Nick Cunningham

DOK.fest München’s market for “co-creation and co-production” invites submissions from German-speaking countries for its next edition. Non-fictional formats at any stage of development are welcome. During 3-11 May up to 45 selected project teams will meet around 250 committed partners from production, broadcasting, distribution and sales during pitch events, roundtables and one-to-one meetings.

VdR–Industry will take place during the 54th edition of Visions du Réel from April 23 to 27. This year Benelux will be the focus of the "Switzerland Meets..." programme, running 23/24 April. The Documentary & Audiovisual Forum, a think tank and discussion ground for the national industry, will be held on Sunday 23 April. The 54th edition of Visions du Réel will run April 21-30 in Nyon, Switzerland.

Artist and filmmaker Guido van der Werve, who nearly died in 2016 following a terrifying cycling accident, talks about his searingly honest and highly audacious new film. “It wasn’t easy work,” van der Werve concedes of the process of making it. “I was so badly injured, so at the beginning I was nothing. Then I tried to figure out what happened, as we humans do.”

Five feature docs and five short docs have advanced to the final round of Oscar voting. The winners will be announced March 12 during 95th Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. This year, 144 documentary features and 98 shorts were eligible for consideration.

Thomas Jackson’s film about the struggle for the Sámi culture also won Best Original Score. The Best Sound Design award went to Ted Krotkiewski  for the doc All of Our Heartbeats Are Connected Through Exploding Stars, directed by Jennifer Rainsford, while yet another documentary won for Best Editing, Daughters by Jenifer Malmqvist, edited by Åsa Mossberg  and  Line Schou.

Superpower by Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman to world premiere in Berlin. “In a festival that will take place one year after the Russian invasion in Ukraine, it is important to show the film that Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufman made under such difficult conditions,” writes the festival. Additionally, Sur l’Adamant by Nicolas Philibert is selected for Main Competition.

“The 2023 edition of the Global Pitch for Global Change is devoted to Climate Change: its consequences on our societies and the concrete solutions implemented around the world,” write organisers of the project pitch event running online 7-8 February and for which 12 projects have been selected (out of 100 submissions from 37 countries) to compete for a cash prize of €3,000.

Doc professionals join a frenzy of co-pro activity as FIPADOC Industry kicks off January 23, heralding in 2023 as France’s Year of Documentary. Highlights of the 4-day event include the presentation of 24 new international projects, 3 new Ukrainian projects and a major focus on Finland and the Baltic countries, as well as a packed programme of panels and workshops. “Let's make it groovy and funky,” Creative Director Christine Camdessus tells BDE.

The five nominated films in the BAFTA Film Award Documentary category are named as All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love, Moonage Daydream and Navalny. In the Outstanding Brit Debut section, directors Elena Sánchez Bellot and Maia Kenworthy are nominated for Rebellion. The EE BAFTA Film Awards will take place on Sunday 19 February.

The East Silver documentary market supports producers and distributors from Central and Eastern Europe. Each year approximately 130 films are included. The 20th edition of the East Silver Market will take place at the East Doc Platform in Prague between March 24-30 2023.