Boosting Documentaries For Young Audiences. D4K announces selected participants

(Press release) Following a call for applications in Flanders, Germany, and Poland, the pilot training programme for children’s documentary filmmakers by the D4K – Docs For Kids Alliance has now selected its fifteen participants. The group brings together emerging filmmakers and artists with different backgrounds, cinematic voices, and areas of expertise.

Young Horizons Industry is a member of the D4K alliance.

A promising German presence marks the first edition: Hamburg-based filmmakers and media educators Tanja Bächlein and Arne Bunk bring interdisciplinary experience from both urban and artistic contexts, while Munich director Eva Gemmer contributes her background in documentary filmmaking and journalism, often focusing on coming-of-age and sex education. Cologne-based artist and filmmaker Filip Jacobson (PL/DE) creates socially engaged films that have received several awards, including the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig 2016 for his short film PATRIOTIC LESSON. Director Pola Rader from Kiel, who holds an MFA from the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, develops experimental works for children and adults through her platform NAVERNA. Also from Hamburg, filmmaker and researcher Sandra Trostel explores themes of social transformation and digitalization across film, television, and academia. Noa Meli studies directing at Film University Babelsberg, focusing on personal documentaries and shifts in perspective. Completing the German group is Bettina Timm, Munich-based director and producer (founder of Pelle Film) and member of the German Film Academy, whose short film COSMIC STATION received the German Short Film Award in 2008.

They will be joined by international colleagues, including screenwriter and director Agnieszka Kudelska from Warsaw, Dutch filmmaker Jules Mathôt based in Ghent, producer and historian Nina Payrhuber from Antwerp, Belgian director and producer Sarah Van Dale and Polish scriptwriter and academic Magdalena Wichrowska. From the Netherlands, the group will include Geertje Hadderingh, whose work focuses on socially urgent themes, Dutch-Peruvian sound designer and filmmaker Selle Inti Sellink, and Amsterdam-based children’s documentary filmmaker Nina de Vriendt.

The YOUTH DOC TRAINING offers workshops, screenings, and one-on-one mentoring, as well as access to selected IDFA industry events. Experienced filmmakers such as Martijn Blekendaal (THE INVISIBLE ONES, 2024), Niki Padidar (NINNOC 2015, ALL YOU SEE 2022), Dutch Consultant Signe Zeilich-Jensen, curator and educator Luc-Carolin Ziemann (AG Filmvermittlung) and German producer Katharina Bergfeld (MAJADE Films), among others, will share their experience during the program.

By bringing together new voices and encouraging exchange, project development, and international networking, this pilot training marks an important step forward for the field of children’s documentary film. Developed by the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) and DOXS RUHR, in cooperation with the D4K-Alliance and the Forum für Kultur und Bildung Leipzig, the Youth Doc Training will take place from 17–21 November 2025 at IDFA and the Goethe-Institut in Amsterdam.

Additional information on the participants’ profiles is available on the European Documentary Association (DAE) website: https://dae-europe.org/youth-doc-training-idfa-2025-cohort/

D4K is a working group launched by: Associazione Italiana Amici Cinema d’Essai (IT), Documentary Association Europe (DE), DOXS RUHR (DE), European Children‘s Film Association (BE), Förderverein Deutscher Kinderfilm (DE), International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (NL), Kids Regio/ Golden Sparrow Festival (DE), Let‘s Doc/ Andrzej Wajda Center for Film Culture (PL), Young Horizons Industry (PL).

Forum für Kultur und Bildung is a non-profit organization based in Leipzig, Germany, with longstanding expertise in media education and cultural projects for young audiences, that foster creativity, critical thinking, and intercultural dialogue. In cooperation with the Saxon Ministry of Education, it runs “film ab! – Saxon Film Festival for Children and Youth”, which invites students to create and present their own films as well as explore digital film education through workshops.

Press Contact
Gudrun Sommer
kontakt@doxs-ruhr.de