News

Exclusive: The Ford Foundation is coming through for documentary filmmakers in a big way.

Today, the nonprofit philanthropic institution announced its latest round of grants under the foundation’s JustFilms division — $4.2 million that will go to support “59 innovative film projects centered on social justice globally and in the United States.”

Among the recipients are Union, the film directed by Stephen Maing and Brett Story that just held its world premiere at Sundance, and fellow Sundance premiere The Battle for Laikipia, directed by Daphne Matziaraki and Peter Murimi. Union, about the battle to unionize an Amazon facility on Staten Island, New York, is in U.S. Documentary Competition at Sundance. The Battle for Laikipia, in World Cinema Documentary Competition at the festival, examines “a generations-old conflict between Indigenous pastoralists and white landowners in Laikipia, Kenya, a wildlife conservation haven.” Roger Ross Williams and Toni Kamau are among the producers of Laikipia.

Projects come from 34 different countries.

Projects from Rodrigo Reyes, Ike Nnaebue and Sean McAllister are among 48 titles that will be pitched to international and UK industry representatives and experts at this year’s Sheffield DocFest MeetMarket.

One of the world’s largest documentary and factual pitching forums, MeetMarket moved to the beginning of the festival and will take place on June 15-16 with all projects in the development or production stage.

The projects have been selected from more than 500 submissions. Rodrigo Reyes, whose doc Sanson And Me was the winner of DocFest’s 2022 international competition, is pitching Mexican-us co-pro Warrior Mothers.

Cph:forum, the financing and co-production event held during Cph:dox documentary film festival in Copenhagen, will introduce new projects by filmmakers such as Ljubomir Stefanov (“Honeyland”), Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), Finlay Pretsell (“Time Trial”), Ousmane Samassekou (“The Last Shelter”), Mila Turajlić (“The Other Side of Everything”), Tonislav Hristov (“The Good Postman”), Iryna Tsilyk (“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”) and Brett Story (“The Hottest August”), among others.

Stefanov, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Honeyland,” will be pitching “House of Earth.” He teams with producer Maya E. Rudolph, who produced Emmy-nominated “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” and Sarah D’hanens. The film centers on transgender sex worker Pinky, who returns to her Roma community after 30 years, and finds two families in need of a matriarch. Torn between her biological kin and chosen queer family, Pinky attempts to build a future that feels like home.

Kingdon, who was Oscar nominated for “Ascension,” arrives with “Untitled Animal Project,...

Cph:dox also sets work-in-progress, Change co-production selections.

New feature documentaries from Honeyland director Ljubomir Stefanov and Ascension filmmaker Jessica Kingdon are among the 33 projects selected for Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production market of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.

Macedonian filmmaker Stefanov is presenting House of Earth, about a transgender sex worker who returns to her Roma community after 30 years on the run, only to be torn between her biological kin and her chosen queer family. The Macedonian-us co-production is produced by Maya E. Rudolph and Sarah D’hanens, and is looking for €405,000 funding to supplement its €45,000 in place from Louverture Films and private equity.

Hot Docs has wrapped its 11-day hybrid edition, handing out three more cash prizes, announcing audience top picks, and tipping the hat to the 225 films from 63 countries that screened during the festival.

The animated documentary “Eternal Spring,” by Jason Loftus, won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Documentary, which comes with Cdn. 25,000 cash, and also claimed the top spot in the overall audience poll of cinemagoers and online doc-watchers.

“Eternal Spring,” which had its North American premiere at Hot Docs and has racked up other awards this year at European festivals, mixes 3D and new live footage to trace the story of comic-book illustrator Daxiong, a Falun Gong practitioner, who fled China after police began cracking down on members of the outlawed spiritual group.

Mark Bone’s “Okay! (The Asd Band Film),” which follows four autistic musicians as they prepare for their first live gig, is the second Roger...

In the last five years, documentaries about robots and AI seem to be everywhere. Some are about human vs. AI matches in the game of go, while others, about our addiction to algorithm-controlled social media, but what seems to connect all of them is the perennially unanswerable question “What makes us human?” Ann Shin’s newest documentary “A.rtificial I.mmortality” tackles the same topic from the perspective of memory.

“A.rtificial I.mmortality” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival

At its core, “A.rtificial I.mmortality” is a semi-autobiographical essay-like documentary – an event in the director’s immediate surroundings pushes her to learn more about AI and the preservation of memory with the intention of preserving her own memory for her two daughters’ sake. And in the process, she discovers something about the world and human nature.

The narrative (told in first person point of view) and...

Telefilm Canada has launched Canada Now, a new portal devoted to highlighting Canadian content in the U.S. The site will add new titles each month to its portfolio, which ranges from recent films such as “My Salinger Year” and “Antigone” to Oscar nominees like “Barbarian Invasions” and “Monsieur Lazhar,” as well as some series.

The site, developed in collaboration with Telescope, features close to 5,000 productions available across more than 150 VOD platforms.

Canada Now’s monthly boutique curation will spotlight six different programming sections in addition to the searchable database of productions accessible within the U.S. Every month the site will feature a section on New Arrivals, Classic Films and a spotlight called Indigenous Voices.

For the month of May, it will focus on a celebration of Asian Canadians with films including Sandra Oh starring as a struggling single mother whose daughter decides that Taoist magic will make everything better,...

“A.rtificial I.mmortality” provides a diverting if superficial survey of how fast-evolving technology might be able to extend our lives — or at least some of our memories and characteristics. Featured as Hot Docs’ opening night selection, this Canadian documentary from director Ann Shin presents once-fantastical ideas now edging toward reality in a form palatable to broadcast viewers looking more for casual entertainment value than weighty investigation. But the film is weakened by its gratuitously first-person perspective, chosen for no obvious reason beyond the director evidently wanting to “star” in her own movie.

After an opening quote from Seneca, Shin takes center stage and stays there, as introduced at her 52nd birthday party, then perusing old family photos with two daughters. Her own mother has died, and her 78-year-old father is in a retirement home with dementia. But what if her own existence could somehow be elongated so that one...

The Toronto-based Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Film Festival opens Thursday with the world premiere of “A.rtificial I.mmortality,” which explores advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech through close encounters with neuroscientists, AI developers, transhumanists, robot-creators, and visionaries who are pointing the way toward post-biological life.

Director Ann Shin spoke to Variety about her new film—one of 13 features in the festival’s Canadian Spectrum juried competition—and chatted up the next projects of Fathom Film Group, the female-led production company she founded in Toronto in 2006, and which is now represented by APA in the U.S.

“A.rtificial I.mmortality” is produced by Fathom Film’s Erica Leendertse and Hannah Donegan, with Shin and Gerry Flahive as executive producers, and in association with Canadian streamer Crave, a division of Bell Media Inc., with funding from the Canada Media Fund and Rogers Cable Network Fund.

Earlier this week Variety...

When the coronavirus pandemic began sweeping across the globe last year, Canada’s Hot Docs, one of the world’s leading documentary film festivals, was among the first international fests forced to pivot to an online edition. But while the abrupt shift might’ve caught the organizing team off-guard, the result hardly felt like a compromise: along with virtual screenings of more than 200 films, the festival attracted a record number of buyers to its doc market.

One year later, audiences and industry players alike have grown accustomed to a virtual festival experience, and Hot Docs is poised to build on the success of last year’s trial by fire. “We’ve done it once, and the bar keeps getting raised,” says programming director Shane Smith. “We’re constantly looking at what other festivals were doing, how they were doing it, how to engage the audience, but also how to engage the industry and the filmmakers,...

Programming director talks online version, why docs matter more than ever.

Hot Docs returns for its second year as a purely virtual event from April 29-May 9 as Toronto’s stay-at-home order remains in effect during a third lockdown. However programming head Shane Smith is ebullient about an “incredible range of stories and quality of films”.

While the pandemic resulted in some 10% fewer submissions this year, the fact that festivals and markets have been online for more than a year helped programmers track projects and filmmakers.

The result is that 219 films from 66 countries in fact marks an increase on the number of selections from last year,...

Programming director talks online version, why docs matter more than ever

Hot Docs returns for its second year as a purely virtual event from April 29-May 9 as Toronto’s stay-at-home order remains in effect during a third lockdown. However programming head Shane Smith is ebullient about an “incredible range of stories and quality of films”.

While the pandemic resulted in some 10% fewer submissions this year, the fact that festivals and markets have been online for more than a year helped programmers track projects and filmmakers.

The result is that 219 films from 66 countries in fact marks an increase on the number of selections from last year,...

Hot Docs, one of the world’s top documentary feature film festivals, has selected 36 projects from 18 countries to take part in Hot Docs Deal Maker, a curated one-on-one pitch meeting program for producers seeking financing from the international marketplace.

Since the program’s launch in 2013, the number of decision makers taking part has more than doubled and will reach almost 100 this year. In total, 433 projects and 516 filmmakers have pitched in 4,000 Deal Maker meetings, with millions of dollars raised.

Notable projects that have pitched at Hot Docs Deal Maker in previous years include the 2020 Hot Docs Festival opening night film “Softie,” 2020’s “Downstream to Kinshasa,” 2019’s “Smog Town and The Forum,” 2018’s “Love, Gilda,” and 2017’s “My Enemy, My Brother,” directed by Ann Shin, whose film “A.rtificial I.mmortality” will open this year’s festival.

Featuring a diverse selection of projects showcasing varied perspectives, stories and styles from established and...

Programmers selected 219 films from 2,300 submissions.

Women directors account for nearly half of the selections at the online 2021 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which will run from April 29-May 9 and is available to viewers across Canada.

Programmers selected 219 films from 66 countries across from 12 sections from 2,300 submissions.

Special Presentations sponsored by Crave features world premieres of Yung Chang’s Covid-19 film Wuhan Wuhan; Dirty Tricks, about a scandal within the world of competitive bridge playing; and Come Back Anytime about self-taught Japanese ramen master Masamoto Ueda.

The Persister strand comprising female-directed films about women speaking up and being heard includes world...

Hot Docs, one of the world’s leading documentary festivals, has unveiled its full lineup. The event, which runs online from April 29-May 9, will present 219 films from 66 countries across 12 programs, with 50% of the directors in the program being women.

The opening film will be “A.rtificial I.mmortality,” in which director Ann Shin poses the question: If you could live forever through AI, would you? Facing the reality of death as her father suffers from dementia in his old age, the filmmaker investigates the world of digital cloning through AI. After conversations on the process with leading experts in the field, she digitizes her memories and uploads them into a newly created avatar of herself, preserving her personality and identity in digital form forever. The film features commentary from Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom, director of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University Hiroshi Ishiguro, artificial intelligence researcher Ben Goertzel, and mindfulness guru Deepak Chopra.

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is set to open with Ann Shin’s Artificial Immortality, a film about AI, robotics and biotech.

North America’s largest documentary festival, set for a virtual run from April 29 to May 9, will stream 219 films from 66 countries. There’s world premieres for Yung Chang’s Wuhan Wuhan, about life in the Chinese city during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic; Sol Guy’s The Death of My Two Fathers; Willemiek Kluijfhout’s The Taste of Desire, a film about oysters; Daniel Sivan’s doc about competitive bridge playing, Dirty Tricks; and John ...

The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is set to open with Ann Shin’s Artificial Immortality, a film about AI, robotics and biotech.

North America’s largest documentary festival, set for a virtual run from April 29 to May 9, will stream 219 films from 66 countries. There’s world premieres for Yung Chang’s Wuhan Wuhan, about life in the Chinese city during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic; Sol Guy’s The Death of My Two Fathers; Willemiek Kluijfhout’s The Taste of Desire, a film about oysters; Daniel Sivan’s doc about competitive bridge playing, Dirty Tricks; and John ...

Canadian documentary maker Fathom Film Group is getting into distribution.

As Afm kicks into gear, Fathom executive producer Ann Shin said the move to launch Fathom Distribution follows traditional broadcasters reducing license fees for documentaries as their ad revenue falls amid competition from Netflix and other digital insurgents.

That has left documentary makers in Canada and elsewhere looking instead to streaming platforms as alternative buyers of their indie films. “Independent producers like us have to find alternate ways of financing their projects, including co-productions and dealing directly with broadcasters and Ott service providers in other territories," Shin explained....

Canadian documentary maker Fathom Film Group is getting into distribution.

As Afm kicks into gear, Fathom executive producer Ann Shin said the move to launch Fathom Distribution follows traditional broadcasters reducing license fees for documentaries as their ad revenue falls amid competition from Netflix and other digital insurgents.

That has left documentary makers in Canada and elsewhere looking instead to streaming platforms as alternative buyers of their indie films. “Independent producers like us have to find alternate ways of financing their projects, including co-productions and dealing directly with broadcasters and Ott service providers in other territories," Shin explained....

Hot Docs runs from April 27-May 7.

A71 has acquired My Enemy, My Brother ahead of the film’s world premiere at Hot Docs on Saturday (29).

Ann Shin directed the story of two former enemies who become blood brothers after one, an Iranian boy who left home to join the army, saved the life of the other, an Iraqi conscript, during the Iran-Iraq War. The men lost contact for 25 years until they were reunited.

My Enemy, My Brother began as a short film and was shortlisted for the Oscar in 2015. The feature will screen again in Hot Docs on May 1 and May 6.

“We are very happy to have acquired the Canadian rights to My Enemy, My Brother,” David Miller, co-president of A71 Entertainment, said. “Ann and her team obviously had such great success with the short, and they did a fantastic job turning this into a powerful feature length story.”

Shin also produced. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, [link...

War devastates. Its cruel nature destroys land and rips apart families. During the 1980’s, the Iran-Iraq war stole away the childhood innocence of Zahed Haftlang and the family of Najah Aboud. The new documentary “My Enemy, My Brother” takes place 25 years after the Iran-Iraq war and its narrative centers around two friends (who were once enemies) who come together in support of one another in the search for their families left behind in Iraq and Iran.

Read More: Hto Docs 2017 Announces Full Lineup, Including ‘Bee Nation,’ ‘Bill Nye: Science Guy’ and More

The heroic story between Zahed and Najah illustrates compassion for humanity. At 13 years old, Zahed ran away from home to become 1 of 100,000 child soldiers for the Iran military. Instead of killing his enemy Najah, Zahed chose to keep him alive by smuggling medical supplies for three days — an act of kindness that would change both of their lives.

If there’s a trio of categories that aren’t given the respect that they deserve (or frankly, any respect at all), it’s the short film categories. Be it Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short, or Best Live Action Short, they all are mostly ignored by the masses, especially when the first two have feature length cousins in Best Animated Feature and Best Documentary Feature to compete with as well. Still, they deserve to be noticed, so I wanted to quickly list what’s in contention this year. I’ve included the categories in my most recent Oscar prediction update, so there’s that as well. The Academy Awards are the sum total of all the categories, so these have their place, no doubt about that. It’s just a shame that more folks don’t recognize this. Here are the three short subject categories and the remaining contenders...

Here's your daily dose of an indie film in progress -- at the end of the week, you'll have the chance to vote for your favorite. In the meantime: Is this a movie you’d want to see? Tell us in the comments. My Enemy, My Brother Logline: The true story of two enemies turned blood-brothers; help us journey to Iraq and Iran to find their missing families. Elevator Pitch: "My Enemy, My Brother" tells the incredible story of Zahed and Najah, two former enemies from the Iran-Iraq War who become blood brothers for life. 25 years after one saves the other's life on the battlefield, they meet again by sheer chance in Canada. This story of redemption is deeply moving, but even more mesmerizing is the journey they are about to embark on -- to return to Iraq and Iran to search for a missing wife, son, and parents who...

Power to the Pixel event to include a major Nordic delegation.Scroll down for full list of projects

Power to the Pixel (PttP) has announced the 32 cross-media projects from across Europe, the Us, Canada, the Middle East, Australia and South America selected to participate in The Pixel Market (Oct 8-9).

The two-day finance and co-production market is run as part of 8th Power to the Pixel: The Cross-Media Forum (Oct 7-10), held in association with the 58th BFI London Film Festival (Oct 8-19).

From the 32 teams, PttP has selected the top eight to compete for the Arte International Prize for The Pixel Market, a €6,000 ($7,800) award sponsored by the French/German broadcaster.

The producers and creators will present to a panel of international commissioning executives, financiers and experts who will use these projects as a backdrop to discuss successful finance strategies, sustainable business models and the companies actively investing in new media.

The winning team will be...