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Ally Derks was the Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), which she had founded in 1988. She was previously the coordinator of Festikon, an annual film and video festival in the Netherlands. Until 2015 she was also director and head of the selection committee for the IDFA Bertha Fund, supporting documentary filmmakers in developing countries. She has been on juries at numerous festivals including Sundance, Hotdocs, Silverdocs and Nordisk Panorama. Ally Derks has also been responsible for retrospective programs – including ones on Cuban, Kazakh, Lithuanian, Palestinian/Israeli and Polish documentaries.
Ally Derks was awarded for several prizes for her contribution to the documentary field, such as the Lifetime Achievement Award at DocAviv in Tel Aviv (2007) and the Hot Docs Doc Mogul Award (2011). Furthermore she got the Banninck Cocq award and the IJ-prijs from the city of Amsterdam. The France government honored her in 2015 as Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. In December 2016 she was granted with the IDA pioneer award in Los Angeles.
Ally Derks studied Dutch literature and film and theater at Utrecht University.
Last update: 2017