Nick Cunningham

The Amsterdam docfest, running 9-20 November, will open with Dutch/Iranian Niki Padidar’s All You See. The complete programme comprises 277 titles. “The diversity of artistic forms is astonishing, and there are no boundaries when it comes to tackling the biggest powers or inventing new grammar,” commented IDFA Artistic Director Orwa Nyrabia during the October 20 announcement.

In Corpus A Quest for Eternity, a collection of contemporary, internationally known artists take us on a journey into the world of medical art to reflect upon death and the beauty of the mortal body. “We use art - and the fragile human body as a metaphor - to ask existential questions, and investigate the subject of mortality through a poetic visual language,” write the filmmakers.

Flemish filmmaker Luc Vrydaghs profiles the late Jan Hoet, one of the most controversial European curators of recent decades, charting his personal evolution from insecurity as a young man towards de facto papal status within the modern art world. But at the very core of Hoet’s artistic sense was something altogether more classical, the titular Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Jan van Eyck, which resides in the Flemish town of Ghent.

It’s not often in a doc that you encounter a cross-gender ornithologist (Sergei/Lydia) with an addiction to Twin Peaks (he/she has seen it 30 times) and a desperate need to create a life-size silicon replica of Lara Flynn Boyle, the series heroine. Throw into the mix an engaging elbow fetish and a director’s vain attempts to understand her subject and you have, in a nutshell, the latest film from Sasha Kulak, who talks to BDE.

The Kraków Film Foundation is accepting submissions for the 63rd Kraków Film Festival, running 28 May - June 4 in Kraków and online throughout Poland 2 - 18 June 2023. “Festival selectors will also be scouring the world’s most important film festivals for more cinematic gems. We’re sure that we are going to delight viewers with an extremely diverse film program once again,” says fest director Krzysztof Gierat.

Shaunak Sen was awarded the Grierson Award 16 October during the festival’s prize-giving ceremony. The film, also a Sundance 2022 winner, concerns two brothers in pollution-ravaged Delhi who have created a sanctuary for the magnificent black kites which dominate the city’s skies. The Immersive Art and XR Competition top prize went to As Mine Exactly by Charlie Shackleton, a work that blends VR, performance and film.

Head of Industry Nadja Tennstedt fills in Business Doc Europe on what to expect this week during the 65th edition of DOK Leipzig. “We always strive to create a welcoming, efficient and relaxed space for our guests. Emerging talents and seasoned professionals alike come here to meet at eye-level, find collaborators for current projects, forge new connections, get inspired and immerse themselves in the festival and the documentary community.”

Indian Kinshuk Surjan’s new project tells a story that is tragic and appalling on both personal and wider societal levels. The film concerns the hundreds of thousands of suicides by farmers in the Indian subcontinent which have resulted from legislation that has, effectively, made them economic slaves to large corporations. But as the director explained to Business Doc Europe, the widows left behind are fighting back…

A Date in Minsk by Nikita Lavretski wins the City of Lisbon Award for Best International Competition Film, while Alejandro Vasquez’s A Landscape Area Too Quiet For Me (pictured) wins the YouTube International Competition Jury Award. Best Portuguese Competition nods went to two films, The Visit and the Secret Garden by Irene M. Borrego and Vexations by Leonardo Mouramateus. All awards…

Over 2400 participants from 60 countries attended the Rome-based international audiovisual market which ran 11 to 15 October 2022 in the Palazzo Barberini and Cinema Barberini. The event generated million views on Twitter while MIA's facebook page followers grew by 27%, Linkedin by 23%. The event hosted more than 70 panels and events.