM ApS
Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, seen through the eyes of two young people. Twelve-year-old Zahra is full of life and energy, but because she is a girl, her schooling will end when she is fourteen, putting an end to her dreams. For Zalgai, a boy of the same age, the situation is different, but the outcome will be much the same: because his father is ill, adult family responsibilities await him. While they still can, they enjoy the local children’s circus with the other children. There they play and juggle, almost as an act of resistance.
Signed - Dutch Premiere
Directed by Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer Signe Byrge Sørensen for End of the World Productions
At a resort in California, hundreds of people gather to take on a formidable common enemy: death. Welcome to RAADfest (Revolution Against Aging and Death). At this fascinating meeting point between (pseudo)science and evangelism, immortality gurus deliver rousing speeches, spirited older women complain about today’s dating apps, and a husband and wife work their way through an alphabet of vitamins every day.
The Revolution Against Death
Finland
PICNIC – In Light Invisible to the Human Eye
Short Film Competition - International Premiere
Directed by Jan Ijäs
Producer Jan Ijäs for Atalante
The film, shot on 16mm and 35mm infrared film, follows the Gaza War as seen from Israel. The filming locations include Israel’s war memorials from previous military operations which are also popular picnic spots where families come to spend time together and watch the war.
Guest of Honor’s Top 10
Directed by Pirjo Honkasalo
Producer Kristiina Pervilä for Millennium Film Oy
Pirjo Honkasalo's documentary film The 3 Rooms of Melancholia depicts the vulnerability of a child's mind. The main characters of the film are the 9 to 14-year-old boys at Kronstadt Cadet Academy, a woman called Hadizhat Gataeva who saves children from the ruins of Chechnya, and the children living across the border in the Ingushetia refugee camp.
The setting is the everlasting Chechen war.
The 3 Rooms of Melancholia
Norway
Hope Is a Word
Best of Fests - Dutch Premiere
Directed by Maria Galliani Dyrvik
Producer Anita Vedå for Smau Media
Nigerian poet and activist Nnimmo Bassey has spent his whole life fighting oil extraction. For decades, oil has poisoned the Niger Delta and brought violence and division. Seeing around him a new generation full of fears and hopes, Nnimmo invites a group of young people to write with him. In that safe space, they begin to tell their own stories through poetry, finding a way to heal and a weapon for change. After a lifetime of resistance, Nnimmo wonders: can they carry on the struggle?
Sweden
The Bus of Broken Hearts
Short Film Competition - Dutch Premiere
Directed by Björn Carlberg, Johan Palmgren
Producer Lisa Taube, Johan Palmgren for Vindelfilm
The biggest ski race in the world is Vasaloppet in Sweden. 16 000 participants start in Sälen in the morning. It is 90 kilometers to the goal in Mora. What happens to all the people who do not manage? They have to jump on to the humiliating ”Bus of broken hearts", the helping bus that transports them to the goal. This film is about hilarious, sad and terrible failures during the race and different ways of handling being a loser.