Nick Cunningham

The StoryBoard Impact Award (10,000 CHF) was won by My Name Is Happy by Nick Read and Ayse Toprak. The DOCS UP Fund (€1500 plus consultation) went to Scarlet Girls by Paula Cury while The Sublimages Award (translation and subtitles) was handed to Land of Women by Aymar El Amir and Nada Riyadh. After the awards, Impact Head Laura Longobardi reflected on the entire event.

The Prague-based documentary sales agent will handle world sales on Boubacar Sangare’s feature doc about the dream of a better future in a Burkina Faso goldmine. After its Berlin premiere, the film was presented in FESPACO in Burkina Faso and is selected for the upcoming Movies that Matter film festival where it will screen in Festival Favourites section. (Plus teaser)

At FIFDH co-directors Nick Read and Ayse Toprak outlined the Impact strategy for their documentary about Turkish teenage singing sensation Mutlu Kaya as she makes a remarkable journey from gunshot victim to fearless survivor. “Our impact goal is to offer victims a roadmap for survival. With her beaming smile and creative energy, Mutlu has the potential to be a role model both inside Turkey and beyond,” said Read.

Running 24 March to 1 April, the festival kicks off with the world premiere of Waves of War by Daan van Citters. Over 90 films - including 14 world premieres, 1 European and 29 Dutch premieres – will screen in The Hague and in cities across the Netherlands. This year the festival focus is on Iran with three Iranian filmmakers as main guests: Nafiss Nia, Maryam Ebrahimi and Ali Asgari.

Twelve titles will compete for the Audience Award (CHF 10,000) in Vision du Réel’s Grand Angle competition, featuring “premieres of films that are soon to make waves at festivals, as well as those that have already won over international audiences.” The non-competitive Highlights section will also present “an eclectic programme that testifies to the current vitality of non-fiction film.”

Impact producers Miriam Ayoo and Chloé Genga came to Impact Days in Geneva to describe the campaign they devised for Sam Soko’s 2020 Sundance winner Softie, a film about the brilliant photographer and political activist Boniface "Softie" Mwangi as he runs for office in a regional Kenyan election, a decision that puts pressure both on his young family and on his convictions.

Dutch Anne Marie Boorsboom of ShareDoc told Business Doc Europe about her innovation that allows audiences to respond immediately – and financially - to the docs they have just watched. “With a QR code at the end of the credits, they can scan it and they can act on their feeling of empathy,” she explained of the potential audience engagement.

The 5th Impact Days of the FIFDH human rights fest opened with an address by Industry Head Laura Longobardi who welcomed guests to “the annual gathering of all those who believe that storytelling can play an essential role in advancing positive values such as human and civil rights, social and environment justice and peacekeeping, right here at the very heart of Geneva, the city of multilateralism, of peace, and, of course, of human rights.”

Daniel Roher’s documentary about Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition leader and outspoken critic of Putin, garnered the Best Documentary Feature at the Oscar ceremony held March 12 2023. The Netflix film The Elephant Whisperers, about an Indian couple’s relationship with a baby elephant, received the nod for Best Short Doc.

Under the Sky of Damascus by Heba Khaled, Talal Derki and Ali Wajeeh wins the International Competition Golden Alexander (€12,000), securing its place in the selection shortlist for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. The Silver Alexander, accompanied by a €5,000 cash prize is awarded to Who I Am Not by Tünde Skovrán. All competition awards…