Nick Cunningham

Al Jazeera Documentary and AJB DOC Film Festival are inviting projects for the first ‘Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC’ pitch event that will run in Sarajevo 9-13 September 2022. The event intends to support the expansion of documentaries worldwide, including international co-productions, and introduce exciting and valuable projects to key decision-makers. The submission deadline is June 30.

The Ukrainian Defence Ministry tweeted April 2 that Lithuanian filmmaker Mantas Kvedaravičius was killed trying to leave the besieged city of Mariupol, where he had been documenting Russian war atrocities. The director of the documentary Mariupolis (2016), that focussed on the city between 2014-15 as it came under attack from Russian-backed separatists, left a wife and two children.

Dutch firebrand and iconoclast Renzo Martens is taking on Jesus in his next project, which he pitched at CPH:FORUM 2022. Part fiction/part documentary, a key driver for Martens is to enable the Congolese cast and crew, led by Matthieu Kasiama (who will play Jesus), to buy back the land stolen from them over 100 years ago, using their participation fees paid to them up front.

The main Dox:Award goes to The Eclipse by Nataša Urban (Norway). The F:act Award is won by Black Mambas by Lena Karbe (Germany/France) and the Nordic:Dox Award goes to the The Last Human by Ivalo Frank (Denmark/Greenland). Politiken:DOX Award: is won by A House Made of Splinters by Simon Lereng Wilmont (Denmark). All awards plus citations…

The East Doc Platform Award went to the Polish project The World is not (a) Mine by Natalia Koniarz about inhabitants working in inhuman conditions mining metals on the Cerro Rico mountain. The Ukrainian project Up in the Air by Oksana Syhareva, following a young Ukrainian aerial gymnast with ambitions to open his own modern circus studio, won three awards including HBO Max Award. All awards follow.

The ninth Eurimages Co-Production Development Award for best pitch, valued at €20,000, was handed March 30 to Biljana Tutorov and Petar Glomazić for their co-production The Last Nomads, a co-production between Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Belgium and France.

From April 7-15 April, the Movies that Matter Festival will host its inaugural Industry Days, presenting a line-up of talks, panels and masterclasses addressing urgent and relevant issues from around the world. “Our main focus will be on creating impact as Movies that Matter believes that film and stories have the power to bring about change,” says Industry Producer Emma Romeijn.

CPH:DOX guests from Georgia issued a statement March 31 in response to the March 14 dismissal of Gaga Chkeidze, director of the Georgian National Film Center (GNFC), and the suspension of funding for the country’s major international film festivals. “Chkeidze’s sacking coincided with his open letter demanding the suspension of the process of bringing back restored Georgian cinema classics from Russian state archives - due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” the statement reads.

Multi-award-winning UK production and distribution company Noah Media Group announced March 31 they have secured world sales rights to Stewart, a major new documentary about the legendary former Formula 1 World Champion, team owner and businessman, Sir Jackie Stewart.

A dreamlike documentary that weaves together the timeless, historical and experimental qualities of shooting on 16mm black-and-white film in its observation of mountain shepherds and their flock. The combined effect of image and sound is a mix of direct, ethnographic observation and dreamlike, manipulated reflection.