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With the slogan of ‘Feels Like Home’ the 8th Northern Lights Nordic/Baltic Film Festival kicks off November 20, running to November 30. Created to serve Belarusian audiences, this year’s event will be presented in-person in neighbouring Estonia and Lithuania, given the political turmoil within Belarus itself. However, Belarusians can access most of the programme online. Founder Volia Chajkouskaya talks to BDE.

Kani Lapuerta’s Niñxs won the IDFA Forum Award for Best Pitch, Alison O'Daniel’s The Tuba Thieves took home the IDFA Forum Award for Best Rough Cut, and the DocLab Forum Award went to We Speak Their Names In Hushed Tones by Omoregie Osakpolor. Each award includes a cash prize of €1,500. The Tuba Thieves will also receive closed captioning and subtitles from inVision Subtitling.

Anna Blom’s The Night My Brother Disappeared may well be conventional in structure, but the power of its emotional stories and encounters, combined with her protagonist’s own memories, sense of guilt and desire to find links to the terrifying incident in which his younger brother perished, help deliver a potent film.

Lyfta chief content officer Paulina Tervo spoke to Business Doc Europe during IDFA Forum about her platform “where kids can learn about the world through stories.” Tervo is looking to invest in doc projects from around the globe for which she can acquire educational rights. “Our vision is that by the time a child leaves school, they would've 'visited' every country in the world,” she says.

Veteran filmmaker Ignacio Agüero takes an intriguing approach in this playful and provocative, and highly watchable, portrait based loosely on Belgian engineer Gustave Verniory’s memoirs on being hired in 1899 to construct a railroad across the unspoiled natural landscape of Araucanía, a region that had recently become part of Chile.

One film which is being heavily tipped for awards this year is Todd Field’s Tar in which Cate Blanchett gives a towering performance as a female orchestra conductor whose brilliant career threatens to unravel. On its current slate, US outfit Cargo Releasing has a documentary whose subject bears more than a passing resemblance to the conductor Blanchett plays in Tar. Cargo boss Davis Piperni tells more.

Racist trees! Now that got your attention. And that is exactly what happened in reality. A dense row of trees screening off a historically Black neighbourhood from Palm Springs’ predominantly white, wealthy centre, is the focal point of this firmly rooted, wide-branched documentary, which has its world premiere in IDFA’s Frontlight section.

VPRO’s Barbara Truyen updated Business Doc Europe following her role change at Dutch public broadcaster VPRO. After 15 years as head of the documentary department she will now focus on strategic co-productions for both Dutch documentaries and series that have international potential. “My new role is not only working on the great films but also trying to come up with new ways of co-producing.”

Directed by Indonesian first time filmmaker Jeremy Kewuan and Belgian Jimmy Hendrickx and currently in production, the Belgian project Slave Island concerns modern day slavery on a remote island in Indonesia. Film Option’s Paul Cadieux is “happy that its consequential minimum guarantee was instrumental in securing additional financing for this important social impact documentary.”

Animal by Cyril Dion (France) has won this year’s Young Audience Award (YAA). The winner was revealed during the online award ceremony, streamed live November 13 on the YAA website. The Award honours European films aimed at an audience aged 12-14 and has been an official category of the European Film Awards since 2012.