Nick Cunningham

Narrated by Star Wars’ actor Daisy Ridley, produced by FIFA and the Supreme Committee, Qatar, and co-produced by Noah Media Group and HBS, We Were There is available worldwide as an 8-part series of 30-minute episodes. “[It] brings together an incredible array of footballing superstars and passionate fans from around the world with the amazing archive from the biggest sporting event in the world.” says Catherine Quantschnigg, Noah Media Group.

The 1974 Carnation Revolution and its echoes will be everywhere at the opening of the 22nd edition of Doclisboa, which this year runs from October 17th to 27th. Sempre, by Luciana Fina, which recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival and which, “50 years later, revisits and brings to the present the films, images, faces and forgotten or unfulfilled ideals of the revolution,” the festival writes.

Leading doc specialist Autlook Filmsales announced September 10 the appointment of Stephanie Fuchs as its new CEO. Fuchs will succeed Salma Abdalla, who is stepping down after “a transformative and highly successful leadership term.” Autlook is strongly represented at TIFF this year with two world premieres: Patrice: The Movie by Ted Passon and Tata by Lina Vdovîi & Radu Ciorniciuc,

Six new Finnish feature documentaries and one doc series will be presented during the upcoming edition of Finnish Film Affair, 25-27 September. Other features of FFA 2024 include a spotlight on avenues and means of co-production with other countries, including India. Award-winning producer Rakasree Basu will deliver a crucial keynote talk, ‘Co-producing with India’, offering insights for buyers and key industry players.

The Berlin-based company has acquired global sales rights (except Switzerland) for Iranian director Leila Amini’s new doc prior to its North American premiere at TIFF 2024. The deal was negotiated between the founders of Rise and Shine World Sales, Stefan Kloos and Anja Dziersk, and the producers Vadim Jendreyko of Mira Film and Afsaneh Safari of DocManiacs.

The 28th edition of the Baltic Sea Docs documentary pitching forum concluded in Riga after a week of workshops, seminars, pitching sessions and film screenings. Held 1-8 September, the forum featured 26 documentary projects from the wider Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus, providing an important platform for creative documentary filmmakers to present their work to key industry professionals. All winners…

Irish filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea talks to Business Doc Europe about the late Edna O’Brien, the subject of her new documentary world-premiering September 8 in Toronto. “She's in her mid-eighties and she's just so screamingly funny, but also draws you into all these psychodramas that are going on and really confides in you,” O’Shea explains of the first time she met O’Brien. “I just thought she was extraordinary and I never got over it.”

CPH:DOX’s international financing and co-production event CPH:FORUM is now open for submissions, accepting projects until November 1, 2024. This includes the new CPH:RoughCut, which will present 5 projects at rough cut stage looking for distributors (including theatrical), sales agents, buyers, high profile festival premieres and other forms of exhibition.

Dokumentale (10-20 October) is described as “a festival for documentary formats dedicated to the promotion of film, new media, non-fiction and podcasts.” The new festival provides a forum for exchange between filmmakers, journalists, authors, artists, academics and the public and will take place annually in Berlin. The festival also offers an extensive professional programme in the form of D'Hub, which takes place from 14 to 16 October.

The Cinéma du réel Competition comprises up to twenty international and up to twenty French documentary films of all durations. The 47th edition of the Paris-based festival runs March 22-29 2025. Other sections are the special screenings and Popular Front(s) programme, while the Première Fenêtre selection gathers documentary debuts from young creators.