Nick Cunningham

Due to ongoing and unexpected developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Film Academy has decided that the upcoming ceremony of the 34th European Film Awards on 11 December will be presented digitally. “The aim of the organisation is to minimise risks for the people involved as much as possible,” says a statement. The ceremony will be hosted by Annabelle Mandeng.

Celebrating its first anniversary December 1, the free streaming platform ‘dedicated to the future of our planet,’ has 'completed its full worldwide expansion' to reach 194 countries, Ellen Windemuth becomes full time CEO of the company and three major management changes are announced. WaterBear content will also now be available to watch on all Apple TV and Roku devices.

The name stays the same but there is a shift in emphasis at German sales outfit Deckert Distribution, with Liselot Verbrugge taking over as CEO. She will take a 50 per cent share in the company together with Heino Deckert who will now be concentrating on production, but will be on hand within an advisory capacity. Verbrugge explains the new set-up to Business Doc Europe.

Sergei Loznitsa’s Mr. Landsbergis wins IDFA Award for Best Film in International Competition. Octopus by Karim Kassem wins IDFA Award for Best Film in Envision Competition. Shamira Raphaëla’s Shabu picks up award for Best Youth doc, while Jason by Maasja Ooms is awarded Best Dutch Film. All winners…

The IDFA Forum Awards were announced Nov 24 with Bettina Perut and Iván Osnovikoff's project La Casa winning the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch, Anna Shishova-Bogolubova's The New Greatness picking up the IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, while the DocLab Forum Award went to Continuum VR by Daniela Maldonado, Tomas Espinosa, and Paula Gempeler. Each award includes a cash prize of €1500.

When Netherlands Film Fund’s Swedish-born Signe Zeilich-Jensen received a message telling her that father was the murderer of Sweden's prime minister Olof Palme in 1986, her reaction was immediate. In the documentary she made during lockdown with husband Niek Koppen, she set out not only to investigate what seemed to be an absurd claim but, as importantly, to understand her estranged dad, who died in 1992.

Judges Under Pressure is a film about grass roots protest. It is also a film about the protection of judicial neutrality. Most remarkably, it is a film in which judges are heroes, the ‘armour’ of the people, as director Kacper Lisowski puts it, and one in which those same citizens take to the streets to cry the word ‘Constitution’ in response to their own government’s erosion of that very concept. Lisowski tells more to BDE.

A lot of filmmakers come to Docs for Sale in search of a sales agent but not all of them can boast the excess interest Maartje Nevejan is receiving for her film Descending the Mountain, which opened November 11 in The Netherlands. The documentary makes the case for the widespread application of psychedelic drugs to treat illnesses such as depression, PTSD and anxiety.

Taamaden offers an intriguing and insightful take on young West African migrants who seek to find their way to Europe to try and make money for their families. The film dwells as much on the way the live as how they turn to trusted mystics and clairvoyants back in their home countries to help them make decisions and seek reassurance as to what the future holds in store for them.

For two decades the highly talented populist Norwegian politician Trond Giske turned down filmmaker Håvard Bustnes’ requests to be the subject of a fly on the wall documentary. Until 2017, that is, when allegations of sexual harassment were levelled at him, at which point he went on a tour around Norway to resurrect his political career. And this time, as the director tells BDE, the politician could see the benefits of answering Bustnes’ emails…