Nick Cunningham

The German project Fatma Said – Reviving a Forgotten Treasure (Ralf Pleger) picked up the Best Pitch Award Arts & Culture category June 21 at Sunny Side of the Doc. “This is a project we want to see on screens because it tells a story that bridges the gap between the past and present, classical and contemporary cultures, and the Arabic and Western worlds,” said the jury.

The Australian producer/director team of Rob Innes and Josef Gatti presented their visually absorbing feature project Phenomena during Sunny Side. It is a work that finds beauty in the fusion of art and science “This project began at a time in my life where I was feeling disconnected and unsure of where I fit in the world,” director Gatti told the Industry audience. “And so I turned to the natural world in search of meaning, and I was completely moved.”

The French project Science's Forgotten People (Laurence Thiriat) and the Irish project This is a Quiet Love (Garry Keane) win in the Science and Global Issues categories respectively. Magali Serre’s Right-wing Extremism: The New Terrorist Threat was handed the Impact Social Club Award.

In Garry Keane’s intimate feature doc project, we meet four Deaf couples who tell their personal stories about how love blossomed, in the process weaving a rich tapestry of Deaf experience over a period of 70 years. “With your support we want to reach broad audiences who are fascinated to dive into this unknown world,” Irish producer Anne Heffernan told the Sunny Side audience.

Produced by Good to Know (Paris), Science’s Forgotten People is a 20 x 5-minute animated doc series that tells the amazing stories of scientists who, despite their brilliance, their brains and their groundbreaking discoveries, were not recognized by their peers. Many of these scientists were, inevitably, women. The Sunny Side pitch was made with the assistance of Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the discoverer of the pulsar.

Archive is in the frame at Sunny Side 2023 with two Industry sessions Wednesday June 21. The first session introduces three new sector organisations that have launched in France, Germany and Spain over the past 12 months, while the second session is set to address archives and innovation. Both are moderated by archive producer & copyright clearance specialist Elizabeth Klinck. “There's a real need for archive producers, people who understand the process artistically, financially and logistically,” she tells BDE.

Polish Docs PRO returns to Sunny Side in 2023 with a delegation of 5 producers representing nine projects. These include profiles of two giants of Polish cinema, the controversial Roman Polański and the maverick Andrzej Wajda, and four projects from production company Kijora. “Polish producers are very professional and well prepared for the international co-productions, which makes them very good partners," underlines KFF Sales & Promotion MD Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła.

Sheffield DocFest announced June 19 that its 2023 Audience Award has gone to Your Fat Friend, directed/produced by Jeanie Finlay and producer Suzanne Alizart. Exec producers are Charlotte Cook (Field Of Vision) and Doc Society’s Sandra Whipham & Shanida Scotland. “To bring a film home to Sheff DocFest, a festival that I have been coming to and showing films at for 20 years, has been incredibly emotional and meaningful,” said director/producer Finlay.

The 93-minute doc, directed by Lebanese director Zakaria Jaber and produced by Jordanian producer Jumana Saadeh, picked up Golden Goblet Award (Doc) June 17 at the Shanghai International Film Festival. The award recognizes the film’s “outstanding storytelling and thought-provoking content.” Al Jazeera English commissioned the film for its Witness strand.

The first 2023 Ex Oriente Film workshop, a 3-part film training programme for doccers from CEE, takes place June 17-21 at Sunny Side. This year 12 feature and, for the first time, 5 doc series projects are selected. “Sharing experts and mentors and opening Ex Oriente sessions to SSD attendees also contribute to building bridges between participants from Central and Eastern Europe and the international documentary community," says Sunny Side’s Mathieu Béjot.