Nick Cunningham

The Krakow Film Festival Industry awards were handed out this weekend, with main awards and special mentions given in the Docs to Start (for brand new projects) and Docs to Go (projects reaching completion) categories. This year 18 projects took part in DOC LAB POLAND workshops that culminated in the two pitching sessions, held under the auspices of KFF Industry during the 62nd Krakow Film Festival.

Ten brand new Polish doc projects ready to start their careers were presented this week to the international finance, sales, distribution and festival sectors. All the projects are in development or currently shooting, and range in subject from a renewed investigation into a family death, an outsider’s observation of the people living on his Polish street and how a director sets out to find the man of her dreams using astrology.

CoPro 24 announced June 3 the award winners from the 2022 event, including double award-winner My Game Changer and Podium. A distribution grant was also presented to Lost Angeles - Documentary Musical. After two years of online presentation due to the pandemic, dozens of film industry players gathered in Tel Aviv for in-person events including pitches, screenings, and meetings.

The flagship event of B2B Doc, which every year takes place in Kyiv, is this year presented at the Krakow Film Festival following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Thirteen documentary film projects from Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, most of them pitch debuts, will be presented from 09.30 during KFF Industry.

During KFF Industry, eight new Polish documentary projects approaching completion were presented to the great and the good from the international finance, sales, distribution and festival sectors. The subject matters were diverse, ranging from the life of a transgender woman in Pakistan, to a Rocky-style tale of boxing prowess and dedication, to a Polish graphic designer whose Communist era logos are now considered as significant artworks from the period.

The four-time Emmy Award nominee tells BDE about a busy week in which she presented the world premiere of H2: The Occupation Lab at Docaviv (first pitched at CoPro) before pitching her latest project Ada at the Tel Aviv pitch market.

“We are thrilled to have hundreds of participants from across Israel and around the world who joined us at CoPro 24. In our first two days we have shared over a dozen major new documentary productions at our pitching event, attended by leading TV and film executives from networks across the globe,” says CoPro Executive Director Pnina Halfon Lang of her event running to June 3. “This is how co-production is done and it’s exciting to see it happening again in-person here in Israel after two years of virtual.”

The 24th edition of Docaviv, Israel's biggest celebration of documentary film and the only Israeli festival dedicated exclusively to doc cinema, announced its winners during the official award ceremony on Wednesday June 1. The festival commenced May 26 and runs to June 5 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and select venues around the city. A selection of films is available online for local audiences.

As one of the characters puts it in The Hamlet Syndrome, it’s not about choice, it’s about responsibility. She is one of five actors who have returned from active military service on the frontline in Donbass, even before the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, to perform in a play loosely based on the Shakespearean tragedy. For them, the question of ‘to be or not to be’ has immeasurable poignancy and weight in existential terms, as the directors tell Business Doc Europe.

Institute of Documentary Film presents the 12 documentary projects selected for the 20th edition of the Ex Oriente Film workshop. The first session will take place in La Rochelle, June 17-22, in co-operation with Sunny Side of the Doc. The 2nd session (Production and Story Development) takes place October 24-28 during Ji.hlava IDFF, while the 3rd session runs March 24-30 2023 in Prague during the East Doc Platform & One World IHRDFF.