Nick Cunningham

New York-based Cargo Film & Releasing has acquired global rights (excluding France and Germany) to German-based Florian Film’s The Books He Didn’t Burn, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons. “Our hope with this never-before-explored story is to better understand how certain texts inform people’s bigotry and violence, in order for our society to be better equipped to root it out,” says Cargo’ s Emma Fiske-Dobell.

The winners of the professional section of VdR-Industry were unveiled during the award ceremony Wednesday 26 April. Hosted for the first time by Sophie Bourdon, VdR-Industry welcomed 1,600 professionals representing nearly 80 countries, a similar number to the record 2022 edition. More than 500 individual meetings were held over three days. All award winners follow…

In her intriguingly titled 40-minute (…), Dutch director Karina Beumer seeks to remind her loving father Ron of her existence after he develops Acquired Brain Injury, a debilitating condition which deprives him of long and short-term memory. “My first goal was to make the film from my father's perspective,” says Beumer. “But of course, it's my psychological perspective too…”

Swiss Films’ Consultant on Documentary Film & Marketing Strategies Charlotte Ducos, and Head of Festivals & Markets Andreas Bühlmann, fill in Business Doc Europe ahead of the annual showcase of high-end Swiss docs ready to be launched onto the international market. The 6-project showcase is presented April 25 in Nyon. 25 Swiss (co-productions) are selected for VdR 2023, including three in International Competition.

Visions du Réel Industry kicks off April 23 ahead of 5 days of intense but ‘relaxed’ activity, Industry head Sophie Bourdon tells BDE. Professionals will gather to do business, but they can also “step back a bit” from the renewed freneticism that inevitably followed the lifting of Covid restrictions. In 2023, 31 project teams from 32 countries will discuss their new and upcoming projects within the event’s core pitch and laboratory programmes.

On our physical planet, very few places and communities remain uncharted. But the world wide web is a largely unexplored and ever-growing universe. In Knit’s Island a French film crew go on a digital expedition into a post-apocalyptic world and create a fascinating, original and disconcerting portrait of its inhabitants, in the process opening a door to a whole new documentary genre.

‘A person who dies without a name is like a story without an ending,’ reads the logline for Pure Unknown, screening in VdR Int'l Competition. The core objective of Italian forensic pathologist Cristina Cattaneo, profiled in the film, is to find an ending for as many stories as possible. “I completely fell in love with…her mission and her ethical approach to her work, to her life and to the lives of others,” co-director Mattia Colombo tells BDE.

Cannes Docs has again partnered with eight international institutions and organizations in 2023 to showcase curated selections of docs-in-progress at final stages of post-production and aiming to hit the circuit within a few weeks or months. The showcases are from Scotland, Canada, Scandinavia, Chile, Spain, Italy, Docs by the Sea and CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator.

Produced by Hanne Phlypo of Clin d’oeil Films, the 6-part Flemish series about female cartoonists from global hot spots is directed by seven female directors. The first of the series, Behind The Lines (Alisar Hassan & Alaa Amer) from Syria, world-premiered at Canneséries in Documentary Competition. The feature version of Behind The Lines world premieres at Vision du Rèel 2023.

CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator, the training program designed for female-identifying docmakers, announced April 20 the projects that will take part in its Cannes Docs showcase 2023. Once more, 4 alumnae of the programme will present their works-in-progress during the Cannes Marché. In 2022 the CIRCLE selection Twice Colonized won the Docs-In-Progress award. The film premiered at Sundance 2023 before opening both CPH:DOX and Hot Docs.