Nick Cunningham

Documentary Competition presents a dozen US and international doc features while the Docs In Spotlight section presents a further 26 non-fiction features. “Storytelling possesses a remarkable ability to bring us together, offering hope in these challenging times. We eagerly anticipate engaging with audiences on difficult yet timely subjects,” says co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. The New York celebration of film runs to June 16.

Eight filmmakers and executives will form the first board of trustees of the Documentary Film Council (DFC), the new national membership organisation designed to represent the interests of the sector in the UK. The trustees were elected on a 58.2% turnout, and will formally take over from the interim board at Sheffield DocFest at the DFC’s annual Open Assembly and AGM on Saturday June 15.

The Golden Horn for Best Film was given to Askold Kurov and Anonymous 1 for Of Caravan and the Dogs (Germany). The Silver Horn for Highest Artistic Merit went to Tomasz Wolski for A Year in the Life of the Country (Poland). The Silver Horn for Best Film on Social Issues was won by Oksana Karpovych for Intercepted (Canada, France, Ukraine). The KFF Recommendation to the European Film Award (Doc) is Silent Trees by Agnieszka Zwiefka (Poland).

The Industry awards of Krakow 2024 were handed out May 31 within the Docs to Start and Docs to Go categories, for Polish and Ukrainian documentary projects in development and in post-production respectively. KFF Industry runs May 27 to June 1. The 64th Krakow Film Festival runs to 2 June in Kraków, and across Poland on the KFF VOD online streaming platform between 31 May and 16 June 2024.

This week Krakow Film Festival Industry 2024 hosted a presentation of 10 new Polish & Ukrainian documentary projects at the post-production stage, preceded by the Doc Lab Poland: Doc Lab Go workshop. The purpose of the presentation was to source potential distributor, sales agent and buyer interest as well secure a festival premiere and other core slots in the doc calendar.

The deadline for films for the 7th Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival has been extended to midnight of June 3 2024, while project submissions for Industry Days (three categories: Main Pitch, Rough Cut, Balkan Stars) can be made up to and including June 15. AJB DOC Film Festival will take place in Sarajevo 13 to 17 September 2024. Industry Days runs September 14-16.

In her debut feature doc, which she started shooting in 2021, Adelina Borets tells the allegorical tale of Natalia who is fighting to protect her small plot of land in Kyiv as developers send in the bulldozers and tractors…and then Russia mounts a full-scale invasion of her country. “I'm reflecting on my hero in the way of my life goal,” says Borets, who lost her home in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. “Because I also have a dream to come back to my land, to my house.”

What started off as a hastily arranged assignment at film school developed into a 10-year study of a fractured life which mirrored that of the director herself. “Through Alice's story I started to realise a lot of my personal issues,” feature doc debutant Isabela von Tent tells Business Doc Europe of her film world-premiering May 29 at Krakow FF. “During her growth and development, I developed myself as I was observing her.”

Munich-based sales company Autentic Distribution announced this week a raft of sales with international broadcasters. Most recent of these is a multi-doc deal with Al Jazeera Documentary, coming hot on the heels of a 30-hour package deal with SBS Australia and another eye-catching package deal to Canal+ (Poland) across its various channels.

Beldocs Pitching Forum, the pitch section of Beldocs Industry Days (23-26 May), handed out its awards May 25 during a ceremony presented by the Head of Beldocs Industry, Andrijana Sofranić Šućur. The program is part of the 17th Belgrade International Documentary Film Festival Beldocs, which is ongoing and runs to 29 May.