News

The financing market has 3 different activities in 2023: the Public Pitch, the Speed Meetings and the Rough-Cut Pitch, all of which are open to projects from across the world. All DocsBarcelona Industry activities will be conducted in English. The deadline for project submission is February 28. DocsBarcelona Industry will run 23-26 May.

The Greenland-Denmark doc Twice Colonized by Lin Alluna will open this year's CPH:DOX on March 15. The film will also compete in NEXT:WAVE competition. “Twice Colonized deals with the personal consequences of colonialism and gives us a much-needed new perspective on the colonial history of Denmark, as well as in the rest of the world,” comments CPH:DOX Artistic Director Niklas Engstrøm. The festival runs March 15-26.

The next edition of Sunny Side takes place June 19-22 in La Rochelle (France). “Viewers will hold center stage as Sunny Side of the Doc will address some of the industry's most burning issues through the lens of audiences,” write organisers. This year, pitches will be divided into two main categories: Specialist Factual and Focus of the Year. The deadline for submissions is midnight CET on April 6.

Leading sales outfit Deckert Distribution will be selling the recent Sundance title at the upcoming European Film Market in Berlin, alongside Indian Sarvnik Kaur’s Against the Tide (Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking at Sundance 2023) and Eastern Front by Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko, world-premiering in Berlinale Encounters. Deckert Distribution also welcomes new sales & acquisitions exec Tommaso Priante.

Greek filmmaker Stavros Psillakis and Austrian Nikolaus Geyrhalter will be the subjects of tributes during the upcoming Thessaloniki documentary celebration, March 2-12. The Festival will also bestow honorary Golden Alexander on the directors. “They both share the common vision of exploring the truth, the boundaries and the unseen aspects of our world,” write organisers.

What are the main artistic and financial benefits to international documentary makers when engaging with their French counterparts? What kind of rules are in place to apply for funding? These were the main questions tackled during a panel organised by Biarritz docfest FIPADOC in collaboration with Unifrance. The talk was held on 25 January and moderated by CNC rep Agnès Tricot.

Last week’s FIPADOC panel on the co-production possibilities offered up by the Baltic countries was split into two parts: the first focusing on a French-Estonian co-pro case study, whilst the second invited the contributions of three heads of acquisitions working for some of the region’s public broadcasters – Erko Lyytinen, of Finland’s YLE; Junita Budvytiene of Lithuanian LRT, and Zane Valeniece of Latvia’s LTV.

The Grand Prix International doc prize was handed to The Crows Are White by Ahsen Nadeem while Guillaume Ribot’s Moissons Sanglantes - 1933, La famine en Ukraine won the Grand Prix French prize. North Circular by Luke McManus picked up the Best Music Doc Award, and Finite: The Climate of Change by Rich Felgate won the Impact Award. All winners…

Even for those, like me, unfamiliar with the later Turkish filmmaker Ömer Kavur’s oeuvre, this hybrid road movie which bears his name is a compelling and gorgeously shot meditation on how to live, travel and work. Melancholic and seemingly outside of time, Kavur, which world-premiered in Rotterdam’s Cinema Regained section, is a rare find.

World Cinema Doc Competition: The Eternal Memory (Chile) wins Grand Jury Prize. Directing Award to Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Estonia/France/Iceland) while the Audience Award goes to 20 Days in Mariupol (Ukraine). Special Jury Awards to Against the Tide (India, Verité Filmmaking) and Fantastic Machine (Sweden/Denmark, Creative Vision). All winners…