Nick Cunningham

A selection of new Czech docs were presented at Ji.hlava IDFF October 26 to a professional audience of festival programmers, sales agents and other interested parties. After the presentation, moderator Diana Tabakov, head of acquisitions at Doc Alliance Films, offered a personal overview of the presentation, and the Czech doc scene in general, to Business Doc Europe.

In his film selected for International Competition, Mateo Ybarra returns to familiar ground as he examines Swiss army conscripts recording their drills and exercises, as well as their reflections on mandatory military service. “Far from being convinced by the relevance of such an institution and its functioning, the intertwining of civil and military society is…fascinating to me,” Ybarra tells BDE.

During the October 25 festival opening, Romanian producer Ada Solomon was handed the APA World Excellence Award. The best film in Short Joy section film, as decided upon by the online viewers of DAFilms.com, was this year named as Blue Bed by Belgian director Lize Cuveele. In 2022, Ji.hlava IDFF presents almost four hundred films, and the festival continues to October 30.

This week, the Institute of Documentary Film will hand out the Silver Eye Awards to the best feature and short documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe during the East Silver Market at the 26th Ji.hlava IDFF. The winner in each category receives prize money of €2,500 and will benefit from the year-long international festival service East Silver Caravan, worth an additional €3,500.

The three-way 90-minute co-pro The Jacket (Belgium, France, The Netherlands) places a fictional tale (that of a search for the titular theatre prop in the streets of Beirut) into a documentary setting, at the same time exploring the broader topic of living in exile. “In this quest, situations and encounters will be set up, but it is not my task to direct what Jamal or the other characters have to say,” says director Poppe.

The top award in the German Competition was given to Dead Birds Flying High, while the Audience Award went to Three Women. Following the week-long festival which concluded October 23, a selection of the award-winning films will be shown online throughout Germany in the DOK Stream from 24 to 30 October.

The 20th anniversary edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity will take place May 12-21 2023 in Polish cinemas and May 23 - June 4 online. The May 2022 edition programmed 192 non-fiction films, garnering an audience of 138,000+ across in eight cities in Poland. The new deadline for submissions is January 31 2023.

Four prizes were awarded to new documentary projects participation in this year’s DOK Co-Pro Market. Additionally from the DOK Preview Germany showcase, the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize was awarded, and from the DOK Short n’ Sweet selection the Square Eyes Festival Consultation Awarded was handed out.

Ukrainian Oksana Moiseniuk’s film captures the outbreak of the Russian aggression, as seen through the eyes of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic. Ji.hlava will highlight the lifetime contribution of Slovak director Dušan Hanák. The fest will also feature masterclasses by Azerbaijani director Hilal Baydarov and Canadian documentary filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal.

The feature doc BOYZ, fully financed and ready for delivery at the beginning 2023, concerns three male friends on the cusp of adulthood reflecting on matters such as sexuality and masculinity. “When my little brother [a subject in the film] moved in with me, I saw how differently and how progressively they were tackling these questions, how they were able to openly talk about them,” director Cruiziat tells BDE.