YOUTH DOC TRAINING @ IDFA 2025: Announcement of the Cohort

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The D4K-Alliance is launching its first European Training focusing on children’s documentaries in cooperation with IDFA (NL), organised by DOXS RUHR (DE) and the Forum für Kultur und Bildung Leipzig (DE). The initiative is open to directors and producers from Germany, Flanders and Poland, joined by three local filmmakers from the Netherlands. During screenings, workshops and personal tutoring at the Goethe-Institute Amsterdam, the program focuses on networking, inspiration and project development to create strong collaborative working ties.

We look forward to welcoming the cohort soon in Amsterdam at IDFA for the pilot edition of Youth Doc Training in 2025! We can’t wait to dive into the workshop sessions with our mentors, Niki Padidar (Filmmaker – Ninnoc, 2015; All You See, 2022) and Martijn Blekendaal (Filmmaker – The Invisible Ones, 2024). Furthermore, guest experts Katharina Bergfeld (Producer, Ma.ja.de) and Luc-Caroline Ziemann (Author, Scriptwriter, Consultant, Media Educator and Curator) will join the training program.

If you have the chance, don’t miss out on IDFA’s cross-section Current Future curated by Niki, showcasing films that challenge our understanding of youth documentary—reflecting the complexities of our contemporary reality. Curious? You can find out more about her approach to shaking up the Youth Competition!

Meet the 2025 Cohort!

A woman with long, brown hair smiles and looks directly at the camera. She is wearing a black coat.
Agnieszka Kudelska (she/her)
Photo Credit: Paulina Kardas

Agnieszka Kudelska (Producer, Director)
Graduate from screenwriting at WFDiF in Warsaw and Studio Prob at the Wajda School. For over a decade she has been producing and directing Polish language versions of films and TV series.

Tanja Bächlein and Arne Bunk (Filmmakers and Artists)
are filmmakers/artists based in Hamburg. Both studied at the University of Fine Arts. Their collaboration began with the short essay film Your Places. Sketches of German Colonial Architecture in Namibia (15 min, Germany 2014). In 2018, they founded the non-profit association bild+begegnung, where children and youth explore their surroundings using film, photography, and sound.

Link to the website.

A woman and a man are shown in two separate black-and-white portrait photographs placed side by side. The woman, on the left, has short dark hair and is smiling slightly while looking directly at the camera. She is wearing a light-colored T-shirt. The man, on the right, wears glasses, a cap, and a dark T-shirt. He has a beard and a neutral expression, also facing the camera.
Tanja Bächlein (she/her) and Arne Bunk (he/him), Photo Credit: bunk&bächlein
A woman with blond hair, sitting in front of a wall with a graffiti, looking out of the picture.
Bettina Timm (she/her)

Bettina Timm (Director, Producer)
studied documentary filmmaking at HFF in Munich and founded the company Pelle Film during her studies. In 2008, she received the Lola for Cosmic Station as Best German Short Film. She is a member of the German Film Academy.

Eva Gemmer (Student, Filmmaker, Author)
Since 2019, she has been studying documentary film and television journalism at the HFF Munich. Her films have been screened at numerous festivals and have received several awards. So far, her work has focused mainly on topics of coming of age, sexuality and sex education. She is currently developing her graduation film and also works as a film educator and presenter.

A woman with ear-length blonde hair, photographed from below against a bright blue sky, wearing a white shirt.
Eva Gemmer (she/her)
Photo Credit: Jakob Nonnen
Black-and-white photograph of a man aged around 35, wearing glasses, with short hair and two days' stubble. The man is looking to the right, outside the frame.
Filip Jacobson (he/him)
Photo Credit: Olaf Malinowski

Filip Jacobson (Artists, Filmmaker, DOP)
Studied in Poland at the University of Lodz and the Gdynia Film School, followed by postgraduate studies at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, spent a semester at the EICTV in Cuba and participated in several renowned film workshops such as EsoDoc, GoShort Talent Campus, Polska Doc, and Berlinale Talent Campus. For his short film Patrioctic Lesson, he received the Golden Dove at DOK Leipzig in 2016.

Geertje Hadderingh (Director)
graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts in 2023. Her graduation film Voor Jullie was screened at festivals including Go Short and the Netherlands Film Festival. Her work focuses on socially urgent themes, with a strong interest in stories about human connection. At the heart of her filmmaking lies a commitment to sincerity. Her new documentary will premiere at Cinekid and has been selected for Best Dutch Short Youth Film.

A woman with blond hair, black and white pictures, smiles into the camera and is wearing black.
Geertje Hadderingh (she/her)
Jules Mathôt. A man with brown hair smiles and looks directly at the camera. He is wearing a white t-shirt.
Jules Mathôt (he/him)

Jules Mathôt (Director, Producer)
graduated from KASK School of Arts Gent with Night by Night (2021), which premiered at the 48th edition of Film Fest Gent. In 2024, Jules finished In the Palm of My Hand, a co-creative experiment that brings together footage made by 41 participants in collaboration with Cinemaximiliaan, a Brussels-based organisation that supports newcomers.

Magdalena Wichrowska (Director)
is an assistant profesor at the Department of Audiovisual Studies (Bydgoszcz, Poland), scriptwriter, author of book Truth as a Problem of Poetics in Polish Documentary Film after 1989. She was a finalist and winner of screenwriting contests – Script Fiesta, Script Wars and Gdańsk Script. She is currently developing her debut documentary Goodbye Dolls.

A woman with blond hair smiles and looks directly at the camera.
Magdalena Wichrowska (she/her)
A woman with long hair looks directly at the camera. She is wearing a beige suede jacket and is standing in the streets.
Nina de Vriendt (she/her)
Photo Credit: Michael Middelkoop

Nina de Vriendt (Director, Researcher)
In 2019, she directed her first youth documentary, Bro-time (Levy Productions)—a personal story about her single father and her 10-year-old half-brother Niek. In 2020, she released her second youth documentary, Semi Divorced (Cerutti Film/EO), which premiered at the Cinekid Festival in Amsterdam. Nina is currently developing a 3-part youth documentary series in collaboration with filmmaker Yaël van der Schelde, production company Mooie Nel, and broadcaster VPRO. In the series teens reflect on a crime they have committed.

Nina Payrhuber (Producer)
is a young and ambitious producer who has been part of Associate Directors since 2022. With a background as historian, she has diverse production and research experience. As young producer she was selected to participate in IDFAcademy 2022 and INTRO:DOX 2024 (CPH:DOX). Since 2022, she has also been working as an impact producer for both internal and external impact campaigns, affiliated with the Flemish initiative Filmpact.

A woman with her hair up and sunglasses on hear head, dark blond hair smiles and looks directly at the camera. She is wearing a fuchsia top, silver necklaces and colourful beaded earrings.
Nina Payrhuber (she/her)
Photo Credit: Leslie Verbeeck
A person with a blue hat smiles and looks directly at the camera. Behind their right ear is a fish.
Noa Meli (they/he)
Photo Credit: Annalena Kümmel

Noa Meli (Student, Director)
studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich. Their bachelor’s thesis was a short film on an environmental conflict in Canada, The Island Business (2017). After traveling and working two years for NGOs in Switzerland and in Ecuador, they started a directing degree at Film University Babelsberg. They are focusing on personal documentaries and shifts in perspectives, finishing their graduation film in December 2025.

Pola Rader (Director)
studied Film Studies at the FU Berlin and earned an MFA in Documentary Film under Professor Pepe Danquart at the University of Fine Arts Hamburg. Founder of the production company NAVERNA, she creates experimental films for children and adults, exploring innovative visual approaches. Her short films have received international recognition through awards and festival screenings.

Link to the website.

A woman with short blonde hair, looking directly at the camera. She is wearing a pink T-shirt and a blue sports jacket, photographed against a neutral background.
Pola Rader (she/her)
Photo Credit: NAVERNA
A person with short, light blond hair styled in a neat bowl cut is smiling slightly at the camera. She is wearing large, round black glasses and a light purple sweatshirt. Around her neck, she has a thin gold chain necklace. The background is a solid muted green color, which makes the person stand out clearly in the image.
Sandra Trostel (she/her)

Sandra Trostel (Director)
is an independent filmmaker, digital storyteller and researcher based in Hamburg (DE). Her works have been presented at international festivals, in cinemas, on television and in exhibitions and have been awarded various prizes. She is also involved in theater projects and performances, leads workshops, gives lectures on her work and teaches at various colleges and universities.

Link to the website.

Sarah Van Dale (Director, Editor, Writer)
graduated as a master in audiovisual arts from the KASK in Ghent in 2003. Her short film Love Machine earned her the nickname Leuven’s short film favorite and played at several festivals including Clermont-Ferrand. She set up her own small creative production company called Sarazon Creative. With this, she and her husband Jeremiah Persyn continue to work on various creative projects. In 2022, she made the short film Extraordinary with which she received the prize of the international jury for best documentary at the Jef festival in Antwerp.

a women with short hair, looking directly to the camera. Wearing a grey jumper.
Sarah Van Dale (she/her)
The photo shows a man standing in a warmly lit kitchen. He has dark wavy hair, a beard, and is wearing a plain white t-shirt tucked into blue jeans with a brown belt. His expression is calm and direct as he looks at the camera. In the foreground, slightly out of focus, are bright orange and red flowers that add a soft, colorful frame to the image. The background reveals a tiled backsplash, a wooden shelf with small vases and framed photos, and various kitchen items. The overall mood is intimate, natural, and homely, with a golden, cinematic atmosphere.
Selli Inti Sellink (he/him)

Selle Inti Sellink (Director, Sound Designer)
is a Dutch-Peruvian sound designer and emerging film director. Founder of still sound design he has created sound for award-winning films while developing his own voice as director. His current project, Tussen twee werelden (Between Two Worlds), is a poetic youth documentary following three young newcomers at an international transition class in Zaanstad.