Nick Cunningham

Norwegian Democrazy may focus ostensibly on Lars Thorsen and Fanny Bråten, a pair of objectionable Quran-burning anti-Islam extremists, but the raison d’etre of the film is to explore the difficult overlap between ‘free speech’ and ‘hate speech’ and how modern democracy is geared up to deal with this. “He knows exactly how far it can go and how far it cannot go,” co-director Kjøge Rønning says of the ‘free speech’ dilemma that Thorsen is all too keen to exploit.

In Limits of Europe, Czech journalist Sasha Uhlová sets out to experience what it’s like to be an Eastern European economic migrant in the West, working impossibly long hours for low wages and leaving behind her partner, four kids and seriously ill father - just as so many economic migrants are forced to do. The film “is a mirror reflecting the world we live in even though we have a habit of turning a blind eye to what is happening in it,” says director Apolena Rychlíková.

The National Competition of the 64th Krakow Film Festival promises a showcase of 40 “outstanding and incredibly diverse” Polish films, twelve of which are feature docs and eight of which are documentary shorts. Furthermore, three Polish docs will compete across the festival’s two International Competitions. The 64th Krakow Film Festival will be held in cinemas 26 May to 2 June and online across Poland from 31 May to 16 June 2024.

Drawn from 533 submissions, the 50 projects in the 2024 selection encompass 44 countries of production and co-production. New works will be presented from experienced producers such as Ina Fichman, Estelle Robin You, Monica Lazurean-Gorgan and Michèle Stevenson, working alongside first time and second time filmmakers. Five Rough Cut titles which will be screened to industry representatives and receive tailored feedback.

Brigid O’Shea has been appointed the sole director of Documentary Association of Europe while Marion Schmidt (former co-director) will remain in her seat on the executive board and join the team of senior consultants. DAE was founded in February 2020, and has since grown to a community of more than 700 members from 36 countries.

The professional market of the Barcelona International Documentary Film Festival will take place May 6 to 10 with John Wilson, Albert Serra, Efthymia Zymvragaki and Estephan Wagner among the main guests. Every year DocsBarcelona gathers approximately 600 professionals who attend conferences, pitch sessions, speed meetings and other activities.

This year, 42 projects from 21 countries will compete for the Best Pitch Prize. The selected projects will be presented across seven thematic pitch sessions. Australia will be back in force 2024, with a total of seven documentary projects. Five further projects are selected for the Innovation WIP support programme dedicated to innovative documentary creation. Sunny Side of the Docs runs June 24-27 in La Rochelle, France.

The UK festival will join forces with the International Documentary Association (IDA) on the Alternate Realities Exhibition and Summit of its 31st edition, taking place 12-17 June 2024. The exhibition will be curated by DocFest Creative Director Raul Niño Zambrano alongside IDA’s Keisha Knight, Director of Funds, and Abby Sun, Director of Artist Programmes, supported by Alternate Realities Programme Producer Jack Rutherford.

The Grand Jury Prize of International Feature Film Competition was given to The Landscape and the Fury by Nicole Vögele (Switzerland) while the Special Jury Award was won by Rising Up at Night by Nelson Makengo (Democratic Republic of Congo, Belgium, Germany, Burkina Faso, Qatar). The Jury Prize in the Burning Lights Competition was awarded to A Fidai Film by Kamal Aljafari (Palestine, Germany, Qatar, Brazil, France). All awards...

Over CHF 100,000 of prizes were distributed to sixteen winning projects during the 2024 Visions du Réel Industry Awards Ceremony. The project The Last Days of the Hospital won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award (€20,000) while the Special Eurimages Co-production Development Award (€20,000) was handed to the Ukrainian project Fixing the War. The visions sud est award went to Hanz Rippe Gabriel, for their project The Shadow of Yolüja. All awards...