Nick Cunningham

Lagoons. A Battle for Paradise by Serhiy Lysenko received the East Doc Platform Award 2021 as well as the Current Time TV Director’s Award. 72 Hours by Anna Savchenko won the Czech TV Co-production Award and Kix - A Story of a Street Kid by Balint Révész & Dávid Mikulán picked up the HBO Development Award.

Bloomberg and other news outlets report that local Chinese media have been ordered to cancel live broadcasts of upcoming Oscars ceremony following the nomination of Norwegian Anders Hammer’s Hong Kong pro-democracy film in the Short Documentary category.

Special Presentations features a high-profile collection of world and international premieres, award winners from the recent international festival circuit and works by master filmmakers or featuring star subjects for streaming on Hot Docs at Home VOD platform April 29 - May 9.

Producer Ruth Reid (Warner Brothers ITVP) and exec-producer Hanka Kastelicová of HBO Europe held an East Doc Platform online masterclass last week during which they outlined ten lessons learned in producing the upcoming Scandi-noir doc series 'Pray, Obey, Kill'.

Czech filmmaker, journalist and festival programmer Ondřej Moravec’s VR project Darkening is more personal than most, dealing with the subject of debilitating depression and, as importantly, how to cope with it. Producer Hana Blaha Šilarová of Frame Films discusses the work with Business Doc Europe.

Alisa Kovalenko’s Expedition 49 may start beside the coal mines of eastern Ukraine on the Russian border and end in the Himalayan peaks of Nepal, but this is a film neither about war nor mountaineering, points out producer Stephane Siohan. It’s a film about the power of dreams.

Letter penned by fellow Pussy Riot member Nadya Tolokonnikova, calling on the Russian government to halt the two women’s impending prosecution, is co-signed by prominent international film figures including Whoopi Goldberg, Gillian Anderson and Spike Jonze, plus receives support of European Film Academy.

Academy Award nominations announced in the categories of Documentary Feature and Documentary Short Subject. Ceremony to take place April 25.

“This year, Inter:Active will not be a physical exhibition. Instead we explore how digital art, extended reality and documentary can merge into a brand new interactive and digital live format,” says CPH:DOX CEO Tine Fischer. The thirteen new pieces chosen for the festival’s Inter:Active exhibition will be accessible globally April 21 - May 2.

The East Doc Platform (EDP) goes into pitch overdrive Monday through Wednesday as 48 new projects from Eastern Europe (and beyond) are presented online to leading decision-makers within the international doc scene. Event director Zdenek Blaha explains the packed networking event to Business Doc Europe.