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The jury of the Wrocław (Poland) festival awarded the €15,000 prize to Mitra Farahani’s doc that comprises a cinematic and playful dialogue between director and writer Ebrahim Golestan, who is about to turn 100, and 92-year-old master filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The film world-premiered at Berlinale 2022.

Ukrainian Alisa Kovalenko’s Expedition 49 and Israeli Renen Schorr’s Rabbi Heller Blues join ten fiction projects in the 2022 Work in Progress selection. The projects will compete for two awards: the Post Republic Award (€40,000 in kind), and the Turkish National Radio Television Award (€25,000 in cash). Plus Sarajevo FF Doc Competition and Docu Talents From the East 2022 selections.

The 30th edition of the leading UK doc fest will run Wednesday 14 June to Monday 19 June 2023. MeetMarket will take place on Thursday 15 June and Friday 16 June 2023. Lightning Industry Passes are now on sale at a reduced price to 30 September 2022. Festival submissions for the 30th edition will open in Autumn 2022.

Though sporting a rather plodding title, Conscientious Protectors: A Story of Rebellion Against Extinction is an engaging and rather compulsive documentary that offers fascinating insight into those few days back in 2019 when environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion brought London to a virtual standstill and succeeded through civil disobedience in focussing much-needed attention on climate change.

Hitman: The Ricky Hatton Story (w/t), the latest co-production between Noah Media Group and Sky Studios, will chart the boxing legend’s “incredible journey – the celebratory highs and the severe lows - from Manchester council estate, to the bright lights of Las Vegas.” The film will be released internationally in early 2023 and is being distributed by NBCUniversal Global Distribution on behalf of Sky Studios.

Bednarz is joining from Sheffield DocFest where she has been Partnerships and Operations Director, and takes over from Jane Callaghan who is retiring later this year. “The Grierson Trust has enormous potential to create even greater impact in addressing the current skills gap in documentary and factual production,” says Bednarz.

Addressed to the international film community, the letter was published July 15 in response to last week’s arrest of Iranian docmakers Mohamad Rasoulof and Mostafa Al-Ahmad, and this week of Jafar Panahi. “Now is the time to raise our voices on their behalf, as their voices have been silenced,” write Orwa Nyrabia and Mike Downey of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk.

Top international prizes went to The Unstable Object II by Daniel Eisenberg, while the Grand Prix of the French Competition was awarded to On a eu la journée bonsoir by Narimane Mari. The First Film Competition Prize was awarded to Kristina by Nikola Spasic, Serbia. All prizes follow…

NEON to release Brett Morgen’s Bowie doc in the US and Universal Pictures International to release internationally, with IMAX engagements planned across multiple territories (Japanese release set for March 2023). The feature doc celebrates the late pop genius using his own voice and featuring 48 musical tracks, mixed from their original stems.

Paradiddle Pictures announces dates and deadlines for its Autumn season of documentary workshops that look to cover all the bases within project development and production. DocCelerator also provides an on-demand programme designed to meet the requirements of local, regional or national film organisations.