Nick Cunningham

Earlier this month incumbent DAE executive board members Brigid O’Shea and Julianna Ugrin were re-elected for another 3-year term following the online vote of DAE members. Speaking to Business Doc Europe at Berlinale (where DAE was launched in 2020) O’Shea underlined once more the organisation’s raison d’être. “We are vocal, outspoken and in the ears of decision makers on our members' behalf; we are fighting for the best conditions for documentary filmmaking every day!”

Rotterdam-based filmmaker Sara Rajaei’s City of Poets is a short hybrid work that reflects on the countless inequities suffered by women. It is a film both deeply melancholic and shot through with a magical realist aesthetic. “At the same time the film is addressing something real. Something of our contemporary history and things that I experienced during my childhood and that I still experience. So yes, it is a fairy-tale, but it is about something much larger, much more universal.”

Oasis, the latest feature film from the Mapa Fílmico de un País (MAFI) collective, will have its world premiere on February 19 in Forum. Also making its world debut is the hybrid LGBTIQ+ themed short film Towards the Sun, Far from the Center, directed by Luciana Merino and Pascal Viveros and produced by Javiera Pineda. The Chilean doc sector will be represented at EFM by CinemaChile and Chiledoc.

The Emmy-nominated North American filmmaker will reveal the secrets behind his “unique, captivating vision” and his HBO-backed show How To With John Wilson. "It is a pleasure to welcome to Barcelona one of the documentary directors with a more humane and empathetic approach to the mundane, with such a capacity to appreciate the details of life and to relish what we can only see when we actively look”, says Èric Motjer, Head of DocsBarcelona Industry, which runs May 6-10.

The Norwegian Film Institute Film Commissioner (Documentary) and International Relations Manager talk to Business Doc Europe on the eve of Berlinale 2024, just weeks after two Norwegian documentaries (Ibelin and A New Kind of Wilderness) garnered three of Sundance 2024’s top doc awards. “I started to cry actually,” Aalmo remembers her reaction to the wins. “I was so incredibly happy on behalf of the filmmakers. It was amazing. It was fantastic.”

The International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights (Geneva) presented February 15 the programme for its 22nd edition, which takes place March 8 to 17, 2024. Among the “influential voices of human rights” in attendance will be American activist Angela Davis, Indian economist Jayati Ghosh, and Russian journalist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitri Mouratov.

Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival has put out the call for filmmakers and production companies to participate in the seventh edition of the Festival, which will take place in Sarajevo September 13-17 2024. AJB DOC Film Festival is organized by the TV broadcaster Al Jazeera Balkans in cooperation with Al Jazeera Media Network, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and Al Jazeera Media Institute in Doha. The submission deadline is May 27 2024.

The Copenhagen docfest revealed Feb 15 the films nominated across all six award categories. The selection features 66 films in competition, of which 47 are world premieres, 17 international premieres and 2 European premieres. For the second year row, all films in the main competition celebrate their world premieres in Copenhagen. CPH:DOX runs March 13-24.

CPH:CONFERENCE, curated in partnership with the Documentary Campus, unveiled Feb 14 its line-up for 2024. Back within a “refreshed format,” this year’s edition will gather industry leaders and visionaries “to share their experiences, insights, and strategies for fostering inclusivity and collaboration in the documentary landscape, and to rediscover unconventional approaches that defy the norms of non-fiction.” The theme of the conference is ‘Re-building Narratives’ and guest filmmakers include Alex Gibney, Johan Grimonprez and Laura Huertas Millán.

The programme is supported by the European Union's Creative Europe - Media Programme and the participating European national film promotion institutes (EFP's member organisations), and is open again to 20 producers from 20 different European countries. Once again the programme will be hybrid, consisting of a 3-day online pre-festival (30 April - 2 May) and on-site networking events during the Cannes Film Festival (18 - 22 May).