Cannes 21

The Chilean doc scene is blossoming in the wake of Maite Alberdi’s Oscar nomination for The Mole Agent. That is the message from Constanza Arena, the director of promotional agency, CinemaChile. In spite of the travel restrictions placed on Latin Americans because of the pandemic, Arena has made it to the Cannes market. Six Chilean producers are also in town.

Philippa Kowarsky’s sales outfit Cinephil will hit the Cannes market this week with several new docs on its slate, among them the multi-director A Jewish Life, described as a companion piece to the company’s award-winning A German Life (2016), and Adi Arbel’s Grossman, a TV doc about the revered Israeli writer David Grossman.

It was a disaster which shocked football fans everywhere and led to rigorous new safety measures within football stadiums. Now, the Heysel tragedy is to be revisited in Heysel, Bloc Z, an epic new six part docu-series announced in Cannes this week. The first episodes should be ready for broadcast late 2022, just before the World Cup in Qatar.

What do you get when you cross a leading trade editor, a very well-connected former festival director/critic, arguably Cannes’ top snapper over the years and a UK producer with an archive of Croisette coverage going back over a quarter century? Answer: potentially the most definitive documentary history of the Cannes FF, currently in production ahead of delivery for next year’s 75th edition.

The Netherlands Film Fund and the Swedish Film Institute are drivers on a new international fund, named New Dawn, designed for projects with a director, producer and/or screenwriter from one of the groups that the United Nations Human Rights Act specifies as "a discriminated group." Six other European funds are currently "finalizing the criteria for the new fund," together with their Dutch and Swedish partners.

The Switzerland-based company announces early sales on its Cannes 2021 market slate, plus details of additional projects in the works to be pitched online to the international doc community over the coming week. Their Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege is selected for Cannes ACID.

When he came to assemble his documentary Little Palestine: Diary Of A Siege, Abdullah Al Khateeb discovered he had around 500 hours of material. He had shot and shot and shot. “Most of the footage was not made in order to make a documentary,” the director remembers to Business Doc Europe.

Ahead of the Chiledoc presentation of new docs-in-progress at Cannes Docs, the association’s director Paula Ossandón Cabrera explains to Business Doc Europe the success of her country’s documentary sector over the past decade, the power of collaboration and how geographical diversity equates to an equally rich diversity of output.

The awards were handed out during the Doc Day Lunch of the Marché du Film in Cannes. Rocco Di Mento won the Best Feature Award for The Blunder of Love, which comes with a €5000 cheque to be spent on his next project. The Best Short Award to Bless You! directed by Tatiana Chistova, with includes €3000 contribution towards her next project.

International Film Initiative of Bangladesh presents four docs-in-Progress during the South Asia Showcase at Cannes Docs 2021. Elsewhere, 2021 marks the first time a Bangladeshi film is selected to compete in Cannes (Rehana Maruim by Abdullah Mohammad Saad, Un Certain Regard), and Bangladeshi producer Arifur Rahman will present his project Solo (Eka) at La Fabrique.