Orwa Nyrabia has announced he will step down as Artistic Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) this summer.
He announced the decision jointly with the organization in the run-up to the 2024 festival edition from November 14-24, making the upcoming edition the seventh and last under his leadership.
IDFA said that since taking the up the post in January 2018, Nyrabia and his team had revamped the festival’s film and industry programs and launched new platforms and initiatives that have become mainstays of the festival, such as the Envision Competition, IDFA On Stage, and the Producers Connection.
“I have always seen this great role as an artistic endeavor, as a responsibility much more important and critical than being merely a job. I recognize a natural ending for it coming up; a good moment for starting a new chapter. My decision is one more way of expressing my love to IDFA and its remarkable team,” Nyrabia said in a release announcing his departure.
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“Change is necessary, especially when at the right moment. I am proud of what we have accomplished together, as a team, and with the global film community, over the past meaningful and challenging years.”
Nyrabia, who worked in the documentary industry as a producer with credits including Dolls: A Woman from Damascus and Return from Homs, said he would be returning to the business.
“I will gradually, and happily, return soon to the other side, that of those sending their ideas, films, and funding applications and waiting anxiously, and critically, for answers,” he said.
Marry de Gaay Fortman, Chair of IDFA’s Supervisory Board, thanked Nyrabia for his contribution over the last seven years.
“His influence in the artistic field lifted IDFA and has driven the festival as well as the organization to places we never knew they existed,” she said.
“Orwa’s vision drives the ambition and while his departure saddens us on the one hand, we also want to give him the opportunity to pursue his ambition and discover new paths. After the festival, IDFA will start the search process for a new Artistic Director. We are thankful that Orwa is here in the transition period until the end of his contract on July 1, 2025.”
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