About IDF

The 7th West Lake International Documentary Festival (IDF2024) will be held in Hangzhou from 25th to 27th October 2024 including IDF Competition, IDF Forum and Glory of Documentary Screening Section. IDF stands for “I-Documentary-Fact” and aims to explore the relationship between documentary creation subjects, objects, and methods.

IDF’s mission is embracing core values of innovation, pioneering spirit, academic rigor, and non-fiction cinema, IDF aims to unlock boundless possibilities as new technologies revolutionize documentary filmmaking. We believe that documentary is a medium ingrained in humanity’s wisdom of “observation and decision-making”. Our society serves as the best observation arena of this medium, where filmmakers, characters and audiences collectively shape its subjects. We cherish time and space captured within images, and appreciate inner thoughts and souls depicted therein. We champion documentaries as gateways to the real world, rather than mere replicas of reality. What matters is whether these gateways lead to new revelations and profound insights. We will delve into the intricate relationship between creating fictional content and documenting reality, and highlight their interplay and collision. This exploration will offer both filmmakers and audiences with greater freedom to interpret and envision reality, ultimately injecting new vitality into China’s documentary industry

IDF Competition

IDF Competition is aimed to highlight outstanding documentary filmmakers as well as films, all the while encouraging documentary filmmakers to be curious and persistent on their journey of creation. The festival conducts an open call for submission. The submission opens to feature-length documentaries (60 minutes and above) and short documentaries (less than 60 minutes) completed after 1st January, 2023. After two rounds of evaluation and selection, the outstanding documentaries will be shortlisted for IDF Competition of the 7th West Lake International Documentary Festival. The finalists will be evaluated by an international jury committee and compete for awards.

Required Materials

▪ Synopsis and director's statement (around 300 words)

▪ 1 poster, 3 to 5 film stills, JPG format (the pixel shall not be lower than 300 dpi)

▪ A recent photo of director, JPG format (the pixel shall not be lower than 300 dpi)

▪ Subtitles with time-codes in ".srt" or ".ass" formats or in ".doc" or ".txt" format

▪ Trailer (within 3 min): MOV or MP4 format, resolution no less than 1920*1080

▪ Documentary (no less than 1920*1080, no more than 3GB MOV/MP4 formats)

* Please name the file in the format of "Film Title - File Content". For example, "Film Title - Chinese/English Subtitles" or "Film Title - Director's Photo 1"

Deadline for Entry

Entry for the 7th West Lake International Documentary Festival registration is open from now. The deadline for entry is 20th July, 2024. The documentaries submitted beyond this deadline will not be included in the evaluation process.

Submit to IDF Office

If you prefer to submit the hard copy, please send the USB or Mobile Hard Disk Drive to IDF Office (Please mark “D20 Nomination" or "IDF Pitching”, project title, name of the entrant and the contact number).

If you send cross-border materials through international express, please fill in customs declaration value within 10 dollars and mark “only for cultural purposes” and “no-commercial value” on the mail parcel.

All sent materials must have paid the mailing fee and customs duties, otherwise the organizing committee has the right to reject the parcel. You can also deliver the hard drive to IDF Office in person (Please contact the organizing committee in advance to check the opening hour).

All submitted materials will keep in the archive and won’t be returned.

The organizing committee shall not bear the mailing cost and the insurance cost of the materials, nor shall it bear the responsibility for loss, error or damage of the materials caused by the mailing process or other irresistible factors.

* Mailing Address：

West Lake International Documentary Festival Organizing Committee, 308, Building 3, China Academy of Art, NO.352 XiangShan, Hangzhou, P. R. China

Postcode: 310024

Contact: Quincy（+86 13957997626）

Tel: +86 (0)571 87200617

Fax: +86 (0)571 87200617

E-mail: idf@westlakeidf.com

Sourec: westlakeidf.com