Nick Cunningham

The Cinéma du réel professional sidebar event for projects nearing completion “actively supports the distribution, promotion and placement of feature documentaries by linking, at a key stage of the production process, project holders (filmmakers and producers) to industry professionals.” The projects are selected in line with the editorial policy of the host festival, running 26-27 March 2025.

The prizes went to 6 projects in development at the end of the Hungarian platform, which is a partnership between Verzió Film Festival and the international festival network DocAround Europe. Prizes include the €1,500 HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery development prize which was awarded to the Greek project Moving Sisters by Christos Stefanou. The Best Hungarian prize went to Loránd Balázs Imre’s Bee In My Mouth.

Palestinian exile Jamal Hindawi wants to put on a political stage play which features a metaphorical patchwork jacket which represents the feuding interests that have staked a claim over Palestine. When the jacket is lost Jamal determines to find it, in the process demonstrating how the politics and economics of the region have severely affected the lives and livelihoods of its people. Director Mathijs Poppe discusses the film with BDE.

The fascinating subject of well-educated Kenyans making money writing essays for Western undergraduates and doctoral students is investigated with a distinctly personal touch by sociologist Patricia Kingori, the youngest female black professor in the 925-year history of the University of Oxford. With so many opportunities for ‘contract cheating,’ what is the true value of education, she asks.

In his new project to be pitched at IDFA Forum, Belgian filmmaker Kristof Bilsen asks what it takes to say sorry, whether in macro or micro terms. “Apologies hold the power to heal, both for individuals and society. But what makes a good apology? And can it truly mend deep wounds, whether from childhood bullying or historical atrocities?”

Martijn Blekendaal, whose The Man Who Looked Beyond the Horizon won the IDFA Special Jury Award for Children's Documentary in 2018, discusses the (super)heroic qualities required to remain invisible. “I grew up in a white environment where I always really stood out. I wanted to be invisible. Later, I realized that this desire is a ‘luxury problem’ compared to children who are forced to be invisible because they’re in hiding, being abused, or smuggled across borders,” he says.

Eight projects that are “ready to premiere soon and start their festival lives” will be presented 15.30 at LAB 111. Over the past 13 years, 14 films developed at the dok.incubator rough cut workshop have been selected for Sundance, while two were nominated for Emmy Awards. This year three are selected for Best of Fests at IDFA 2024 (A Sisters’ Tale, Agent of Happiness and We Are Inside).

Dutch filmmaker Miriam Guttmann discusses her remarkable new documentary in which the front line of war and the front row of Ukrainian culture intertwine. “This story distinguishes itself by interweaving the current war in Ukraine with the power of art,” says Guttmann. “The dancers used their talent as a way to preserve their humanity, and rather than fighting on the frontline, they continue their battle on the ballet stage.”

Chiledoc, responsible for the global promotion of Chilean documentary talent, films and series, arrives in Amsterdam with two projects in Forum, the world-prem of Ancestral Secret VR in DocLab, a world and European premiere in Short Film Comp and The Fabulous Gold Harvesting Machine in Best of Fests. “Europe is a significant territory for Chilean films because it has the most prominent partners for the kind of films we make and because European audiences are very committed to our stories,” says Head of Chiledoc Diego Pino Anguita.

Love may be at the heart of Myrid Carten’s feature documentary debut A Want In Her, but it comes at a price. When the director answered a call to return from London to help find her mother who had gone missing somewhere in Ireland, her response to the crisis was immediate, but so was her reflex to pick up her camera to record the process. Carten talks to BDE about her film, world-premiering in Amsterdam.