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The co-director made the announcement to the Doc Society membership July 6. “Today I am sharing that I’m currently under the care of a neurosurgeon because like 300,000 others every year around the world, I’ve been diagnosed with a brain tumour. I’m stepping back from Doc Society — after 18 years of nonstop creative collaboration, dedicated craft, joyous partying and fierce camaraderie,” Search writes.

From August 18 to August 20, 2023, the first BarCamp of Belarusian independent filmmakers will be held in Warsaw, Poland. Organized by the Belarusian Filmmakers Network (BFN), the event is aimed at “bringing the community together to work out a unified strategy for the development of the Belarusian cinema.” Registrations for the event are requested before July 16.

Highlights include the world premiere of Ian Jefferies’ Choose Irvine Welsh and a preview screening of Susan Kemp’s documentary-in-progress The Lynda Myles Project: A Manifesto. The festival also hosts world premieres of six newly commissioned documentaries in the Bridging The Gap Documentary Short Films programme. EIFF runs 18 to 23 August.

Submissions are sought for the DOK Preview Germany, DOK Short n’ Sweet and DOK Exchange XR Showcase. Three years after China’s controversial National Security Law for Hong Kong, which severely restricts freedom of expression, the latest DOK Industry Podcast invites filmmakers Tze Woon Chan, Kanas Liu and Dr Anson Hoi Shan Mak to discuss the law’s impact on local docmaking. DOK Leipzig runs 8-15 October.

Moody will lead the BFI Doc Society Fund team in managing all aspects of the UK-wide BFI Doc Society Fund and will collaborate with Doc Society directors Shanida Scotland and Sandra Whipham on “the strategic direction of Doc Society’s role as the BFI’s UK-wide delegate partner for documentary,” Doc Society announced July 4. It also underlined that the Feature Fund is now up and running and inviting applications.

Representatives to be chosen from 15 regions in Europe. The restructuring will take place in two stages, allowing current board members elected in December 2022 for a two-year period to finish their mandate until the end of 2024. “These changes will make for a more diverse and more democratically representative board to serve the European Film Academy,” says the European Film Academy’s Chair Mike Downey.

The leading Czech docfest invites submissions from “diverse audiovisual formats” such as fiction with documentary aspects, hybrid, experimental, short films, docu and web series, cinema expanded projects, games with documentary aspects, as well as VR+AR+Live documentaries. Cash awards are on offer for the most promising projects. The deadline for applications August 15.

The film, about contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer, world-premiered as a Cannes Special screening in May 2023. Anselm is produced by Karsten Brünig for Road Movies and executive produced by Jeremy Thomas. The deal was negotiated by Thomas’ HanWay on behalf of the filmmakers. This “unique cinematic experience” examines artist Kiefer’s work and reveals his life path, inspiration, and creative process.

The new Democracy Story Unit will “bring storytellers into an ecosystem together with academics, activists, journalists and social scientists to think together about what narratives are most needed and most effective.” The Unit will host its first global Democracy Story Lab in London Nov 27 to Dec 1, with a second edition in Rio in February 2024. Doc Society has put out a call for projects (short docs, feature docs, non-fiction podcasts) and finished works looking for Impact support.

MIA International Audiovisual Market (Rome, October 9-13) has put out the call for applications for this year’s Doc Co-Production Market & Pitching Forum. The Market is committed to providing exposure to documentary projects in development. The event’s international selection committee selects up to 15 projects “with high artistic standing and distribution potential.” The deadline for applications is 5pm CET, July 7.