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A raft of films in the Panorama section reflect the current state of a region under the influence of Russia, while the Focus: Post-1991 Slovenian Documentary Films section will screen outstanding Slovenian films made over the past three decades. 5x5 Shorts from the East is being presented together with an array of CEE partners while the Doc Alliance Award will screening 3 long and 3 short docs from the region.

The Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries handed out its project awards at the end of the 27th edition which took place September 3-10. “We are very pleased with this year's edition and the opportunity to, once again, serve as a platform for important meetings and connections. With an expanded industry programme we were able to bring to Riga more film professionals than ever,” commented Zane Balčus, Baltic Sea Docs project manager.

Among the first confirmed speakers are Sara Bernstein of Imagine Documentaries; award-winning docmaker and animator Ari Folman (Waltz With Bashir) and James Townley, Chief Content Officer Development at Banijay. Directed by Gaia Tridente, MIA will run October 9-13 in Rome and is again focused on co-production, financing strategies and models, sales and distribution, works-in-progress, nurturing talent and project circulation.

The $25,000 Main Pitch Al Jazeera Documentary Channel prize was awarded to The Rabbis Intifada by Heather “Chana” Tenzer. Al Jazeera Documentary Channel awarded its Work-in-Progress prize to Abd al-Kader Habak for Until The Buzzing Stops, and its Balkan Stars award to I Don't Want To by Hanis Bagashov. The second edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry days @ AJB DOC ran September 9-11 in Sarajevo. All awards…

Tana Gilbert’s documentary, about women in a Chilean prison and shot entirely on clandestine cellphones, won the IWONDERFULL Grand Prize and Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia Award for Best Technical Contribution. The jury underlined how, “the director puts us side by side with the incarcerated women, without passing any judgment on their value, and this is a prowess of cinema's poetic license.”

Business Doc Europe caught up with Tamara Babun, producer at Zagreb-based outfit Wolfgang&Dolly LLC. Babun is producing Another Film About the War, Father and Home by Damir Markovina, one of the documentary projects being presented in the Balkan Stars section of this year’s AJB DOC Industry, unspooling in Sarajevo until September 11.

The sixth edition of the Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival (AJB DOC) will kick off September 8 in Sarajevo with the screening of the film Game: Second Level by Sajid Khan Nasiri, Eefje Blankevoort and Els Van Driel. The festival runs from September 8 to 12 and presents 24 films whose common theme is human rights. The second edition of Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will run Sept 9 to 11.

The Geneva-based FIFDH International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights will once again host Impact Days between 10-12 March 2024. “Documentaries have the power to motivate change! Now in its sixth year, Impact Days has helped hundreds of participants elevate and amplify the impact of their work,” write organisers. The deadline for submissions is October 6.

The next edition of VdR runs 12 to 21 April 2024 in Nyon, Switzerland. Organisers are looking for films for official selection and projects for VdR–Industry activities. Films in competition are screened as world, international or European premieres. The first deadline is November 6, the final deadline is December 20. The deadline for VdR–Development Lab is 31 October, 2023.

The second Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days @ AJB DOC will be presented September 9 - 11 2023. “The initiative will not only support aspiring documentary filmmakers within the Arab world, it will also give them the opportunity to connect and network with decision-makers and leading professionals from around the world, which will reflect on the quality of doc films in the region,” says Ahmed Mahfouz Nouh, Aljazeera Documentary Channel MD.