Nick Cunningham

In a statement dated March 15, Vilnius International Film Festival (Lithuania, March 24 - April 3) says that it is “refusing all Russian films” in line with the petition initiated by the Ukrainian Film Academy. “We have eliminated all Russian films and co-productions from the programme of our festival as this is not the best time to nourish Russian culture,” the festival reaffirms on its website. Vilnius claims to be the first film festival to do so.

The leading Swiss doc fest will present 160 films from 58 countries. The official selection includes 124 films, including 84 world premieres and 15 international premieres and 26 Swiss (co)productions. 43% of the filmmakers are women, while 57% are men. Out of the 65 feature-length films, 35 are debuts. The opening film is Sara Dosa’s epic tale of volcanology, Fire of Love, which opens the festival April 7.

At the First Look event (March 16-20) designed to “introduce New York audiences to formally inventive works that seek to redefine the art form while engaging in a wide range of subjects and styles,” Ukrainian Sergei Loznitsa returns with both Babi Yar. Context (Cannes Golden Eye winner) and Mr. Landsbergis (IDFA Best Film). The fest also features Polish docmaker Pawel Lozinski and Dutch Guido Hendrikx.

The Greek doc Panellinion promises to serve up a heady concoction of philosophy, food and drink…and chess. As producer Leonidas Konstantarakos of Alaska Films underlined in his Thessaloniki Doc Fest pitch, it is also a “a story of obsession, solitude and madness” which concerns regulars of a chess café who are “out of place and time in the centre of Athens.”

As doors closed March 13 on the 23rd Glasgow Film Festival (GFF), Scottish director Lizzie MacKenzie was awarded the Audience prize for her feature doc The Hermit Of Treig. The film concerns the reclusive Ken Smith who has lived for the past forty years in a cabin by Loch Treig in the Scottish highlands, with neither electricity nor running water. Smith made a surprise appearance at the film’s world premiere in Glasgow.

Winners across nine competition categories at the 23rd Tempo Documentary Festival were announced March 12. The top Swedish Award (Tempo Documentary Award) was handed to The Scars of Ali Boulala by Max Eriksson. The prize for the Best International Documentary was won by Aliaksei Paluyan for Courage. All winners follow.

Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson’s documentary, about the so-called ‘Black Woodstock’ that was held in Harlem in 1969, heads off strong opposition in the form of Becoming Cousteau by Liz Garbus; Cow by Andrea Arnold; Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee and The Rescue by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

Historically a festival with its focus trained mainly on the South-East region of Europe, Sarajevo FF has extended its geographical remit to include Ukrainian films and filmmakers, which allows for future selections within feature, doc, short and student film competitions, the In Focus programme and CineLink Film Industry Days, as well as the Talents Sarajevo programme which promotes the new generation of film hopefuls.

Twenty-seven projects by 32 filmmakers, produced across 29 countries, will participate in the VdR-Pitching, VdR-Work In Progress and VdR-Rough Cut Lab programmes. 15 directors are female, 17 are men. 13 projects are directed and produced by filmmakers from countries of the global South or global East. VdR Industry activities will take place from April 10-14.

Clin d’Oeil Films (Belgium) and Hard Working Movies (US) announced March 10 that Martin Scorsese has boarded Belgian directors Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier’s documentary Dreaming Walls, which world-premiered at Berlin, as exec producer. “Dreaming Walls is a multi-dimensional cinematic requiem for the Hotel Chelsea as it once was - the epicenter of a Bohemian New York that now exists only in memory,” says Scorsese.