The 19th Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will be held 8–16 November 2022 in art cinemas in Budapest, and in cities across Hungary. Applicants can submit their documentary films until 31 May 2022.
The films should address the latest human rights and social issues, and fall into one of three categories: International, Student & Debut Film, or Hungarian Competition. Submissions can be entered free of charge.
The Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival is the oldest and most prestigious documentary film festival in Hungary, say organisers, and has been held in Budapest every November since 2004. For several years it has enjoyed a physical presence in Kecskemét, Pécs, Szeged, Debrecen and Szombathely.
“The festival showcases the best creative documentaries to an increasingly wide and diverse audience, and creates a forum to discuss current social issues relevant to the given films and professional programs,” say organisers.
Entries are accepted in three categories.
The International Competition is a collection of documentary films from across the globe focusing on human rights and social issues. The winner of the Best Human Rights Film Award will be chosen from the International Competition by the Student Jury, consisting of international university students. In 2021, this award was given to the Chilean-Swedish co-production Arica, while the film Brotherhood received Special Mention from the jury.
The Student & Debut Film Competition for graduate projects and debut films is also geared around human rights and social issues. It is judged by an international panel of renowned experts who take into account the films’ professional excellence and creative approach to the chosen subject. In 2021, Anna Artemyeva’s short film Don’t Hesitate to Come for a Visit, Mom won in this category.
The Hungarian Competition, judged by a professional international jury, is open to documentary films produced entirely or partially in Hungary. In 2021, Alexa Bakony’s Colors of Tobi received the Best Hungarian Film award, and special mentions were awarded to Tales from the Prison Cell, directed by Ábel Visky, and I Still Remember (Flóra Chilton).
The winners in all three categories receive a monetary prize. Submissions are invited via your film through the Verzió website.
Helping Ukrainian filmmakers
With the selection of six documentaries previously screened at Verzió, the festival launched in March an online fundraiser for DocuDays UA, Ukraine’s biggest documentary festival. DocuDays UA began at nearly the same time as Verzió, and would have held their 19th edition this year. But, instead of organizing their annual festival, they are collecting and coordinating donations from all over the world to support documentary filmmakers who have stayed in Ukraine to document the war.
These donations provide equipment, technical materials, and cover the filmmakers’ basic costs. With the help of community fundraising, they have managed to continue their work in Kyiv and other occupied cities, such as Kharkiv and Mariupol. Their mission is to capture Putin’s aggression, as well as the course and consequences of the war. We believe that such depictions will prove a determining and authentic source of information for generations to come.
A brief summary of the films:
Pit Nr. 8 (2010) is a recipe for survival in post-industrial Ukraine. The film takes place in Snizhne, where desperate people have been taking part in illegal mining in order to survive. A heart-wrenching story of children forced to grow up way too soon, without role models.
Ukrainian Sheriffs (2015) takes us to a remote village without a police force, where two men are in charge of protecting the village. A detail-oriented tragicomedy giving insight into the everyday lives of these men and their village.
With a Special Mention at the 17th Verzió, and an Award for Best Direction at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (2020) takes us to Donets Basin in Eastern Ukraine, where an imaginative single mother and her four children begin filming to take their minds off the realities of the ongoing war.
In Euromaidan. Rough Cut (2014), young Ukrainian filmmakers anxiously reveal the way they saw the events of 2013/2014 to the whole world and their entire country, at all costs. Their desire to document gave them a unique vantage point in the protests that demanded a future for their country.
This Rain Will Never Stop (2020), screened at the18th Verzió, uses stunning images to illustrate the cycle of war and peace through a Syrian family’s escape to Ukraine. Should the protagonist flee from war, or should he help relieve the suffering of the locals?
No Obvious Signs (2017) is about a woman who returns from war as a major, and regularly sees a psychologist in Kyiv to fight post-traumatic stress syndrome.
