IDFA chiefs link 'You Can See Everything' box-office run to hopes for documentaries in cinemas

Mixed · 2The 39th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) opened on Friday 13 November 2026, with fall festival season having been dominated by talk of documentaries including "You Can See Everything", "Musk" and "NAZA". 1 2 Left · 1Artistic director Isabel Arrate Fernandez told Variety that "You Can See Everything", Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder's film about Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, has become A24's third-biggest domestic release after passing $80 million at the box office, and said they hoped it would prompt a different way of looking at what documentary in the cinema can do. 1 Left · 1Arrate Fernandez noted that the film, at just under three hours, and "Musk", at over four, are still drawing audiences, and that Fielder has brought a new group of viewers to cinemas, asking "What else would this audience see?"; they also called these US productions "exceptions" with bigger publicity budgets, though they show documentaries can thrive in cinemas. 1

Centre · 1Speaking to Deadline, Arrate Fernandez said interest in the film at IDFA "has been huge" and that festival screenings sold out very quickly. 2 Mixed · 2IDFA is a key European stop for Oscar-hopeful documentaries, and Arrate Fernandez said more independent films with modest budgets, such as "A Fox Under a Pink Moon", "Rehearsals for a Revolution", "Closure" and "Traces", are finding a place in awards conversations. 1 2 Left · 1Head of industry Adriek van Nieuwenhuyzen, in post for almost 20 years, told Variety that audiences currently want "timely" documentaries; they called "Musk" a brilliant example and welcomed "NAZA" bringing people to cinemas despite being an "extremely uncomfortable watch". 3

Left · 1This year the IDFA Forum, the co-financing market running 15-18 November, splits projects into Forum Pitches and Roundtable Presentations, following feedback that the Forum should be an "agora" for open debate. 3 Mixed · 2AI is a major topic: for the first time IDFA asked filmmakers to state whether and how they used AI, and it is hosting panels on the subject, with Ava DuVernay's "14th" among high-profile titles using the technology. 2 1 Left · 1On AI, van Nieuwenhuyzen said filmmakers had learned their documentaries were used for AI learning tools without permission, that legal frameworks are lacking, and that AI in archival work raises ethical questions because it can invent material not in the original frames. 3

Mixed · 2Last year IDFA declined accreditation to Israeli organisations that receive government support, such as DocAviv, the CoPro market and broadcaster Kan; this year it has updated its principles and guidelines and says it assesses films and guests case by case. 1 2 Centre · 1IDFA's published guidelines say films, makers and organisations are never excluded on the basis of origin or nationality, but on possible relationships with regimes or organisations held internationally accountable for serious human rights violations. 2 Left · 1Variety reports that officially no films from Israel are in this year's programme because no filmmakers listed Israel as a production country; Arrate Fernandez said that choice "can be a political choice" or a pragmatic one because of backlash, and lamented that debate has become black and white. 1

Centre · 1Deadline adds that the programme includes over 250 films, opens with "White Tiger Column" about Myanmar's resistance movement, and features the Envision film "The Black Box Is Orange" and Rachel Leah Jones's Forum project "Podium (You Have Three Minutes)". 2