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UK doc specialist outfit Dogwoof came to Cannes ten days ago with realistic expectations of what could be achieved on the Croisette, given that the festival is primarily driven by theatrical titles. “With the theatrical figures not looking great anywhere, we knew it was going to be a very tricky market,” Ana Vicente [Dogwoof head of sales] tells Business Doc Europe.

Applications are now open for the market taking place during BFI London Film Festival 2022. Documentaries “reflecting a range of diverse perspectives and stories are positively encouraged,” say organisers. The event is set to take place physically for the first time since 2019 following the success of two digital editions, with New Black Film Collective on board as new partner.

The nine films selected for this year’s Sheffield DocFest International Competition include five world & four international premieres. The winner of Best Film, supported by BBC Studios Documentary Unit, will be revealed during a ceremony at Sheffield City Hall’s Memorial Hall on 28 June. The in-person festival runs 23-28 June.

In The Super 8 Years, one of two documentaries screening at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, celebrated French author Annie Ernaux and her son David revisit their family’s home movies, reinterpreting them, with melancholy hindsight but also a sense both of emotional and historical detachment, as a sign of their times.

The Docs-in-Progress awards were handed out at May 24 at the end of the market’s headline Doc Day. Top cash awards went to the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator Showcase Twice Colonized directed by Lin Alluna (IEFTA Award, €10,000), while Lina Soualem’s Bye Bye Tiberias (won the Al Jazeera Documentary Award, which entails a co-production deal with a minimum contribution of $15,000. All awards.

For his directorial debut, Ethan Coen offers up a vibrant and often exhilarating look at the turbulent life of a true rock’n’roll legend, dealing with the demons that drove Jerry Lee Lewis. To an extent this is a non-judgmental film that is as much about his determined resilience as it is the scandals that haunted his life, but it is also tight and lean, brimming with mesmerising footage and illuminating interviews.

Doc Alliance, a network of seven of the most influential European documentary film festivals, announced May 24 the winners of its 15th annual Doc Alliance Awards during Doc Day of the Festival de Cannes. Best Feature went to A Night of Knowing Nothing by Payal Kapadia and In the Billowing Night won Best Short. Nataša Urban’s The Eclipse received a Special Mention.

The multi-layered documentary takes you on a journey through the minds and worlds of three like-minded and intrinsically connected thinkers and artists. Filmmaker Jose Luis Lopez Linares had the good fortune to film French writer Jean-Claude Carrière a year before his untimely death as he retraces Goya’s footsteps, all the time expounding lyrically on art, history, humanity and love.

The prolific and internationally acclaimed Dutch filmmaker passed away in Amsterdam May 21 at the age of 70 after a long battle with MS and cancer.

Swiss/German filmmaker Susanne Regina Meures was handed the award May 21 for her tale of Leonie who lives the crazy life of a modern day influencer. The film also tells the story of her manager parents and that of Melanie, her greatest fan. The award comes with a cash payment of €2000.