Business Doc Europe sat down with Christa Auderlitzky, Managing Director at Vienna-based sales firm Filmdelights. At IDFA, the team are presenting two films in official selection—Dear Beautiful Beloved by Juri Rechinsky and Personale by Carmen Trocker—as well as acclaimed filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić’s new project Blum and Eva Kübar’s My Partners as part of their Docs for Sale slate.
Filmdelights doesn’t follow a strict editorial policy but prefers to handpick its films. “At Filmdelights, we’re a team of four, each with different tasks in the areas of sales, festivals, education, and theatrical distribution. We discuss the films and their potential as a team before we carefully make a decision,” says Auderlitzky. “To put it simply, our editorial policy comes down to films we find interesting and that resonate with us.”
“At IDFA, we will be accompanying two films in the official selection: Dear Beautiful Beloved by Ukrainian director Juri Rechinsky, about new structures of care in war-torn Ukraine. It’s one of the most powerful and humanistic films we have seen in recent times and will be showcased in the Best of Fests strand.”
The feature premiered at Semaine de la Critique in Locarno this summer. Recently, it scooped the Audience Award at Duisburger Filmwoche in Germany and was also well received by the audience at the Vienna International Film Festival. “The film has already been picked up by a Ukrainian distributor, and there is significant interest from a global TV station,” reveals Auderlitzky.
“Our second film is the Italian-Austrian co-production Personale by Carmen Trocker, a very strong film that subtly explores the relationship between migration, labour, and hyper-tourism. It has already caught the attention of other festivals, and I strongly believe in its potential within the festival circuit.”
“At Docs for Sale, we have the film My Partners by Eva Kübar, a ‘dark comedy documentary’ about polyamory in Estonia, set to premiere at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival on 18 November,” the exec continues. “Polyamory is a big topic recently in many countries and across different generations. The film’s strength lies not only in its storytelling mode but also in its focus on the personal challenges and difficulties this kind of relationship brings. It has a strong chance to become another big Estonian theatrical hit internationally, following Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.”
Next, Auderlitzky highlighted Oscar-nominated Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić’s latest endeavour. The documentary is ready and now seeking a world premiere.
“In Blum, Žbanić reconstructs the exciting life of Emerik Blum, a Jewish Bosnian who survived a concentration camp, was a partisan, and founded the largest and extremely successful tech company, Energo Invest. Under his Socialist leadership, it achieved world fame and overshadowed many large Western companies. In his later years, Blum also served as the Mayor of Sarajevo and President of the Olympic Winter Games committee. In today’s capitalistic world, which often results in destructiveness, there are few alternatives offered to us. Emerik Blum and the people around him lived one possible alternative.”
Auderlitzky admits the current climate for documentary sales is vibrant yet challenging.
“An advantage of IDFA is that the world of documentary gathers in one place, so we can support films like My Partners and Blum from Amsterdam too. The festival world is functioning well, but TV sales are declining significantly, and theatrical is lagging behind. All digital alternatives do not compensate for this lag. However, all the backlashes and anti-democratic developments in societies worldwide make our work even more important than ever. We have strong, promising new titles for 2025, so I feel confident,” she says.
Identifying the latest market trends and making informed decisions remains difficult, however. “The truth is that there are many trends ongoing because there isn’t one audience for documentaries, owing to all the ways that people engage with them and the expectations they have. These trends keep changing very quickly. So the most important thing is to find the right strategy to reach the right audience for a film.”
Filmdelights handles around six to ten new films each year, in addition to a back catalogue of films that still have untapped potential. “The field Filmdelights works within is quite wide, spanning festivals, educational, TV, classical theatrical distribution, and digital distribution. Besides, we take care of national distribution in Austria for documentaries and fiction, as well as queer films in co-operation with Salzgeber Distribution in Germany,” Auderlitzky further explains.
Asked about what would constitute a successful IDFA for Filmdelights, she concludes: “There are so many important stories to be told and great films out there that it is sometimes hard to limit our selection. However, within this large volume of productions, it can also be challenging to find the ones that achieve a successful breakthrough. The positive impact of a festival often becomes clear over time, but success can be measured by our films being selected for further festivals and buyers picking them up directly after the event.”
