Nick Cunningham

The award comes with a cash prize of €3,000 plus two full passes for Sunny Side of the Doc 2023. “We are delighted that the jury picked an ambitious topical project from Kenya.” says Mathieu Béjot, Director of Strategy and Development at Sunny Side. “It is important to hear stories coming from the Global South which is particularly affected by Climate Change.”

A total of 32 world, international and European film premieres take part in the International, Newcomers and >>Film Forward competition sections. The International Competition Golden Alexander winner secures a place in the Oscars’ shortlist. “Featuring an impressive number of premieres, the competition sections of the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival make a pledge to offer you the experiences of a lifetime,” write organisers.

The B2B Doc - Baltic to Black Sea Doc Network will thrash out ways to effect change for docmakers (and the industry infrastructures that serve them) within the war-torn and turbulent countries of central and eastern Europe, most notably Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. The closed conference takes place 7-8 February in Tallinn, Estonia. B2B Doc’s Alex Shiriaieff and Malcolm Dixelius explain the conference’s urgency to BDE.

Themed ‘Future at Our Fingertips’ and running March 20-24 the CPH:DOX conference will look to “collectively envision the future of the industry, discover and unlock the currently available resources, possible solutions, and transformative potential of the industry of tomorrow.” Contributors this year include the likes of Veronika Châtelain (Open Society Foundation), Anadil Hossain (UNHCR) and filmmakers Asif Kapadia, Maite Alberdi and Jessica Kingdon.

B2B Doc, in collaboration with the Institute of Documentary Film and with the support of the International Visegrad Fund, has put out a call for Ukrainian documentary projects to take part in the B2B Doc-arranged workshop and pitch sessions (24-28 March), aimed at industry professionals from the Visegrad countries, and held during East Doc Platform (Prague). Submissions close February 28, 2023.

The Impact Days Industry programme of FIFDH (International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights) will this year run 12-14 March. “Through targeted partnerships, its ambition is to use the power of documentary film as a tool for concrete social and policy change,” write organisers. The 21st FIFDH takes place 10-19 March in Geneva.

The traditional presentation of the Ji.hlava festival selection will commence with Czech Joy 2022 competition winner Kapr Code as part of the Festival Cinema de Ville. The official opening of ‘Echoes’ will take place in the seat of the European Parliament on February 7 with the screening of Pongo Calling. Further Echoes of 26th Ji.hlava IDFF are planned to take place over the following months in Bucharest, Paris, New York, and Bratislava.

The financing market has 3 different activities in 2023: the Public Pitch, the Speed Meetings and the Rough-Cut Pitch, all of which are open to projects from across the world. All DocsBarcelona Industry activities will be conducted in English. The deadline for project submission is February 28. DocsBarcelona Industry will run 23-26 May.

The Greenland-Denmark doc Twice Colonized by Lin Alluna will open this year's CPH:DOX on March 15. The film will also compete in NEXT:WAVE competition. “Twice Colonized deals with the personal consequences of colonialism and gives us a much-needed new perspective on the colonial history of Denmark, as well as in the rest of the world,” comments CPH:DOX Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm. The festival runs March 15-26.

The next edition of Sunny Side takes place June 19-22 in La Rochelle (France). “Viewers will hold center stage as Sunny Side of the Doc will address some of the industry's most burning issues through the lens of audiences,” write organisers. This year, pitches will be divided into two main categories: Specialist Factual and Focus of the Year. The deadline for submissions is midnight CET on April 6.