Nick Cunningham

The leading UK doc showcase unveils the full Film programme, Alternate Realities exhibitions, Industry programme and Talks & Sessions for its 29th edition. 38 World Premieres, 22 International Premieres, 11 European Premieres in the film programme including new works by Emma Davie, Werner Herzog and Rodrigo Reyes. 5 World Premieres, 6 International Premieres, 3 European Premieres in Alternate Realities.

The BBC’s non-fiction strand showcasing the best in international documentaries announced May 27 its new slate of summer specials that will be broadcast from June 2022, as well as three new commissions to be shown over the coming months. “Our upcoming new commissions show communities finding and using their voice,” says Commissioning Editor Philippa Kowarsky of the diverse Storyville offer.

Applications are now open for the market taking place during BFI London Film Festival 2022. Documentaries “reflecting a range of diverse perspectives and stories are positively encouraged,” say organisers. The event is set to take place physically for the first time since 2019 following the success of two digital editions, with New Black Film Collective on board as new partner.

The nine films selected for this year’s Sheffield DocFest International Competition include five world & four international premieres. The winner of Best Film, supported by BBC Studios Documentary Unit, will be revealed during a ceremony at Sheffield City Hall’s Memorial Hall on 28 June. The in-person festival runs 23-28 June.

At the close of Cannes Docs (and after the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator project Twice Colonized by Lin Alluna picked up the IEFTA Award, €10,000), CIRCLE founder Biljana Tutorov spoke to BDE about the importance of the Cannes collaboration. She also updated BDE on the Montenegrin project The Last Nomads, which she is co-directing Petar Glomazić, and which picked up the €20,000 Eurimages co-production prize at CPH:DOX.

The morning after the world-premiere of Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen answered questions posed by Mandy Chang (Global Head of Documentaries at Fremantle) before an audience of doc professionals. “I was definitely interested in creating a non-biographical experience,” he said. “With Bowie, it was perfectly suited for that, because David Bowie is all about projection.”

The Docs-in-Progress awards were handed out at May 24 at the end of the market’s headline Doc Day. Top cash awards went to the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator Showcase Twice Colonized directed by Lin Alluna (IEFTA Award, €10,000), while Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias (won the Al Jazeera Documentary Award, which entails a co-production deal with a minimum contribution of $15,000. All awards.

Doc Alliance, a network of seven of the most influential European documentary film festivals, announced May 24 the winners of its 15th annual Doc Alliance Awards during Doc Day of the Festival de Cannes. Best Feature went to A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia and In the Billowing Night won Best Short. Nataša Urban’s The Eclipse received a Special Mention.

Sundance-winning director Shaunak Sen discusses his remarkable vine documentary, selected for Cannes Special Screening section. It’s a film not only about the majestic black kite, whose numbers darken the sky above Delhi, it’s also a film about kinship, about shifts in our ecology and about devotion to a cause. And it’s a fascinating portrait of a city.

The prolific and internationally acclaimed Dutch filmmaker passed away in Amsterdam May 21 at the age of 70 after a long battle with MS and cancer.