IDFA 2020

David France’s Welcome to Chechnya, which lifts the lid on rampant and violent homophobia in the Chechen Republic, is finding some of its biggest audiences in Russia via the BBC Russia service. However, as France told BDE, the film has also been pirated so heavily that it has been seen millions of times.

In 'Here we move, here we groove', director Sergej Kreso asks of Balkan Beats founder DJ Robert Soko, what next? The answer is creative and compassionate, and appropriate for our age.

Last week Alina Gorlova’s This Rain Will Never Stop won the IDFA First Appearance award, as well as the main prize at Festival Dei Popoli. The winning filmmaker talks aliens, life cycles and the power of film to unite, to Business Doc Europe.

A documentary about the great mass of contradictions that is Eurovision was always going to be a winner. But lob in an Icelandic grenade in the form of the BDSM-wearing anti-capitalist band Hatari who sing of hate, debauchery and the purposelessness of life, and you’ve got gold dust. A Song Called Hate director Anna Hildur talks to Business Doc Europe.

Water buffaloes in the Carpathians and a hero who wants to settle down - but on his own terms. Ukrainian producer Aliona Kachkan discusses her Docs For Sale selection As Far As Possible, about to complete post-production and ripe for a festival debut in 2021.

Berlin-based sales house Rise and Shine have three major music-themed documentaries on their slate, including the Here We Move, Here We Groove about Balkan Beats godfather Robert Soko in Dutch Competition. Festival manager Anja Dziersk also points out that work life under lockdown hasn’t been so bad…

In 2020 the Poles have four docs in official selection, a bagful in Docs for Sale and a project in Forum. What’s more, Polish Docs will present four new projects at the online Industry Hub 20 November. The new projects are “very diverse and that it is their strength,” says company MD Barbara Orlicz-Szczypuła.

London-based sales outfit Film Republic has confirmed that Netherlands distribution of IDFA opening film Nothing But The Sun by Arami Ullón is to be handled by Cinema Delicatessen, who came on board last week. Meanwhile, Cineworx will be releasing the film in Switzerland.

An impressively structured film rich in terms of beautifully composed images which brings an understated anger about what has befallen its central character.

An Ordinary Country, Tomasz Wolski’s immersion into the Secret Service archives of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, packs a considerable political punch, and delivers on an aesthetic level too. The Best of Fests director explains all to BDE.