Nick Cunningham

At MIA, Luxembourg-based producer Alexandra Hoesdorff pitched Waiting for Frank, Désirée Nosbusch’s story of a Luxembourg Intelligence operative turned businessman, who is threatened with extradition to the United States over alleged involvement in a cryptocurrency scam worth $4 billion. Nosbusch’s main goal is to explore “the human side of the international scandal without passing judgement,” says Hoesdorff of a story that continues to evolve…

The festival, running November 8-26 will open with Clair Titley’s “jaw-dropping” The Contestant and will close with Sam Pollard and Llewellyn Smith’s South to Black Power, about New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow and his provocative writing. The fest includes International, US, Metropolis and Kaleidoscope competitions, plus themed sidebar programmes.

This year, the Ji.hlava IDFF offers up 357 films in both competitive and non-competitive sections, of which 115 will be world premieres, 22 international premieres and 17 European premieres. "Ji.hlava is a place that brings forth striking images from around the world, connecting the community of filmmakers and viewers," says festival director Marek Hovorka. Ji.hlava IDFF runs October 24-29.

Women Speaking tells the intriguing story of the Albanian Burrnesha, women who give up their femininity and live as men in order to gain a voice, experience personal freedom and fight for equality. “Although we see that their lives seem to be free and they have self-determination, there is still sadness and painful consequences,” co-director Nrecaj told the Leipzig audience.

After Katharina Pethke returned to her job at the art academy after giving birth she began to realise that what makes her tick an artist was not so easily reconciled with her new role as a mother. Her own mother and grandmother before her gave up their careers as artists to stay home. And now her mum thinks Katharina should do the same. The director examines this dilemma in her feature doc Reproduction.

Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori’s D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize-winning project tells of the Japanese phenomenon of ‘night moving’ companies that help people to vanish without a trace. “From the beginning I was kind of very fascinated with this idea of the possibility to restart your life, but also very intrigued about the consequences of leaving everything behind,” co-director Hartmann told the Leipzig audience.

DOK Leipzig announced 10 October its DOK Industry award winners. These were the Saxon Award for the Best Documentary Project by a Female Director (€5000), the Current Time TV Award (€2000) and the Unifrance Doc Award (all awarded to DOK Co-Pro Market projects). The D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize was handed out to the winning project within DOK Preview Germany while Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg Award was given to the winning project in DOK Short n’ Sweet.

The life story of Walter Arfeuille is an odd and perhaps even tragic one. He is a man driven by a quest for recognition who once strived to stand atop the competitive strong-man world in Belgium. Now, well into his sixties and struggling with physical issues, he attempts to grab a final modest headline, all watched over by a film crew who he thinks can help him prove himself to the world one last time.

Flemish producer Kristian Van der Heyden and co-director Jimmy Hendrickx updated BDE on the status of their project about the very real spectre of modern-day human slavery. The makers are looking to complete the film by the end of 2023 ahead of a Q2/3 festival roll-out in 2024. “I learned a lot from Jeremy about being an activist... I hope he has the courage to never stop the fight," says Hendrickx of co-director Jeremy Kewuan.

This week Thom M. Vander Beken presented his work-in-progress that deals with a highly sensitive inflammatory subject, that of the systematic round-up of 10,000 Jews in Antwerp in 1942 and their subsequent deportation to the death camps. “Even 80 years after the end of the war, many in Flanders still find it difficult to fully acknowledge the tragedy that occurred,” the director said.