Sunny Side 25

“Are you sure about this, who’s going to want to watch a film about leftovers and creepy crawlies? It’s gross!” Producers Julien Adam (Capa Presse) and Sally Blake (Films a Cinq) invited the professional audience at Sunny Side into the loamy world of the compost bin during the pitch for their new doc project, Compost, The Hidden Treasure of our Waste, directed by Guilhem Touzery.

One of the Seven Wonders of the World is revisited using latest technology, with a promise to unravel the final secrets of the iconic Lighthouse of Alexandria. Gedeon Programmes’ The Lighthouse of Alexandria Decoded, directed by Laurence Thiriat, will be, producer Coraline Roch suggests, “a cinematic journey that will captivate global audiences and let them witness the reverse of the Wonder thought lost forever.”

Today kicks off two days of major archive activity at Sunny Side, with a showcase of six core archive companies, and panels on the decolonisation of First Nations archives and the preservation, restoration and promotion of African archives. In a June 26 keynote, Dawn Porter will share her experiences working with archives and present her latest film about Nelson Mandela. In addition, 18 archive companies are exhibiting this year in the Main Hall of SSD. Archive supremo Elizabeth Klinck tells BDE what to expect.

Nathalie Bourdon, Director of Distribution & Market Development at NFB, tells Business Doc Europe about her busy slate of Sunny Side films, prominent among which is Christopher Auchter’s The Stand, in which a small group of Haida people demand that the government work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and their future. The film received a Special Mention of the Youth Jury at Sheffield Doc Fest.

Exiled Gazan filmmaker Wafa Jamil delivered an impassioned pitch for her highly personal documentary that explores the themes of displacement, resilience and identity. “I'm carrying on not just as a filmmaker, but as a mom, as a daughter and a sister having a family surviving a genocide,” she told the professional audience in La Rochelle.

18-year-old Abhilesh's uncle wants him to succeed in the wrestling academy so as to further his political career, but the boy just isn’t cut out for fighting, torn between duty and an unspoken yearning for something more. “In today's world, when wars are being waged by hyper-masculine men, our film quietly explores how masculinity isn't about following rigid ideas of social expectations but can be found in vulnerability, empathy and the courage to express yourself beyond your assigned roles,” Jadhav told the La Rochelle audience.

In the ‘Meet NHK’ session at Sunny Side of the Doc, Shin Yasuda, Head of International Co-productions and Acquisitions at NHK, presented a selection of current and future projects and, together with members of his team, highlighted his company’s acquisition and international co-production opportunities. NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) celebrates is 100th anniversary in 2025.

Java Films will once again present the €3000 Roch Bozino Engagement Award at Sunny Side 2025, in honour of the company’s late founder. The prize will be given to a project within the Current Affairs & Investigation or New Voices pitches. Highlights of Java’s SSD slate include Zelensky (directed by Yves Jeuland, Ariane Chemin and Lisa Vapné), which received a Special Screening at Cannes. In addition, the company’s new DocRoom initiative (YouTube) boasts 80,000 views across 70 countries for its first offering, Lie to Me by Bår Tyrmi and Dag Mykland.

Eight projects will be presented in La Rochelle, four of which are competing within Sunny Side’s themed pitch sessions. The other four are at various stages, from development through to post-production. The projects are represented by Polish Docs Pro which delivers wide‑ranging promotion of the Polish documentary scene at a slew of international events throughout the year.

Executive producer Salla Kozma (pictured) announced June 19 the launch of her new Monaco and Finland-based film and TV production company Pig & Horse Productions. She also announced a “dynamic slate” of high-quality documentaries and unscripted formats, foremost among which is the high-end doc Reflections of Gaugin which “delves into the mystifying world of infamous art, wealth and power.”