Nick Cunningham

26 projects have been selected to take part in the CEDOC Market (2-4 June) of the Krakow Film Festival, the only international co-production market in Poland for documentary producers seeking Polish and foreign partners. The selection includes doc projects from Poland, Great Britain, Estonia, Italy, Norway and Portugal.

Running March 5-23, the Munich doc fest presents 131 films from 43 countries in 2021. In addition to international and German competitions, student films and docs from “countries in transition” will also compete for cash prizes. The fest also includes an homage to Helena Treštíková, a 75-year DEFA retrospective plus an extensive Industry programme.

Niklas Engstrøm has been appointed Artistic Director of Copenhagen Film Festivals, which includes CPH:DOX, CPH PIX and BUSTER, and will work closely with a new managing director which the festival board is in the process of recruiting. Outgoing Tine Fischer to sit on the board of Copenhagen Film Festivals.

The CGIL Prize was awarded May 1 to Lobster Soup by Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés, (Spain/Iceland/Lithuania) while the Jury Prize was handed to Alt det jeg er/All that I am by Tone Grøttjord-Glenne, Norway. Sixteen documentaries were selected for Bergamo’s competitive Close Up section.

Girl power is alive and kicking in Guðjón Ragnarsson’s documentary about an Icelandic all-girl basketball team and their uncompromising coach. But is Iceland ready to embrace, or even acknowledge, the girls’ bid for emancipation, equality and agency? Filmmaker Ragnarsson talks hoop dreams with BDE.

“The silence of my father was not a wall against me. It was somehow a mirror in which I should find a way to understand myself and to understand his message about…the fragility of life,” filmmaker Andrea Segre tells BDE of his highly personal Molecole, a cinematic ode both to his father and to Venice in lockdown.

During the April 30 CPH:DOX Award Show the winners of the six international competitions were announced. The main DOX:Award went to The Last Shelter by Ousmane Samassekou. The Eurimages Co-Production Development Award (€20,000) was handed to CPH:FORUM project Tata/Father, directed by Radu Ciorniciuc and Lina Vdovîi.

Directed by Luca Lucchesi and produced by Wim Wenders, A Black Jesus poses a poignant and highly pertinent question. How can the residents of a Sicilian village worship the statue of a black Jesus but disregard the refugees who pray in the same church? The filmmaker talks to BDE.

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2021 has announced the films that will premiere in its Rhyme & Rhythm strand. ‘Rhyme & Rhythm is where cinema and other artforms meet. Through music and performance, visual art and sport, each film offers encounters and inspirations to a different beat,” say organisers. The fest runs 4 - 13 June, in Sheffield and online.

Weits’ detailed and absorbing film has all of the elements for debate, controversy and angst as she delves into the diaries of her long-revered great grandfather hailed as one of the heroic pioneers of Israel.