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Angeliki Vergou, Head of Agora at Thessaloniki Doc Fest; French producer Karim Aitouna, and Brazilian Fernanda Lomba, EP at Mundi Filmes and co-founder of Nicho 54, will deliberate over 32 docs-in-progress, presented across 8 showcases May 19-22 during Cannes Docs, the dedicated documentary programme of the Cannes Market. The Awards Ceremony is scheduled for ‘Doc Day’ on May 23.

New York-based Cargo Film & Releasing has acquired global rights (excluding France and Germany) to German-based Florian Film’s The Books He Didn’t Burn, narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Jeremy Irons. “Our hope with this never-before-explored story is to better understand how certain texts inform people’s bigotry and violence, in order for our society to be better equipped to root it out,” says Cargo’ s Emma Fiske-Dobell.

The winners of the professional section of VdR-Industry were unveiled during the award ceremony Wednesday 26 April. Hosted for the first time by Sophie Bourdon, VdR-Industry welcomed 1,600 professionals representing nearly 80 countries, a similar number to the record 2022 edition. More than 500 individual meetings were held over three days. All award winners follow…

Swiss Films’ Consultant on Documentary Film & Marketing Strategies Charlotte Ducos, and Head of Festivals & Markets Andreas Bühlmann, fill in Business Doc Europe ahead of the annual showcase of high-end Swiss docs ready to be launched onto the international market. The 6-project showcase is presented April 25 in Nyon. 25 Swiss (co-productions) are selected for VdR 2023, including three in International Competition.

Cannes Docs has again partnered with eight international institutions and organizations in 2023 to showcase curated selections of docs-in-progress at final stages of post-production and aiming to hit the circuit within a few weeks or months. The showcases are from Scotland, Canada, Scandinavia, Chile, Spain, Italy, Docs by the Sea and CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator.

Produced by Hanne Phlypo of Clin d’oeil Films, the 6-part Flemish series about female cartoonists from global hot spots is directed by seven female directors. The first of the series, Behind The Lines (Alisar Hassan & Alaa Amer) from Syria, world-premiered at Canneséries in Documentary Competition. The feature version of Behind The Lines world premieres at Vision du Rèel 2023.

CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator, the training program designed for female-identifying docmakers, announced April 20 the projects that will take part in its Cannes Docs showcase 2023. Once more, 4 alumnae of the programme will present their works-in-progress during the Cannes Marché. In 2022 the CIRCLE selection Twice Colonized won the Docs-In-Progress award. The film premiered at Sundance 2023 before opening both CPH:DOX and Hot Docs.

Field of Vision is hosting late April 2023 its Digital Security Clinic for Documentary Filmmakers, in partnership with the Freedom of the Press Foundation. This is the third iteration of the clinic, designed to provide essential pro-bono resources to documentary filmmakers. The Digital Security Clinic will cover high-priority concerns documentary filmmakers have voiced, as well as the strategies necessary to make the best overall risk assessments.

Twelve projects have been selected for the first Progress Pitching Session, organised as part of Millennium Docs Against Gravity Industry. The films will be presented to an international group of pitching experts on 12 May during the 20th edition of the Polish documentary festival. The pitch moderator will be Frank Piasecki Poulsen.

Poland’s largest film festival will be held May 12-21 in cinemas across 8 Polish cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Gdynia, Poznań, Katowice, Łódź, Bydgoszcz and Lublin) and online from May 23 to June 4. The theme of this year's edition is "Don’t be indifferent," a reference to the famous speech of Polish historian and journalist Marian Turski, and also “an expression of the values that have accompanied the festival since its inception,” say organisers.