Nick Cunningham

Talents Sarajevo, the prestigious programme of the Sarajevo Film Festival founded in collaboration with Berlin International Film Festival and Berlinale Talents, is inviting applications for its 16th edition. This year the programme will be presented under the title Dis/Content. The closing date for applications is May 31.

A Bright Yellow Films, Samson Films and Groove International production, The Ghost of Richard Harris, directed by Adrian Sibley, concerns the late actor, poet, lover and singer whose prodigious career was overshadowed by a reputation for drinking and riotous behaviour earning him the epithet “hell raiser.”

The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) has called on Turkish authorities to “immediately and unconditionally” release film producer Çiğdem Mater. The main accusation against Çiğdem is that she was trying to raise financing for a documentary project about the Gezi Park movement – a film which was never made.

Selected for Hot Docs Changing Face of Europe, Band describes the existential dilemma faced by the three-woman 40-something Post Performance Blues Band who make a final push for fame and fortune within a pop industry that celebrates youth over talent. The film is very funny but, as Icelandic director Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir tells Business Doc Europe, this ain’t no mock doc. If you are imagining Spinal Tap, then think again.

Polish filmmaker Hanna Polak tells Business Doc Europe about her new doc Angels of Sinjar, which tells the harrowing story of the Yazidi community of Northern Iraq that was, on August 13 2014, devastated by ISIS and its unspeakable barbarism. For six years Polak followed two survivors; Hanifa who is determined to reunite all the sisters kidnapped on that day, and Saeed, brother of Nobel Laureate Nadia Murat, who remains in Iraq to try and rebuild his broken community.

Three film projects engaging international stories of migration from unique perspectives to receive mentorship, distribution consultation and $25,000 in grant support. The Lab, funded by Kalliopeia Foundation, marks the first partnership between Emergence Magazine and IF/Then Shorts, an initiative of Field of Vision.

The 8th edition of Arché - Space for Thinking and Creative Development will take place October 12-20 during the 20th Doclisboa International Film Festival, running 6-16 October. The call is out for film projects in development. Arché also includes project development workshops with Brazilian director Sergio Oksman and Spanish editor/filmmaker Virginia García del Pino.

In My Imaginary Country Chilean Patricio Guzmán documents the recent history of his country, while Riposte Féministe by French feature debutants Marie Perennès and Simon Depardon focuses on the ‘colleur.euses’ movement bringing the high level of femicides in France to the attention of the public. They join the previously announced Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble In Mind by Ethan Coen and Ukrainian Sergei Loznitsa’s The Natural History Of Destruction.

Running in parallel with regular Cannes sections, ACID offers up three documentary world premieres including Ainara Vera’s French-Greenlandic co-production Polaris and La Colline (The Hill), co-directed by Denis Gheerbrant and Lina Tsrimova. The selection also features Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s How To Save A Dead Friend which debuted to acclaim in International Competition at the recent Visions du Réel.

European Film Promotion (EFP) has announced the 10-film selection for the fifth CHANGING FACE OF EUROPE collaboration with Hot Docs, running 28 April - 8 May 2022. This year’s selection includes nine feature films and one short that explore themes centred around environmental activism, the plight of refugees, the destructive powers of war and more.