Nick Cunningham

The TIFF People’s Choice Award winner, directed by Free Solo’s E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, will be released by Dogwoof in UK cinemas 29 October 2021, with previews on 26 October. The Rescue is produced by Ventureland’s John Battsek and P.J. van Sandwijk of Storyteller Productions.

Norwegian producer Racha Helen Larsen and director/cinematographer Egil Håskjold Larsen talk to Business Doc Europe about their new festival Mirage that launches 24 September, running through 26 September. “We wanted to create a space for those films falling between TV and cinema distribution…we wanted to challenge some of the traditional conceptions of what ‘documentary’ film is.”

The geographical footprint of the Faroe Islands may comprise 99% water and 1% land, and its population may not even have reached 50,000, but the place still boasts a 2-star Michelin restaurant. Director Rasmus Dinesen whets the appetite of Business Doc Europe as he talks island life and the most exquisite of culinary offerings.

FIPADOC (Biarritz) launches call for international doc projects for the next edition of the festival, running January 17 to 23 2022. The festival is planned to be held on-site, with opportunities to engage with people online. Deadline for project submission: November 16.

International Documentary Film Festival (IDFA) announces the first films selected for its 34th edition: the Top 10 program curated by Guest of Honor Hito Steyerl, and a four-title program of films by Artavazd Pelechian, who will also receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Both directors will be in attendance at IDFA 2021, which runs November 17 to 28.

Irish-UK producer and European Film Academy chairman Mike Downey was honoured September 17 with the Kristián Lifetime Achievement Award at the opening of the Prague International Film Festival – Febiofest. The award was presented by British film and theatre director, and three times Academy Award nominee, Stephen Daldry.

Polish delegation invited to Malmö, plus two doc projects selected for pitch. Ten Polish documentary film producers will have the opportunity to participate in Producers meet Producers. International pitches for Lili, directed by Sylwia Rosak and produced by Katarzyna Kuczyńska (Haka Films) and Joanna Ratajczak’s Trust Me, produced by Stanislaw Zaborowski (Silver Frame).

Of course there can only be one winner, but neither is anybody a loser in this feature-length doc about the world’s biggest football tournament for kids, The Norway Cup, which attracts 30,000 players from 50 countries around the world. Producer Ingvil Giske talks footie, kids and Norwegian docs…and penalties with Business Doc Europe.

Pop stars, like lesser mortals, also age, get gnarly, fall out, get back together again, grow up, slow down and turn to contemplation. The Norwegian band A-ha, whom the likes of Coldplay and Kanye West cite as key musical influences, do all this and a lot more besides, and are the subject of a fascinating new feature doc by Thomas Robsahm and Aslaug Holm, who take on BDE.

Depending on how you assess him, or who you speak to, Icelandic Thorbjörn Steingrímsson is a car farmer, an inveterate hoarder or just a spare parts man. For Helga Rakel Rafnsdóttir, he is a ‘good shepherd,’ which is the Icelandic title of her film. What is beyond question is that ‘Bjössi’ has a passion for wrecked cars, hundreds of which are arranged on his small holding in the north west of Iceland. The director discusses her fascination for him with BDE.