IDFA 2020

Sales powerhouse Cinephil has boarded Forum rough-cut project A House Made Of Splinters, directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont, about the plight of kids in war-torn Ukraine. Doc is being made by Final Cut for Real, responsible for The Distant Barking Of Dogs (2017) which was shortlisted for the 2019 Oscars.

NFB to present Frontlight doc The Magnitude of All Things, about grief suffered both personally and on an environmental level, which features Greta Thunberg. Also three new interactive works to be showcased at DocLab, including the phone adventure Motto to be broadcast live from Montreal.

Thomas Imbach’s IDFA competition selection Nemesis is a follow up of sorts to his Day Is Done, which premiered at 2011 Berlinale (and which was filmed over a period of 15 years from his Zurich studio). Nemesis was shot from the same apartment window. He opens up to Business Doc Europe.

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…

Swiss-based First Hand Films is launching sales on There’s A Border In My Backyard, that looks at “the conundrum of our country’s European borders by way of a small, seemingly insignificant fence risen to protect one country’s tame pigs against another's wild boars.”

Anais Clanet of recently launched documentary outfit Reservoir Docs (part of the Urban group) may see tough times ahead for doc sellers, but is striking a very sweet note with her new feature The Quest For Tonewood.

Autlook Film Sales are handling the multi-director doc series Draw for Change! in Forum, a controversial documentary about Hitler and a new doc on the Cuban athletics god Alberto Juantorena.

Prague-based sales agency picks up the pastoral Bosco, directed by Alicia Cano, in Luminous, and Eleonore Weber’s There Will Be No More Night, based on video recordings from the American and the French armed forces in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, selected for Paradocs.

Polish broadcaster follows ARTE-NDR, BBC Arabic, NHK Japan, RSI & RTS Switzerland and RTV Slovenia in acquiring the Israeli/German co-pro from Go2. The company’s DfS slate also includes Living in Paradise (Best Doc Film Award, Haifa) and Doc Aviv Best Debut winner Rain in her Eyes.

As Catherine le Clef of Paris sales house Cat and Docs eyes up IDFA 2020 with five films in official selection and two more in Docs for Sale, she tells how, while her company has suffered no negative impact of the pandemic, her new ‘online’ modus operandi is far from ideal.