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At the Lisbon awards ceremony held October 13, Clara Jost’s ‘Lettre à Eric Pauwels - ou a Florista e o Cônsul’ picked up the DAFilms awards, valued at €5000 in kind. The DAE Talent Encouragement Award was handed to Beyond Landscape by Etienne de France while te Pitch the Doc Award, given to a project from the guest country France, went to Under the Volcano by Sara Rastegar and Simone Pozzi.

Sixteen titles from 15 countries have been selected for Opus Bonum International Competition of the 26th Ji.hlava IDFF. Eight films will be screened in their world premiere, seven in international premiere and one will have its European premiere at Ji.hlava. The festival also unveils the 5-strong Opus Bonum jury. $10,000 prize for Best World Doc.

The Board of the Finnish Film Foundation has granted a total of €295,000 in support to six new documentaries, two of which (‘Children of the Lowest Heaven’ and ‘Varado’) are minority co-productions. In total, €3,352,500 euros was granted to six feature films and six documentaries in the latest funding round. One of the films, ‘In the Ballpark of Finland’ by Arto Halonen, was recently pitched at the Finnish Film Affair.

With the striking vista of volcano Katla looming large and ominously over the Icelandic village of Vík í Mýrdal, the town’s inhabitants have developed a relationship with the potentially dangerous volcano and set about using it as a lure for tourists, creating a source of considerable prosperity. The problem is that an eruption is way overdue. Or maybe that’s why the tourists are there in the first place…

An elegant and insightful blend of childlike art, music and observation helps elevate Vida Dena’s documentary My Paper Life (Ma vie en papier) to something rather special, and helps deliver a thoughtful and warm look into the thoughts, memories and present-day realities for a Syrian family who have escaped the war and are now living in Belgium.

Five Golden Doves and four Silver Doves to be awarded by the juries of the International Competitions, the German Competitions and the Competition for the Audience Award. The three juries, each comprised of distinguished professionals from the world of film and the arts, along with an audience jury, will be in charge of awarding the prizes. 

Key findings within the eye-opening report reveal rising costs and inevitable corner-cutting, but greater spend on editing. Fallout from Brexit is increasingly perceived as an issue, even from respondents outside the UK, while the threat of COVID-19 to future doc careers shows a considerable drop. Doccers have fallen out of love with online pitching and the report reveals increasing frustration with funding application processes.

Italian pubcaster RAI announced October 12 its decision to join the likes of ZDF, Channel 4 and SVT in the Global Doc Initiative, and unveiled details of a new project on nuclear fusion, to be co-produced with France Télévisions. Both announcements were made at the MIA market, running October 11-15 in Rome, during an event moderated by the MIA Deputy Director and Head of Doc & Factual Marco Spagnoli.

“We, the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, hereby declare our full and heartfelt solidarity with all those in Iran who stand up for their basic human rights and the freedom of expression,” the organisation writes in the wake of Mahsa Amini’s death and the wave of public protests of the past weeks.

Eighty-one more titles have been added to the program, shaping “an increasingly international selection” that covers much of the globe,” say IDFA staff. Luminous and Frontlight are the two premiere-only cornerstones of the programme. The 35th edition of IDFA takes place in person from November 9 to 20.