Nick Cunningham

David Byrne, the sublime Scottish/American maverick, popstar, icon, filmmaker, wearer of big suits and former Talking Heads frontman, zoomed in to CPH:DOX to discuss, with Danish journalist Erik Jensen, his concert film American Utopia, working with Spike Lee and dancing during lockdown.

On April 24, the VdR Int’l Feature Film Competition jury comprising filmmaker Thomas Imbach, Savina Neirotti (Artistic Director Torino Film Lab) and Josh Siegel (MoMA) awarded the 2021 Grand Jury Prize to Faya Dayi by Jessica Beshir. Special Jury Awards were given to 1970 by Tomasz Wolski & Les Enfants terribles by Ahmet Necdet Cupur. All awards follow.

The Close Up section of the Bergamo Film Meeting, which kicks off 24 April running to May 2, comprises 18 documentaries screening for the first time in Italy. Two awards are up for grabs, awarded both by the audience and a jury made up of Bergamo trade union delegates.

Watch Over Me wins the newly inaugurated Grand Jury Documentary Award. Activist Documentary Award (presented in collaboration with Amnesty International) goes to Celina Escher for her Fly so Far. Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel received the Dutch Movies Matter Award for their documentary Shadow Game.

Sheffield Doc/Fest will open its 2021 edition with the European premiere of Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul and will close with the world premiere of Mark Cousins’ The Story of Looking.

Belgian filmmaker Volkan Üce talks to Business Doc Europe about his feature doc that places centre stage the staff of a vast, all-inclusive hotel complex on the Turkish Riviera, in particular the brooding philosopher Hakan and the shy, young Ismael.

Co-director Lietje Bauwens calls herself and colleague Wouter De Raeve “artists with an activist motivation.” In their experimental and thought-provoking WTC,A Love Story they examine exactly where the balance of power lies between political and commercial interests as a major urban redevelopment project is undertaken in Brussels.

Five new Swiss docs-in-progress were presented this week during Visions du Réel Industry on subjects ranging from brilliant novelist Patricia Highsmith, to holding down a relationship during lockdown, to peacetime military manoeuvres by the Swiss army. Business Doc Europe reports.

The VdR-Industry Awards 2021 were announced April 20. The ceremony took place as a hybrid event in Nyon and on the VdR-Industry online platform. The top pitch prize of 5,000 CHF in cash for the most promising project was won by the Argentinian project Science Fiction by Ezequiel Yanco.

Calvert Journal Film Festival announce call for submissions for its second edition, to be held online in October 2021. This year’s festival will feature an open competition inviting filmmakers from across the New East (“Slovenia to Kazakhstan”) to submit across six categories.