Nick Cunningham

Spanish director Ainara Vera tells Business Doc Europe about her dramatic and at times sumptuous new doc Polaris, selected for Cannes ACID, that tells of two French sisters whose lives are polar opposites: Hayat, the immensely capable skipper of a boat that traverses the freezing Arctic Sea between Iceland and Greenland, and her younger sister Leila, not long out of jail and soon to give birth to the baby Inaya.

In each of the past three years, Anna Berthollet of Lightdox has acquired a great new doc at Visions du Réel which was then selected for Cannes ACID. Over the same period her company Lightdox has been one of Cannes Docs’ featured exhibitors. Which makes it all the more surprising that Berthollet will be visiting the world’s leading film festival for the first time in 2022. A prospect she is relishing, she tells Business Doc Europe.

Cannes Docs chief Pierre-Alexis Chevit guides Business Doc Europe through this year’s series of bespoke events, talks, debates and presentations dedicated to all things documentary. He underlines a core purpose of the event; “philosophically speaking, to advocate for documentary cinema and to work at strengthening its integration within the global film industry.”

The Location Guide, Filmmakers for Ukraine and EUFCN are organising a fundraising campaign at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in support of the Ukrainian filmmaking community. Ukrainian lapel pins will be sold during Cannes Film Festival at events and pavilions, and a minimum donation of EUR10 is required by scanning a QR code.

Filmotor has revved up its slate with two docs that world-premiered at Visions du Réel (Switzerland) in April 2022. The Prague-based sales agent will handle world rights on two debut features, Tizian Buchi’s Like an Island and Manuel Bauer’s Steel Life. Both films won major awards at the Nyon-based docfest.

Brett Morgen’s Moonage Daydream will open this year’s Sheffield DocFest on 23 June. Written, directed, edited and produced by Morgen (The Kid Stays in the Picture, Cobain: Montage of Heck, Jane) the doc presents "a genre-defying immersion into the art and sounds of David Bowie." Moonage Daydream will world premiere as a Midnight Screening at Cannes 2022.

The Bank Millennium Award for the Best Eastern European Project was presented to Tetiana Dorodnitsyna (pictured) and Andriy Litvinienko (both from Ukraine) following the Eastern Europe Against Gravity pitch session at Poland’s 19th Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF. The prize is valued at €6000.

The 19th Verzió International Human Rights Doc FF will be held 8–16 November 2022 in art cinemas in Budapest, and in cities across Hungary. Applicants are invited to submit their documentaries up to 31 May 2022. The films should address the latest human rights and social issues, and fall into one of three categories: International, Student & Debut Film, or Hungarian Competition.

The Viktors of the 37th DOK.fest Munich were awarded May 14. The winner of the main International Competition was named as Trenches by Loup Bureau, while the top German-speaking doc was Zusammenleben (Living Together) by Thomas Fürhapter. In DOK.horizonte, Akuol de Mabior won with No Simple Way Home. All awards follow, plus Industry awards that were announced May 12.

In the newly created role, Cudic will be responsible for Sky Studios’ partnerships with leading filmmakers and creatives from across the globe to develop and produce unscripted projects targeted at Sky’s platforms and channels across Europe, the company writes.