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The 2024 Beldocs program hosts 103 films, among which are 13 world, one European, 59 regional and 24 Serbian premieres. Ten films screen in International Competition while a dozen are selected for Serbian Comp. Twenty-three developing projects at different phases of production are selected for Beldocs Industry. The 17th edition of Beldocs opened May 22 with Dragan Jovićević’s Warm Film.

The Christchurch-based Oscar-qualifying docfest announces a “stunning and provocative” line-up of 43 features, 23 shorts and 28 immersive projects. The festival runs 19-30 June before decamping to Wellington and Auckland 3-14 July. The programme will then be shared virtually across New Zealand 15-31 July.

“I found her life interesting as a Hollywood story because she was really one of the first modern celebrities. She was probably comparable to Taylor Swift,” US director Nanette Burstein tells BDE of her documentary about the Hollywood icon. “It [Taylor’s life] is a very compelling Hollywood story. It’s a story about feminism. It is a story about agency and it is a story about philanthropy.”

The winners of the Docs-in-Progress Awards were unveiled during a ceremony at the end of this year's Doc Day (May 21). Top cash prizes went to Only on Earth by Robin Petré (IEFTA Doc-in-Progress Award, €10,000), to Aliyá, Yeridá by Rafael Guendelman (Al Jazeera Documentary Award, Co-pro deal with minimum €15,000 contribution), and to Chilean The Stationary Traveller (Rise and Shine Award, €3,000).

Four new projects developed at the CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator were pitched May 20 at Cannes Docs. CIRCLE is described as “a unique training initiative designed for women and non-binary writers, directors, and producers from all-over the world, offering a safe space for consultation, collaboration, sharing ideas and improving skills.” Opening the sessions producer and Programme Director Biljana Tutorov described the workshop as “a work of solidarity,” and a “circle of trust.”

Chile will be participating for the fourth time at Cannes Docs when four projects at advanced stage and covering themes such as the migration crisis, diversity and climate change, will be presented. Meanwhile, a wider delegation of Chilean doc producers will attend the Marché du Film to promote and present their talent and content to the global documentary community.

Sheffield’s Industry Programme and Market runs in conjunction with the Festival (June 12-17) and includes 22 Industry Sessions for delegates, five Marketplace Sessions, three Live Pitch sessions, the Filmmaker Challenge, Alternate Realities Summit, five marketplace Rough Cuts, Craft Summit (a day of five panels and masterclasses) as well as the MeetMarket pitching forum.

“The Polish Panorama does not merely explore our own backyard. Polish creators eagerly travel the world to bring stories that seem distant only at first glance, yet reveal their universality upon closer examination,” write selectors of this year’s local selection. The festival also reveals the jurors who will deliberate across all competition sections at KFF 2024.

The May 12 Awards Ceremony of the third MDAG Industry Awards came at the end of 4 days of deliberation that entailed 4 pitching sessions, 37 projects and over 280 one-on-one meetings. The CANAL+ Poland Award (3,000 euros) was given to Dekonstrukt by Mateusz Góra Kamil Wilk while Sugarland by Julia Smakjam won the Polish Filmmakers Association cash award of PLN 10,000 (2,333 euros). All awards…

During DocsBarcelona Industry, firebrand Catalan director Albert Serra and editor Artur Tort examined the processes behind Serra’s highly anticipated doc debut, Afternoons of Solitude, about bullfighting. After a career making fiction, why a doc now? “Everybody knows that making a fiction [is] more interesting and better than making a documentary,” he replied. “The only possible answer to this is to say, I do a documentary because it's impossible to make a fiction about [this subject].”