Nine projects have been selected for the May 10 Progress Pitching session of Millennium Docs Against Gravity Industry 2024. A 10th project will be announced at the close of this week’s East Doc Pitching Forum (Prague). Millennium Docs Against Gravity Industry runs May 9-13 in Warsaw.
Progress Pitching will present new works from the likes of Ukrainian Alisa Kovalenko (We Will Not Fade Away, 2023) and the Maciej Cuske (The Whale from Lorino, 2019), as well as projects by such Polish doc debutants as Mateusz Góra and Kamil Wilk with their project Dekonstrukt, and Iga Lis with Baltic.
Two of the nine Progress Pitching projects are Ukraine/Poland collaborations; Light in the Dark by Alina Aleksandrova/Tadeusz Chudy & Frontline by Alisa Kovalenko. Another project (Leonard Cohen: Behind the Iron Curtain by Eric Bednarski) is a Polish/Canadian collaboration. All the other projects are Polish.
“MDAG Industry is a unique project in the film industry that brings together Polish creators with international representatives of festivals, distributors, producers, sales agents, and renowned stars of contemporary cinema,” write organisers, adding that 1010 professionals participated within Industry events in 2023.
The selected projects for the 3rd Progress Pitching session are:
- KANDYDACI ŚMIERCI / CANDIDATES OF DEATH by Maciej Cuske
- ŚWIATŁO W MROKU / LIGHT IN THE DARK by Alina Aleksandrova, Tadeusz Chudy
- FRONTLINE by Alisa Kovalenko
- MY SUNNY SIDE by Matylda Kawka
- MY FATHER, THE ICEMAN by Łukasz Kowalski
- SUGARLAND by Julia Groszek
- DEKONSTRUKT by Mateusz Góra, Kamil Wilk (debut)
- LEONARD COHEN: ZA ŻELAZNĄ KURTYNĄ / LEONARD COHEN: BEHIND THE IRON CURTAIN by Eric Bednarski
- BAŁTYK / BALTIC by Iga Lis (debut)
A tenth project will be added from the March 28 presentation of projects at the East Doc Forum in Prague.
Awards to be handed to the winning projects of MDAG Industry are:
- CANAL+ Polska Award: €3000
- Polish Filmmakers Association: €2500
- SMAKJAM Studio – post production services up to €3500
Project representatives will be offered tutoring sessions by Kim Christiansen (Executive producer of DR Sales) and Martijn te Pas, film programmer and festival advisor, previously Senior Programmer at IDFA and advisor to IDFA Bertha Fund and IDFA Forum.
The Progress Pitching Session is one of the four project presentations during MDAG Industry. The others are:
- Pole Position: pitch of ready-made Polish films which are in the programme of the 21st Millennium Docs Against Gravity (11.05)
- Short Pitch Program: pitch of 5 short films from Eastern Europe selected by the Institute of Documentary Film (12.05)
- 5th Forum of Documentary Films for Young Audience: presentation of 8 projects (9.05)
MDAG Industry takes place May 9-13 in Warsaw within the framework of the 21st Millennium Docs Against Gravity film festival. The full program of MDAG Industry will be available on May 19th at mdag.pl
