News

The 18th VERZIÓ Human Rights Doc FF (Hungary) will showcase 64 films from 35 countries 9–14 November in cinemas across Hungary, and online, 15–21 November. “These documentaries bring us closer to current human rights issues, such as our impact on the environment, ways to overcome physical-emotional trauma, young people striving for a better future, and stories from journalists, teenagers and activists who are challenging power and rigid systems.”

Ji.hlava IDFF announces the European projects for its 2021 financing, co-production and networking event “dedicated to supporting European documentary production in its diversity and creativity.” Eleven projects in development and ten projects in production or post- including feature docs, fiction films with doc aspects, hybrid and experimental, cinema expanded, VR/AR and live docs.

With Luminous and Frontlight sections comprised mainly of world prems, the fest also presents first competition selections within Short and Youth Doc Competitions. IDFA also announces titles in its interdisciplinary program IDFA on Stage, chief among them the world premiere of the newly restored Dziga Vertov film The History of the Civil War (pictured). The 34th edition of IDFA takes place November 17-28.

Following the 2020 success of its 21-director short film anthology, The Uncertain Kingdom is collaborating with UK distributor Picturehouse Entertainment on a development fund for feature-length projects. The Uncertain Kingdom Development Fund will support projects that “interrogate” British culture, “asking who we are, how we got here or where we are going,” say fund organisers.

In her wonderfully structured and edited archive film, Garbus allows the late Jacques Cousteau’s innate passion, enthusiasm and even optimism to be its major driving force. The film won the Grierson Award in London Film Festival's documentary competition.

Lazio Frames Award goes to ‘Marina Cicogna, The Producer’ by Andrea Bettinetti and produced by Riccardo Biadene for Kama Productions. NAT GEO Award for Best Pitch goes to while Massimo Brega’s ‘Odyssey: Behind the Myth,’ produced by Camilla Tartaglione for Kepach Production. The seventh edition of MIA takes place in Rome October 13 to 17 2021.

NY-based filmmaker-driven visual journalism and doc unit Field of Vision announced October 14 its launch of a new apprenticeship funding program for underrepresented and emerging crew, with the goal of supporting the removal of barriers to entry in the field. Four to five $30,000 grants on offer.

The RE>CONNEXT platform is to remain open until midnight on 31 October, it was announced by Flanders Image today. The decision was taken after participants with increasingly busy October schedules asked for extra time to engage with the wide range of content on offer. Most consulted project titles revealed, plus ‘Mystery Shoppers’ verdict.

The three core October documentary festivals, all part of the Doc Alliance network, have agreed to change dates in 2022, allowing for full industry attendance at each. “Next year we will be one after the other sequential…We are very happy to shift our dates,” says DOK Leipzig chief Christoph Terhechte.

Ji.hlava IDFF (October 26–31) marks its quarter century with a return to theatres, a 300-film celebration of Czech and international documentary, retrospectives both on Romanian experimental film and on the theme of 'roots’, a section dedicated to the American essayist Susan Sontag and an Inspiration Forum discussion with gender studies ‘legend’ Judith Butler.