Sheffield 22

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.

Five female Nepali filmmakers are attending DocFest looking for financial partners on their projects, as well as to investigate networking opportunities. They are in Sheffield as part of the #Docs Connect Taskovski training program supported by British Council’s Gender Film Programme. “This collaboration with the British Council Nepal is a further step towards building a stronger documentary filmmaking base in Nepal,” comments Taskovski Films founder, Irena Taskovski.

This warm-hearted doc feels at times more like a classic tear-jerker with the seemingly mismatched pairing of an elderly Barcelona drag-queen and a wide-eyed young girl learning to appreciate each other. But in this film truth is more engaging than fiction as nonagenarian Gilda Love dramatically changes when he is asked to take care of an abandoned three-year-old.

Doc Society will be a major presence at Sheffield DocFest this week. The UK not for profit foundation, which has run the BFI Doc Society Fund since 2018, will have 10 films screening in the festival, including the world premiere in competition of Kim Hopkins’ crowd-pleaser A Bunch Of Amateurs, sold by MetFilms, and presents 6 works-in-progress. Doc Soc’s Shanida Scotland and Sandra Whipham tell BDE what to expect.

Zambrano joined the Festival as Head of Film Programmes earlier in 2022. Following a return to a predominantly in-person festival, attracting 30,323 attendances, the organisation is adopting a “new, joint leadership model for the future” and has commenced the search for a new Managing Director and Creative Director.

The former BFI London and Sydney FF director talks to BDE about her new role at Sheffield Doc Fest which sees a number of other new appointments in 2022, including Asif Kapadia as Guest Curator. “Fundamentally the real challenge (and it's quite different from approaching a festival pre-pandemic) is thinking about what the shape of the festival needs to be for the future,” says Stewart.

In addition to overseeing the 2022 event, former BFI London FF director Stewart will “work with the Board and senior team to forge a new, long-term strategy for Sheffield DocFest.” Oscar winner Kapadia will personally select some sections of the screenings programme and work with the Sheffield team on events, talks and other initiatives, say festival organisers.

A deeply prescient and gently revealing documentary, One Day in Ukraine delivers just as the title states…a snapshot of one day in a country under siege as ordinary people (and sometimes extraordinary ones) go about their lives, whether it be preparing food or walking devastated streets, heavily armed and ready to fight.

Monday 27 June sees the world premiere “cine-concert” of Esther Johnson’s bold and innovative new feature documentary Dust & Metal at Sheffield DocFest 2022. It’s a Vietnam story but don’t expect any of the clichés of apocalyptic western war movies set in the country. The focus here is on bikes, not guns. Johnson gets in tandem with Business Doc Europe.

Back in 2012 director Rodrigo Reyes was the California court interpreter at the trial of 19-year old Sansón, accused of murder. After being found guilty he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But Reyes was always troubled by the trial. “I never got to hear his story,” he says. “Everything was focused on a single moment, on the incident that brought him to court, but not on who he was or where he came from.” The director therefore set out to tell the personal history of Sansón.