The 2025 Sunny Side of the Doc pitch award winners were announced June 26 during the event’s closing ceremony.
Over four days, the market gathered 2100 participants from 60 countries, over 1000 companies, 85 exhibitors, and 260 international decision-makers including major broadcasters, streamers, foundations, distributors, financiers, and museums from around the world, organisers underlines.
This year’s edition saw a strong international presence, with 32 delegations from Africa, China, Brazil, Canada, and Spain. Archives companies were also in the spotlight, with a significant number of archival content exhibitors actively engaging in market discussions and activities.
This year also saw a significant increase in broadcaster engagement, with a strengthened presence from key players such as the BBC, Channel 4, Mediaset, National Geographic, TG4 (Ireland), and RTP (Portugal), as well as long-standing North American partner PBS. Buyers from India (IN10 Media) and Brazil (Globoplay) joined the event for the first time, further expanding the market’s international reach, organisers point out.
Aurélie Reman, Managing Director, Sunny Side of the Doc, says: “This 2025 edition exceeded all expectations. Guided by our new advisory board, we delivered a forward-thinking programme that mirrors our industry’s pivots and the funding challenges we all face. We moved beyond traditional networking to create a platform for reimagining cross-border storytelling and collaboration. In today’s shifting media landscape, our documentary community’s passion, activism and agility drive everything we do and elevate the Sunny Side of the Doc’s international impact. I remain committed to amplifying their authentic voices and fostering new pathways for documentary success across all markets. More than ever, every kind of support is vital to keeping our industry resilient and ambitious.”
Sunny Side of the Doc 2025 pitch winners
- Best Science Pitch | Sponsored by ZDF Studios. Winner: Heart, produced by Millstream Productions (Australia), Green Marble Productions (Australia) and directed by Gloor ALANEO. Synopsis: Heart follows one of the most challenging and far-reaching, medical breakthroughs of all time. An intensely human drama that charts the decades long science quest to create, something seemingly impossible…a machine heart.
- Best New Voices Pitch | Sponsored by Al Jazeera Documentary Channel & AJB DOC Film Festival. Winner: Restless Farewell, produced by Shanghai Media Group (China) and directed by Nan YANG and Peiyun HE. Synopsis: Third-generation migrant workers, who were left out of the system, seek a meager salary and fragile friendships. Gen-Z developed their self-awareness on the assembly line and TikTok, approaching the end of their youth. Will they escape from their parents’ fate?
- Best Current Affairs & Investigation Pitch | Sponsored by RTBF. Winner: In Front of Us, produced by Bars Media (Armenia), Associate Directors (Belgium) and directed by Inna SAHAKYAN. Synopsis: When Lala’s sister is murdered by a genocidal regime, an experienced international judge asks her to become the key witness in a grueling criminal case. Two women from different worlds unite to bring the perpetrators before the International Criminal Court.
- Best Impact Campaign Pitch. Winner: Mama, produced by Eterea (Ecuador) and directed by Ana Cristina BENÍTEZ. Synopsis: At 36, Ana faces advanced breast cancer, finding refuge in her camera and family archive as she reflects on healing beyond the body.
- Best Arts & Entertainment Pitch Winner: Leonard Cohen: Behind the Iron Curtain, produced by Nomad Films Inc. (Canada), Fireglory Pictures Gmbh (Germany), Silver Frame (Poland) and directed by Eric BEDNARSKI. Synopsis: A feature-length documentary film about legendary singer and poet Leonard Cohen’s ground-breaking tour of Poland in 1985, how his music inspired a generation of Poles struggling to end the rule of the Soviet Union, and all told through never-before-seen stock footage and unparalleled access to those who were there.
- Best Nature & Environment Pitch | Sponsored by Love Nature & Blue Ant Studios. Winner: Kingdom of the Crocodile, produced by Wild Pacific Media (Australia) and directed by Nick ROBINSON. Synopsis: Over the course of a year on a wild Australian river, three saltwater crocodiles battle to endure the extreme seasons, protect their young and dominate a kingdom of their own. This high-drama natural history series offers a never- before-seen window into the hidden lives of the world’s largest reptile.
- Best History Pitch | Sponsored by PBS Distribution. Winner: The Letelier File, produced by La Ventana Cine (Chile) and directed by Rafael VALDEAVELLANO, Carola FUENTES. Synopsis: The Letelier File unveils the hidden network of spies, secret agents, and covert operations behind the explosive 1976 car-bomb assassination of Chilean diplomat Orlando Letelier in Washington D.C.’s Embassy Row—exposing an international diplomatic scandal whose full story emerges today, as the 50th-anniversary approaches.
Award Winners | Special Prizes
- AIDC Award Winner: Taalim, produced by Paper Planes Pictures Pvt Ltd. (India) and directed by Vaibhav JADHAV. Synopsis: In a traditional Indian wrestling academy, an 18-year-old trainee struggles under the weight of his uncle’s political ambitions and his guru’s rigid ideals of masculinity, as unspoken tensions and quiet desires begin to unsettle the very world he is meant to conform to.
- Pitch the Doc Award: Winner: Taalim, produced by Paper Planes Pictures Pvt Ltd. (India) and directed by Vaibhav JADHAV. Synopsis: See above
- Student Choice Award Winner: The Other Gaza, produced by Sard Films Ab (Sweden) and directed by Wafa JAMIL ESPVALL. Synopsis: An exiled Gazan filmmaker captures her family’s fight for survival during genocide, blending intimate home footage with searing war diaries—a testament to Palestinian resilience.
- IMZ Award Winner: Leonard Cohen: Behind the Iron Curtain, produced by Nomad Films Inc. (Canada), Fireglory Pictures Gmbh (Germany), Silver Frame (Poland) and directed by Eric BEDNARSKI. Synopsis: See above
- The Roch Bozino Engagement Award Winner: In Front of Us, produced by Bars Media (Armenia), Associate Directors (Belgium) and directed by Inna SAHAKYAN. Synopsis: See above
- AJD Industry Days Award Winner: Tutankhamen, Royal Garden: Replanted, produced by Masr Media Production (Egypt), Soura (United States of America) and directed by Ahmed HUSSEIN. Synopsis: Follow the exciting journey of reviving millennia-old seeds from Tutankhamen’s ‘trash’ boxes found in his tomb into a real royal garden, through an intriguing combination of science, art and history.
- BIM Award Winner: Mama, produced by Eterea (Ecuador) and directed by Ana Cristina BENÍTEZ. Synopsis: See above
- Institute of Documentary Film Award Winner: In Front of Us, produced by Bars Media (Armenia), Associate Directors (Belgium) and directed by Inna SAHAKYAN. Synopsis: See above
- DocEdge Award Winner: Restless Farewell, produced by Shanghai Media Group (China) and directed by Nan YANG and Peiyun HE. Synopsis: See above
- Movies That Matter Award Winner: Miss Albinos, produced by Petites Poupees Production (France) and directed by Cynthia PINET. Synopsis: From exclusion to empowerment: Dive into the first Miss Albino contest in the DRC.
- Lionel Guenoun Prize by Will Production Winner: The Letelier File, produced by La Ventana Cine (Chile) and directed by Rafael VALDEAVELLANO, Carola FUENTES. Synopsis: See above
- The XRoam Immersive Award Winner: Zefar, produced by L’Equipage (Canada) and directed by Sara NACER, Colas WOHLAHRT.
- The End Award winner: The Other Gaza, produced by Sard Films Ab (Sweden) and directed by Wafa JAMIL ESPVALL. Synopsis: See above
Sunny Side enters a new phase ahead of 2026
Building on the success of this year’s edition, 2026 will see the continuation of this shifting edition with the second edition of the LatAm Content Meeting (13 to 15 April), organisers write. The event is sponsored by Spcine and the São Paulo City Hall, through the Municipal Secretariat of Culture and Creative Economy, the Municipal Secretariat of Economic Development and Labor.
“This initiative reaffirms Sunny Side’s commitment to creating meaningful, long-term bridges between Europe and new territories. Strengthening the links between producers and decision-makers across these regions will remain a central objective, with a strong focus on amplifying emerging voices and nurturing bold, cross-cultural storytelling that reflects today’s global realities.”
Aurélie Reman, says: “The collaboration between Sunny Side of the Doc and LatAm Content Meeting, represents a new model for international cooperation. Our pitch sessions have consistently fostered genuine partnerships across continents. For the 2026 in São Paulo, our ambition is clear: to move beyond traditional co-production models and create equitable collaborations rooted in mutual respect and creative exchange. With Europe as a key hub for funding and distribution, and Brazil’s institutional commitment through SPCine, we’re co-building a platform where Latin American voices don’t just participate – they are an integral part of the future of documentary storytelling. We would be delighted to welcome even more of them to Sunny Side of the Doc 2026.”
The 37th edition of Sunny Side of the Doc will take place from 22 to 25 June 2026 in La Rochelle.
