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The Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and Czech entrepreneur Jan Barta have joined forces to support outstanding auteur filmmaking from Central and Eastern Europe with the launch of the Ji.hlava/JB Films support scheme. Three recipients of support totalling €110,000 were announced October 30 during the Industry Days of the 28th Ji.hlava IDFF.

In Natalia Pietsch and Grzegorz Piekarski’s feature project, a Kurdish shepherdess and an Arab barber face the consequences of a decision to flood their historic town of Hasankeyf (Kurdistan) after the construction of a massive dam. “This project is vital because it reveals the hidden impact of geopolitical control on human lives and culture,” Polish producer Katarzyna Kostecka tells BDE. “International audiences will connect with its universal themes of cultural loss, human resilience, and the consequences of state-driven displacement.”

In Ketevan Vashagashvili’s debut feature doc project, set for delivery in early 2025, a homeless Georgian woman becomes a surrogate mother in a desperate attempt to secure a brighter future for her daughter. What starts as a quick way to earn money transforms into an emotional and physical sacrifice, testing the limits of a mother’s love. “The impact campaign will aim to bring attention to the urgent need for stronger regulations in the surrogacy industry, both in Georgia and in the countries where intended parents come from,” producer Sylvia Nagel tells BDE.

Estonian director and German co-producer Dirk Manthey pitched their feature doc work-in-progress about the child of an eco-activist who, ten years after director Lillak first encountered her, is now struggling to cope with the intensity of her upbringing. “I think it is a timely project because it gives voice to the generation that is dealing with an enormous baggage. Baggage of climate anxiety, guilt and rage,” she tells BDE.

On 29 October, Ji.hlava IDFF’s Industry Hub hosted a presentation and short previews of nine brand new Czech documentary films selected for the festival’s National Competition, all introduced by their authors. The showcase was hosted by Czech Television Deputy Editor-in-Chief Diana Tabakov. Czech Joy is the competition section for the best Czech documentary, celebrating “diversity of themes and cinematic expression.”

The award for Best Short Film went to the Indian Only If the Baby Cries…by Shadab Farooq. The prize for the best documentary book was awarded to the anthology If I Am to Die, Let it Be a Story, about several Palestinian women living in the Czech Republic or Czech with Palestinian roots. The Respekt magazine award was given to Darja Stomatová and Ján Schrürger from Czech Television for their Ukrainian reportage for Czech TV, while the APA Award went to Slovakian Zuzana Mistríková.

Narrated by German Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller, Alina Cyranek’s feature doc (part-dance, part-animation, part-interview) tells a story of domestic violence and a woman’s attempts to break free from a damaging relationship. It also presents a critique of “a political and social system that prefers to look the other way,” says producer/director Alina Cyranek. The project won the D-Facto Motion Works-in-Progress Prize, providing post-production services valued at €10,000.

Michaela Cajkova of Prague-based Filmotor announced the acquisition on the eve of the 67th DOK Leipzig. Directed by Chris Gude and produced by mutikino, the US/Colombian doc follows a fictitious explorer who is reporting on gold-mining and its commercialization in Venezuela. Paradoxically, the gold diggers both live off nature and destroy it at the same time. (Exclusive trailer)

Running November 13 to 17, Irish Film Festival London will showcase a mix of feature narrative, documentaries and short films shedding fresh light on the country’s culturally dynamic past, present and future. The festival opens with Aoife Kelleher’s feature documentary about Ireland’s first female president Mary Robinson.

The 14th edition of East Doc Platform, a tailor-made production, funding and distribution platform for Central and East European documentaries and organized by the Institute of Documentary Film in association with the One World Film Festival, will take place in Prague March 13-19. The application deadline for submissions is November 15.