23.05.2023 Doc Alliance – association of European documentary festivals selected 16 documentaries as nominees for the Doc Alliance Award 2023.
The films competing for this year's Doc Alliance Award have been announced today during the Doc Day of the Marché du Film in Cannes. The 16th Doc Alliance Award will be presented at the award ceremony of this year’s guest festival DokuFest in Prizren (August 4–12). Additionally, all nominated films will be screened at the festival.
The winning films will be decided by a jury formed by three film professionals with different experience in the industry: Anna Berthollet (CEO, Sales & Acquisitions at Lightdox), journalist and programmer Arnaud Hée (La Cinémathèque du Documentaire) and festival programmer Jonathan Ali (Third Horizon, Tribeca Film Festival).
Best Feature nominees:
a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN, Czech Republic, director: Jan Bušta, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
Christina (Kristina), Serbia, director: Nikola Spasic, nominated by FIDMarseille
Death of a City (A Morte de uma Cidade), Portugal, director: João Rosas, nominated by Doclisboa
Disturbed Earth, Bosnia and Herzegovina / North Macedonia / Spain, directors: Kumjana Novakova and Guillermo Carreras-Candi, nominated by DokuFest
Nights Gone By (Antier noche), Switzerland / Spain, director: Alberto Martín Menacho, nominated by Visions du Réel
Polish Prayers, Poland / Switzerland, director: Hanka Nobis, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
Silent Sun of Russia (Vi er Rusland), Denmark, director: Sybilla Tuxen, nominated by CPH:DOX
Three Women (Drei Frauen), Germany, director: Maksym Melnyk, nominated by DOK Leipzig
Best Short nominees:
07:15 – Blackbird, France, director: Judith Auffray, nominated by Ji.hlava IDFF
Adjusting (Prilagodjeni), Serbia, director: Dejan Petrović, nominated by DokuFest
Darkroom, Turkey, director: Asli Baykal, nominated by Visions du Réel
May the Earth Become the Sky (Face-s-ar pământul cer), Belgium / Hungary / Portugal / Romania, director: Ana Vîjdea, nominated by Doclisboa
Nothing Runs Like a Deere, Sweden, director: Max Göran, nominated by CPH:DOX
The cervix pass (Le passage du col), France, director: Marie Bottois, nominated by FIDMarseille
waking up in silence, Germany / Ukraine, directors: Mila Zhluktenko and Daniel Asadi Faezi, nominated by Millenium Docs Against Gravity
Why my mum loves Russel Crowe, Netherlands, director: Emma van den Berg, nominated by DOK Leipzig
The Doc Alliance network of documentary film festivals supports emerging talents in European documentary film. Each of the seven festivals (CPH:DOX, Doclisboa, DOK Leipzig, FIDMarseille, Ji.hlava IDFF, Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF and Visions du Réel) as well as this year’s guest festival DokuFest have nominated one short and one feature-length documentary film from its past programme.
The Doc Alliance Award is endowed with 5,000 EUR (Best Feature) and 3,000 EUR (Best Short) for the filmmakers to spend on their next projects. In addition, each of the festivals in the network shows at least three films from the selection at its next edition.
The network cordially invites European documentary film festivals to apply as guest festival 2024. The guest festival will be part of the network and will co-select the nominations for the Doc Alliance Award. Applications can be send to barbora@dafilms.com.
More information about the nominated films: Doc Alliance Award Nominations
More information about our 2023 guest festival: DokuFest
Film stills of all nominees for download: Doc Alliance Awards Nominees
Press contacts: Doc Alliance Press Office / Ji.hlava IDFF Press Department
09.05.2023 One of the leading European documentary film festivals – the Czech Republic’s Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, announces the call for the 3rd edition of Ji.hlava New Visions Forum: U.S. Docs.
Ten U.S. documentary projects in development as well as in production and post-production will be presented at the 27th Ji.hlava IDFF on October 27–29, 2023. The Ji.hlava New Visions platform is open to diverse genres and audiovisual formats – such as fiction films with documentary aspects, hybrid, cinema expanded, experimental and short films. The deadline for submissions is May 31.
„The aim of this initiative is to encourage and support U.S. and European documentary co-productions. In the European context, Ji.hlava became the first platform, which has effectively connected the U.S. documentary filmmakers with the potential co-producers, distributors, sales representatives and film festivals from Europe,“ says Marek Hovorka, director of Ji.hlava IDFF.
“We primarily look for films made with creative artistic approach. They do not need to be shot in Europe but the expected impact of the film should reach beyond the U.S.A.”, says Jarmila Outratová, head of Ji.hlava’s Industry section.
Ji.hlava New Visions is a financing, co-production and networking event. The most promising projects will receive both cash and in-kind awards in cooperation with Ji.hlava IDFF’s partners – American Documentary and Animation Film Festival (AmDocs), Taskovski Films, Cannes Docs (Marché du Film), European Film Market (Berlinale), and Documentary Association of Europe.
The documentary projects presented at the Ji.hlava New Visions: U.S. Docs in the past two years have later premiered at festivals including SXSW and Tribeca. Other found their co-producers and distributors in Europe.
“This Ji.hlava initiative in creating a space for US Docs is a great opportunity for films that are looking to take their projects to the European market and share them with broader audiences. It is a great window to the European market for US Docs,” says Adriana Barbosa, co-director of Swing and Sway – a documentary which took part in the programme and later toured prestigious festivals including Sheffield, DOK Leipzig, Kassel, and Guadalajara.
03.05.2023 The 19 th edition of the Docu Talents from the East – a closely watched presentation of the most remarkable new documentary projects from Central and Eastern Europe – will take place on August 13 during the Cinelink Industry Days at Sarajevo FF.
The presentations by directors and producers of eight selected documentary projects will be followed by one-to-one meetings with sales agents, festival representatives and other decision-makers accredited at Sarajevo FF.
The call for submissions to the 19th Docu Talents from the East is open until May 31. The eligible projects include mid-length or feature-length documentary projects at the post-production stage with expected premiere between September 2023 and August 2024. The eligible countries are Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia (only for projects not supported by the Russian state institutions), Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
“For the last 19 years, Docu Talents has served as a launch pad for many documentaries by both renowned and emerging directors from the region. And each year, we discover more and more exceptional documentary projects and daring authors coming from Eastern Europe. We really look forward to this year’s crop,” says Marek Hovorka, director of Ji.hlava IDFF which has curated the programme since 2005.
“The Docu Talents has proven to be an event that effectively interconnects documentary film professionals with festival selectors and producers. Each year we see very tangible results both for the careers of the selected filmmakers and for their films,” adds Jarmila Outratová, head of Ji.hlava industry.
Laila Pakalniņa, Vladimir Mansky, Bartek Konopka, Piotr Stasik, Peter Kerekes, Dmitrii Kalashnikov and Helena Třeštíková are among the directors whose projects were brought up by Docu Talents. The films had later world and international premieres at major film festivals including in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, and Sundance.
The programme is held as part of the Visegrad Accelerator supported by the International Visegrad Fund. Applications and more information here.
