Nick Cunningham

Norwegian Benjamin Ree’s The Remarkable Life of Ibelin won the Audience Award: World Cinema Documentary and The Directing Award: World Cinema Documentary at Sundance 2024. The film tells of gamer Mats who died of the degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25 - and the astonishing legacy he left behind in the online world. Ree discusses his film with double-Oscar© nominee Jonas Poher Rasmussen.

In her feature doc that world-premiered recently in Leipzig, Anna Maria Friedrich goes in search of nomadic life in Germany and talks to its exponents, such as Journeywoman Magdalena in traditional costume or former tightrope artist Elwera, a member of the small but vocal Yenish community. As elegiac as their lives sound, these are women who live very much in the present. “The existences that I encountered are mostly very modern and very adaptive,” Friedrich tells BDE.

After a long and successful tenure as Artistic Director, Orwa Nyrabia will be stepping down from his role at IDFA at the end of his current term in the summer of 2025, the festival announced November 7. He announced his decision jointly with the organization in the run-up to the 2024 festival edition from November 14-24, making this upcoming edition the seventh and last under his leadership. Nyrabia will remain in place until July 1, 2025 to ensure a smooth transition, the festival writes.

Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias; Dahomey by Mati Diop; In Limbo by Alina Maksimenko; No Other Land by Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Basel Adra & Hamdan Ballal, and Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d‘Etat were unveiled November 5 as the 5 nominees in the European Documentary category of the 37th European Film Awards. All 5 are also nominated in the European Film category. The winners will be revealed in this year’s award ceremony on 7 December in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The festival welcomed a total of 55,000 filmgoers this year – more than ever before. Last year, the festival attracted 45,500 filmgoers. The previous record (48,000) was set in 2019, the year before the pandemic. This enabled “lively discussions in sold-out cinemas and memorable feedback for the numerous filmmakers who came here from all over the world,” comments Festival Director Christoph Terhechte. “This is a good sign for cinema screenings of documentaries and animated films.”

For German Films MD Simone Baumann, it may be “a pleasure” to promote German docs throughout the year, but she can’t hide her frustration at her government dragging its feet in passing new and long-awaited film legislation. This means docmakers (and the wider production community) don’t know where they stand either in terms of future funding or what they can offer international co-pro partners. “These are crucial elements in the whole reform of the funding system - and everybody's waiting for it to be resolved,” Baumann tells BDE.

'La Jetée, the Fifth Shot' by Dominique Cabrera was awarded the Golden Dove in International Competition Documentary. The Golden Dove Short Film went to celebrated British experimental filmmaker John Smith for 'Being John Smith,' while The Silver Dove Long Film, given to the best feature-length documentary film by an up-and-coming director, was won by Pierre Michel Jean for 'Twice Into Oblivion.' All awards…

The awards of the the 28th Ji.hlava IDFF, extended to 10 days in 2024, were handed out November 2. The Main Award in the Opus Bonum Competiton went to Ms President by Slovak director Marek Šulík, which chronicles Zuzana Čaputová’s five years as the Slovak Head of State. Ms President opened the festival on October 25. The Main Award in the Czech Joy section went to Tomáš Hlaváček for The Impossibility. All winners…

This year's Docs for Sale catalogue showcases a fresh slate of 331 films from more than 81 countries. Several distinct themes and approaches emerge in the line-up, “including the complicated relationship between man and nature, the fragility of ecosystems, and the effects of climate change,” write organisers. During the festival, Docs for Sale will once again take place at Felix Meritis from November 16 to 20.

Top German archive producer Monika Preischl filled in Business Doc Europe on the significant benefits to the wider industry now that international producers (doc and fiction) can access materials from the Film department of the German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv) for little more than a small admin fee. This includes all its 2WW and Nazi footage and the likes of Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. (Preischl was archive producer on Andres Veiel’s Riefenstahl, which world-premiered at Venice 2024.)