Ali Eslami to receive Wendy Gutman Award for VR innovation at IDFA
Iranian-Dutch filmmaker and digital artist Ali Eslami is to receive the first Wendy Gutman Award at the 38th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), organizers announced. The €40,000 award honors creators working in documentary or immersive media who offer “innovative, connective, and imaginative” perspectives, IRNA reported.
The award was established by the Dutch Education and Culture Foundation in memory of its late director, Wendela Scheltema, and is named after her nickname, Wendy Gutman. It celebrates artistic visionaries who push the limits of digital storytelling and documentary form.
Born in Mashhad in 1991, Eslami has built a reputation as one of the most inventive voices in virtual reality and new media art. His projects span VR environments, interactive simulations, and physical installations, all designed to blur the boundary between the tangible and the virtual.
He describes his creative method as “poetic engineering” — an exploration of how memory, perception, and emotion take shape in the digital realm.
One of his most recognized works, ‘False Mirror,’ presents a self-contained virtual world where time and space become palpable. Drawing inspiration from video games and architecture, Eslami has forged what critics call a “new language of experience,” showing how gaming technology can evolve into an independent and deeply personal art form.
The IDFA jury called his approach “idiosyncratic, exciting, and autonomous,” praising his ability to “redefine how we perceive experience and reality.”
Eslami previously won the DocLab Award for Best Immersive Non-Fiction at IDFA in 2016 and the Gouden Kalf Award in 2020 for another experimental project.
The award ceremony took place at Het Documentaire Paviljoen in Amsterdam ahead of the 38th edition of IDFA, which runs from November 13 to 23.
This year’s festival will also screen several Iranian documentaries, including ‘As I Lay Dying’ by Mohammad Reza Farzad and Pegah Ahangarani; ‘Uzak Yollar’ by Sara Khaki and Mohammad Reza Aini; ‘The Vanishing Point’ by Bani Khoshnoudi; and ‘Fellow Citizen’ by the late Abbas Kiarostami — marking a strong Iranian presence in one of Europe’s most prestigious documentary showcases.