Nick Cunningham

Among the tutors of the 2nd session of Ex Oriente Film 2020 (running online October 19-24) are director Feras Fayyad, consultant Claire Aguilar, editor Joe Bini and director Hanna Polak.

Over this period the filmmaker-driven organization has supported 84 shorts, features and episodic films, and over 60 films currently in various stages of development, production, post-production, or at beginning of their festival career.

30 titles in the Best of Fests program, and 10 titles selected by Gianfranco Rosi for the Top 10 program. “Through an initial selection that spans award-winners, newcomers, and hidden gems, IDFA sets the tone for a festival edition that is significant in its creative scope,” says leading doc fest.

Entitled ‘Body of Work’, the new programme includes the work of filmmakers such as Harun Farocki, Carole Roussopoulos and Elisa Cepedal. ‘It’s a cinematic proposition that promises to pose important questions and stimulate debate on work and labour - a central thematic in our lives,’ says the doc fest.

Kossakovsky’s Gunda in International Competition to compete for €15,000 distribution prize. Further doc selections in Perspective and Special Screenings sections. Festival runs 12-18 Oct 2020.

Resonating Spaces is the title of the 6th Extended Reality (XR) Exhibition running as part of DOK Leipzig from 27 to 31 October. For the first time, individual works will also be presented at three additional Leipzig locations.

The European Film Academy and Filmfest Hamburg announced September 29 the Susanne Regina Meures’ documentary (Switzerland) as one of the five nominated films for the European University Film Award (EUFA).

Courtroom 3H is Spanish director Antonio Mendez Esparza’s first doc and follows on, in essence, from his fictional Life and Nothing More (2017) which depicted the inherent lyricism within the lives of a black teenager and his minimum-wage mother in one of the US’s poorest neighbourhoods.

Maite Alberdi’s film wins City of Donostia/San Sebastian Audience Award for Best European Film, valued at €20,000.

Best Nordic Documentary Award to The Painter and the Thief by Benjamin Ree. New Nordic Voice Documentary and Short Awards went to Colombia In My Arms by Jenni Kivistö & Jussi Rastas and Nora Nivedita Tvedt’s Fucking Adopted.