Nick Cunningham

The Geneva-based human rights festival unveiled this week the 12 projects selected from around the world for its Impact Lab 2025. Each project representative will receive expert training to craft an impact strategy ahead of presentation to dozens of NGOs, international organisations and philanthropists, both in Geneva and beyond. The next edition of FIFDH Impact Days runs March 9 to 12 2025.

Eight documentaries are selected for Feature and Mid-length Competition while 10 docs will play in the festival’s Eyes on the City Short Film Competition. The feature doc 5 anni e un’estate by Mauro Santini will world premiere. An international premiere is Le Boxeur chancelant by Lo Thivolle, while New Berlin by Alexey Fedorchenko will receive its European premiere. The festival runs December 1-8 in Avelino, Italy.

The Balkan Documentary Center 20-project, 3-module programme “addresses the urgent need for independent media and diverse voices in regions where freedom of expression can be restricted, and media professionals often encounter challenges such as censorship, threats, and limited resources.” The deadline for application submissions is January 5, 2025.

After the first lockdown hit India in 2020, 22-year old Mahesh, a penniless plumber, embarked on a 1700-kilometre cycle ride back home across the country, completing the odyssey in seven days, in the process becoming a local hero. In his multi-layered doc, director Suhel Banerjee describes Mahesh’s epic journey. “There is, in that sense, the story of Odysseus coming back home,” the director tells BDE. “And there is a little bit of The Motorcycle Diaries as well.”

Peruvian Carla Gutiérrez’s directorial debut comprises a raw and magical journey into the life of iconic artist Frida Kahlo, told through her own words culled from diaries, letters, essays and interviews. The film, which premiered at Sundance 2024, is vividly brought to life via lyrical animation inspired by Karla’s artworks. Gutierrez speaks about her film with Academy Award-nominated documentary maker Petra Costa.

No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor was awarded November 23 the IDFA NPO Doc Audience Award 2024, the grand public prize of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The award was followed by a special screening of the film in Amsterdam’s Royal Theater Tuschinski. International sales of No Other Land are handled by Autlook. The film is twice-nominated for the upcoming European Film Awards in the Documentary and Best Film categories. 

Polish Maciej J. Drygas’s feature doc picked up the €15,000 top prize. Chronicles of the Absurd won Best Film in the Envision Competition also valued at €15,000. The IDFA Award for Best Directing (worth €5,000) in the International Competition went to Auberi Edler for An American Pastoral (France). The Best Dutch Film nod went to Luuk Bouwman for The Propagandist, Best First Feature went to CycleMahesh (India) by Suhel Banerjee and the  FIPRESCI Award went to Writing Hawa by Najiba Noori. All prizes…

The market for co-creation and co-production of DOK.fest München is now looking for “strong documentary projects” across all development stages and formats for its next edition running 7 to 11 May 2025. DOK.forum Marketplace presents up to 40 selected projects participating in on-stage pitch events, roundtables and one-to-one meetings, connecting them with high level international professionals.

The 2024 IDFA Forum Awards were announced November 20 with Ibrahim Omar’s project Dry Sky winning the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch. Lana Y. Daher’s Do You Love Me picked up the Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, while the DocLab Forum Award went to Amorphous by May Abdalla. The new Producers Connection Award was won by Yara Costa for Looking for the Mermaid. Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500.

In her experimental film which world-premiered at Venice Biennale and now playing in Amsterdam, the Dutch artist and filmmaker examines, explains and demonstrates our species’ fundamental need for the sensation of touch. “Connect to your sensual and erotic sense,” we are encouraged in the experimental work, and be prepared for an experience that is “playful, open, humorous, symbiotic, sensual.”