Nick Cunningham

Five new doc projects have been selected for the 13th edition of Docu Rough Cut Boutique. Created by the Sarajevo Film Festival and Balkan Doc Center, the programme is organized in three working modules: Sofia (first week of April 2023), Budapest (June 2023) and Sarajevo (August 2023). “The selection process was one of the hardest in these last thirteen years of the program,” write organisers.

The Bulgarian journalist features in the Bafta/Oscar nominated Navalny. Grozev is lead Russia investigator for Bellingcat, and is credited with helping to expose the alleged plot to kill Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok. “I understand the need to keep the public safe,” Grozev tweeted Feb 17 of his alleged Bafta exclusion. “But moments like this show the growing dangers to independent journalists around the world.”

Greek documentaries are set to take centre stage at the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, which will be held from 2-12 March 2023 both in in-person and online. A total of 61 full-length and short docs from Greece will be screened at the three competition sections; International Competition, Newcomers and >>Film Forward, as well as in the Open Horizons, NextGen, Platform and From screen to Screen sections.

Investment of £6 million of National Lottery funding over 3 years. Doc Society named again as delegate partner to fund features and shorts and to invest in talent development via the BFI Doc Society Fund. “Independent UK documentary filmmaking is vital to our cultural landscape. To maximise the impact of our funding we are working with a partner to bring genre-specific knowledge, expertise and an international network to help support, grow and nurture this sector,” says Mia Bays, Director of the BFI Film Fund.

The 3-module training programme is designed for 10 women-identifying documentary directors and producers each year. CIRCLE 2023 features tailor made sessions (June and September 2023, January 2024), and in 3 different countries, with each session focusing on a different key aspect of project development. The submission deadline is February 24, 2023.

The world has changed a lot since the launch, in February 2020, of DAE (Documentary Association of Europe). Three years ago, after we all waved goodbye to Berlinale, everything came to a shuddering Covid-induced halt. But like the rest of the doc industry, DAE founders Brigid O’Shea and Marion Schmidt rolled up their sleeves and got on with it, in their case building an organisation that would represent and lobby for the rights and interests of international documentary makers.

Doccers are well catered for at EFM 2023, Market chief Dennis Ruh and Doc Industry Co-ordinator Martina Baumgartner tell BDE. 20% of market screenings are docs, there’s an extensive programme of non-fiction talks, a new doc hub and, once again, a dedicated Archive Day. And a whopping 59 documentaries are screening at the festival. What’s more, professionals will get the answer to a fundamental question at EFM. Are documentary makers good people at heart?

Thirteen films have been selected for this year’s competition. For the first time in the history of the festival, all of them are world premieres. “This year’s selection is full of films deeply rooted in reality, but always with original perspectives, creative ideas and a courage to challenge the status quo of documentary cinema as well as the world at large,” says Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm. CPH:DOX takes place March 15-26 2023.

The Copenhagen docfest unveils the nine new projects in development to be presented in 2023, each created via immersive technologies such as VR, AR, video/audio installations and cross-media. CPH:DOX also reveals the theme of this year’s INTER:ACTIVE Symposium, that of the Metaverse, who owns it, who will be represented within it and what is its future shape. Danish Futurist Sofie Hvitved to give keynote.

AJB DOC Film Festival (Sarajevo, 8 - 12 September) is organized by the TV broadcaster Al Jazeera Balkans in co-operation with Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and Al Jazeera Media Institute in Doha, “with the objective to promote authors and films dealing with social phenomena, films about human destinies and stories that are universal to all of us.” The submissions deadline is May 26.