The Euro-Mediterranean Documentary Market (Medimed) has unveiled the 70 documentary projects selected for its upcoming edition (October 17-20). Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the co-production and co-financing event “continues to be a pivotal platform, welcoming some of the most promising filmmakers and established members of the industry to present a varied slate of documentary projects at different stages of development,” write organisers.
Confirmed Decision Makers include 2M TV, 3CAT, Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera, Al Jazeera English, AMC Networks, ARTE, ARTE GEIE, Asharq Documentary, BBC, BBC Arabic, CaixaForum+, DMC, France TV, LCP, Movistar+, NHK, POV, Public Sénat, Quintus Media, RTBF, RTP, RTS, Shahid.net, SVT, TF1, TG4, TRT World and TVE. MEDIMED
PITCHING FORUM (synopses from the project teams, text provided by Medimed)
Highlights include Katrine Sahlstrøm’s moving project Childhood And Revolution, taking us into the intimate journey of a woman revisiting her childhood in Maputo, constantly negotiating her own privilege, after the death of her beloved grandmother. Emmy Oost will pitch Horses, Wives, Weapons, which portrays the lead-up of 3 pacifists to fulfil the compulsory Turkish army service. Esther van Messel brings Kalari, an exploration into an old martial art that could be a tool for self-empowerment and self-defense for women in India. Christos Stefanou will pitch Moving Sisters, a documentary that portrays the difficult but transformative journey towards adulthood of three teenage girls from Afghanistan, trapped with their father in a refugee camp in Greece. With Syntony, Eva Vila will present David’s challenge in crossing the city of Barcelona doing parkour, without touching the ground, creating a new map of one of the world’s most popular cities before his grandma Rosa’s memory loss worsens. Jorgen Lorentzen and Karrar Al-Azzawi (the team behind ‘Baghdad on Fire’) will present Iraqi Warriors, the emotional journey of a group of war veterans of the Iraq war challenging to join the Iraqi National Amputee Football team.
Pitching Forum projects:
- BURNT EARTH Yellow Film & TV Finland
- CECILIA’S PROJECT AMP Polska Edward Porembny Poland / France
- CENTELLES’ SUITCASE Estrela Audiovisual and Minimal Films Spain
- CHILDHOOD AND REVOLUTION Good Company Pictures Denmark
- DESTINATION: PROXIMA CENTAURI Somadrome Spain
- GAZA THE SORROW OF THE STARS Memento France
- HORSES, WIVES, WEAPONS Cassette for Timescapes Belgium
- HOW TO TALK TO LYDIA BLACK MARKET film production Germany
- IRAQI WARRIORS Integral film Norway
- JODARI MENO The Film House Qatar
- KALARI First Hand Films Switzerland
- MOVING SISTERS Fabula Productions Greece / Italy
- NINE RINGS OF THE NILE Enfant Sauvage Productions France
- PAST FUTURE CONTINUOUS Antipode Films Norway / Italy
- October 7th 2024MEDIMED DOC MARKET 2024 | Selection Announcement
- REBELLION OF MEMORY Aaron Film Switzerland / France / Peru
- SYNTONY Araki Films Spain
- THE BEDOUINS OF AL RACHAIDEH GoGoGo Films France
- THE FOOD BARONS Point Nemo Italy
- THE LAST HORIZON Elda Productions France
- THE NORTH WIND Road2Films Lebanon
- THE NINE RINGS OF THE NILE Enfant Sauvage France
- THE OTHER GAZA Sard Films AB Sweden
- THE SIEGE OF PARADISE Venom Films Ireland / Italy
- TO THE MOON AND BACK Rita Productions Switzerland
- WWW WORLD WIDE WAR Khora Film France / Greece
ANTI PITCH PROGRAM (synopses from the project teams, text provided by Medimed)
For this year’s Rough Cut Advisory Meetings, 16 projects have been selected, moderated by Iikka Vehkalahti. Notable titles include Girls and Gods produced by Golden Girls (Austria), which shows the groundbreaking journey of radical feminist Inna Shevchenko into the age-old conflict between religion and women. In Iináproduced by 70 STEPS (Germany), Farley Blueeyes, a resilient Navajo farmer, fights to rebuild his community’s hemp industry after a devastating FBI raid, while navigating the challenges of federal regulation and cultural preservation. In Fatna, A Woman Named Rachid, produced by Abel Aflam (France and Morocco), we learn about Moroccan activist Fatna El Bouih, ex-political prisoner in the 1970s, who is struggling to keep alive her dream for change.
SPEEDY PITCH MEETINGS (synopses from the project teams, text provided by Medimed)
In a series of fifteen minutes meetings, 30 projects from fifteen different countries have been selected to encounter financers, distributors, acquisitions executives and sales agents. They cover different topics and points of view. Highlights include The Huntresses, produced by Box Productions (Switzerland), which follows the journey of four women in search of autonomy and a freedom that blossoms above the villages, on the mountain, where they practice hunting, a traditionally masculine activity. Symphony of Hope produced by Maynprod and Fablabchannel (France and Morocco), tells the story of two girls from an impoverished neighborhood near Rabat, who find a new path in a Music School. The Sperm King, produced by Ard Mhacha Productions, presents a man who dreams of saving the world’s wildlife from mass extinction by creating a modern day Noah’s ark.
ONLINE PITCH
A few days before the market, a curated selection of early stage projects will be pitched online in a new format session to a group of established European and Mediterranean producers that are currently looking for new projects to co-produce. Ten projects from a wide range of genres will have a unique opportunity to find partners among their peers.
DIGITAL DOCS GALLERY
The Video Library is composed by 300+ new titles produced in 2023-24 in 50 countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Region. They are all accessible to a selected group of international acquisition executives and sales agents, including Al Jazeera, DMC, Canal + Poland, HRT, RAI, RTVS, TVE, TVC, TG4 and ZDF among others. Among the featured titles, several Ready Made Medimed Projects will be available. They include: Slave Island by Harald House pitched in 2021; Broken Kids, the Untold Story of Young Athletes by Cinétévé pitched in 2023 and Grand Me by Associate Directors, also pitched in 2023.
Among the Industry Talks in 2024 is a Film Festival Focus roundtable, featuring representatives and programmers from renowned international film festivals such as Sundance, Sheffield Doc Fest, FIPADOC, and Movies that Matter. They will discuss the evolving challenges documentary film festivals face in attracting larger audiences.
