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At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress, director Tanya Vikhreva and producer Maria Gavrilova took the stage to present Tower, Sun and the Seven of Wands, a creative political documentary which centres on three women living in annexed Crimea. Produced by the Georgian outfit Marx Film, the project, now in the editing stage, is being crafted in collaboration with writer Aleksander Rodionov.

At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress 2025, the basketball-themed Home Court was presented by producer Yuri Averof of the Athens-based firm Anemon, alongside directors Elpida Nikou and Rodrigo Hernandez. Co-production support comes from Maaike Neve and Esther van Driesum of Dutch outfit Bind Film, Victor Ede of France’s Cinephage, and Boris Despodov of Bulgaria’s Arthouse Blockbusters.

At Thessaloniki Docs in Progress 2025, Business Doc Europe took a closer look at Six Letters for a River, helmed by writer-director Markos Holevas and produced by Leonidas Liambeys. The 95-minute creative documentary delves into the themes of migration, borderlands, and human resilience. Shot in Evros, northern Greece, the film is billed as “a documentary that weaves together six decades of stories from the river Evros, where lives are shaped by its waters and the borders they mark.”

French-Algerian producer and first-time director Mia Bendrimia took the Agora stage alongside producer Kira Simon-Kennedy to introduce their documentary project, Magma. Simon-Kennedy, a seasoned producer who was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category for Jessica Kingdon’s Ascension (2022), is backing the film through Paris-based Nazar Films, a company founded by Bendrimia and dedicated to “crafting impactful stories from the SWANA and Mediterranean worlds.”

The StoryBoard Impact Award, valued at CHF10,000 (approx €10,500) was given to Children of Honey by Igar Ganatra and Immanuel Musa Marco. The Swiss Focus Award (CHF 2,500, approx. €2,600) went to the project Nathalie by Tamara Milosevic. The Sublimages Impact Award, offered by Sublimages and comprising a translation and subtitle creation into one of four languages, was won by the Ukrainian team of directors Alisa Kovalenko/Marysia Nikitiuk and producers Natalia Libet/Olha Beskhmelnytsina for their project Traces.

The Chicken & Egg Films boss addressed the filmmakers, funders, advocates and changemakers gathered in Geneva, to explain how she came to understand the power of storytelling to effect fundamental change, and how Chicken & Egg champions this principle. “Films are just one piece of the larger fight for justice, but they are uniquely well suited to moving the needle on urgent and complex issues, because they touch our emotions in deep, visceral ways - emotions that reports, white papers, news stories, and other forms of media rarely access,” she said. Report follows...

Running 4-13 April, the programme of the 56th Visions du Réel features 154 films from a record 57 countries. Of the 129 new films presented, 88 are world premieres and a further 12 are international premieres. 58 debut films, including 28 first features, complete the picture with no fewer than 31 Swiss (co)productions (compared with 25 in 2024). The festival will open with the world premiere of the Swiss film Blame by Christian Frei.

“We are Hadzabe and we want the world to know who we are.” Children of Honey follows three young Hadza friends—Nd!uba, Nguilabe, and Embilibi—at a critical crossroads of their once-peaceful hunter-gatherer community. With 90% of their ancestral land lost and modern pressures mounting, they must decide whether to hold onto their ancient traditions or be pulled into modernity. Impact producer Simona Nickmanova outlines her strategy to BDE.

The director/protagonist of The Myth of Monsters made an impassioned pitch at the Impact Days March 11. In the project, Beatrice is a late-diagnosed autistic woman, approaching her 40th birthday—a milestone she never thought she’d reach, given that her life has been marked by misdiagnoses, wrongful psychiatric institutionalisation and trauma. “I've spent my whole life trying to fit into a world not built with me in mind, and labelling women like me as difficult, angry, as a monster,” Leong told the Geneva audience.

The Netherlands-based Movies that Matter Festival has announced its official selection for the 2025 edition, showcasing “a powerful line-up of films that explore pressing social and political issues through bold storytelling.” The festival, running 21 - 29 March in the Dutch city of The Hague, will host a total of 98 films, 10 of them world premieres. The festival opens with the world premiere of The Promise, directed by Daan Veldhuizen.