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Telluride, Toronto and the Camden International Film Festival are coming up within a matter of weeks, all big showcases for documentary films, as we turn the corner into awards season. But it’s already been a hot summer in the documentary space.

Sheffield DocFest, the UK’s leading documentary film festival, celebrated its 31st edition, featuring a lineup that included Tilda Swinton’s documentary feature directorial debut The Hexagonal Hive and a Mouse in a Maze.

Shortly after Sheffield DocFest wrapped, it was time for the 35th edition of Sunny Side of the Doc, the biggest documentary marketplace in the world, which transpires in La Rochelle, France, along the Atlantic Coast.

On the latest episode of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we speak with the leaders of those two major documentary events: Raul Niño Zambrano, creative director of Sheffield DocFest, and Mathieu Béjot and Aurélie Reman, who head up Sunny Side.

Several documentaries in production are leaving Sunny Side of the Doc – the world’s biggest nonfiction film marketplace – with renewed momentum and exposure.

Sunny Side wrapped Thursday with an awards ceremony announcing winners of the Pitch Sessions in multiple categories. Winning Best History Pitch was Our Sister Angela: Black Power in the Gdr, a film from directors Jascha Hannover and Katharina Warda, produced by Florianfilm GmbH (Germany), Dare Pictures (U.K.), and La Lutta (United States). It tells a story little known outside the former East Germany – how Angela Davis, the American Black Power activist and Marxist thinker, became a sensation in the Gdr (German Democratic Republic), a client state of the Ussr.

‘Our Sister Angela: Black Power in the Gdr’

“In East Germany, [Davis] was the biggest superstar ever,” Warda told Deadline after winning the pitch award. “There were statues built in her honor. There were paintings made of her.

The international documentary market Sunny Side of the Doc concluded its 35th edition in La Rochelle, France on June 27, drawing 2,100 participants from 68 countries. The four-day event, themed “Mapping the Future,” showcased 90 exhibitors and hosted 250 international decision-makers.

The program featured keynotes from PBS, an Xr artist, and First Nations Australian voices, as well as the first showcase of Nigerian documentaries and the lineups from French channels and groups like France Télévisions, Arte, Canal+, TF1, M6 and Altice Media.

Seven pitch sessions highlighted international co-production opportunities, with winners hailing from Australia, Iran, France, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia, Kenya, Germany and the U.S. Notably, five women were among the award recipients, and three winners presented debut projects.

Mathieu Béjot, director of strategy and development, said: “In the current context marked by societal polarization, the rise of extremism, and international geopolitical tensions, Sunny Side supports the powerful and impactful documentary genre more than ever.

Sunny Side of the Doc, the world’s biggest documentary-focused marketplace in the world, wrapped its 35th edition Thursday, after gathering 2,100 participants over four days in La Rochelle, France.

The anniversary event brought together major broadcasters, streamers, foundations, distributors, financiers, and museums from around the world, as well as 90 exhibitors, all looking to acquire, sell, or co-produce nonfiction content for a global audience. Delegations from 40 countries attended, including Australia, Spain, Brazil, Canada, Nigeria, and China.

“We’re very pleased,” Mathieu Béjot, Sunny Side’s head of strategy and development, said regarding this year’s gathering. “Everybody is telling me they had great meetings, concrete meetings. There’s a kind of atmosphere in La Rochelle, we’re graced with a beautiful sunshine for three days. And it does help. It makes Sunny Side sunny. But it’s not just about the weather — it’s the right people being here, concrete meetings with fellow producers,...

Think of it as the Marché du Film, except just for documentaries.

That’s one way to picture Sunny Side of the Doc, the annual gathering of some of the top buyers and sellers of nonfiction content around the world. The four-day event got underway Monday in La Rochelle, the historic port city on France’s Atlantic coast.

Much like the Marché du Film in Cannes, Sunny Side’s exhibition hall presents a maze of booths where countries and companies alike do business along the water: Arte, Canal+, Mediawan, Nhk, Terra Mater Factual Studios, Newen Connect, Al Jazeera, National Geographic, PBS, BBC, and more; there’s also space for delegations from China, Chile, Brazil, Nigeria, Australia, and other countries.

Diana El-Osta of PBS speaks at a keynote at Sunny Side of the Doc. At left is moderator Nick Edwards.

During a keynote address Tuesday, Diana El-Osta, senior director, multiplatform development and programming at PBS,...

Bilbao has hosted the second edition of Talentuaren Gunea — a Talent Day and pivotal initiative by promotion org Zineuskadi to nurture emerging talents in the Basque region. Set in the stone-panelled environs of Sala Bastida, Azkuna Zentroa, the event showcased 14 projects from students, taking a deep, calming breath before presenting and vying for recognition and support to push their creative endeavors.

This year’s jury panel included a diverse mix of industry experts which took in Nerea García Guillén from Lau Haizetara, and other international figures such as Mathieu Béjot from Sunny Side of the Doc, reflecting the initiative’s broadened scope.

Their insights offered a blend of critical feedback and encouragement to the palpably nervy students. But this was the point: a safe exposure for the students to the ‘real’ world of pitching and being able to describe a fledgling project.

“Students were nervous, of course, but the jury...

The documentary projects vying for the 2024 Sunny Side of the Doc Global Pitch for Global Change award examine a range of topics linked to the sustainable development goals defined by the United Nations.

On Feb. 6 and 7, the 12 selected projects will be pitched to key international decision makers from Nrtve, IDA, S4C, BBC, PBS, TG4, Nhk, Arte, German Films, Channel 4, Rai, Zdf, Mediawan, Sky Deutschland, Canal Curta, Little Dot Studios and France 24, amongst others.

The two-day online event, sponsored by Ajb Doc Film Festival, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, precedes the 35th anniversary edition of in-person international documentary marketplace Sunny Side of the Doc, which will be focused on the future of the ecosystem and the documentary genre itself.

Ahmed Mahfouz Nouh, managing director, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel, said: “We understand the crucial urgency of documenting the journey towards sustainable development and a better life. Let’s collectively appreciate our...

‘Quicksand’s Flx Gets New CEO

Joshua Mehr has been named CEO of Flx, the Swedish producer behind Netflix’s series Quicksand. Pontus Edgren, who part-owns the company alongside founder and Creative Director Felix Herngren and majority shareholder Sf Studios, is stepping down as CEO. According to a press release, Edgren has chosen to leave “on his own initiative” and has been “in dialogue with Flx’s owners for some time to ensure a smooth succession.” Mehr has been with the company as Head of Business Affairs since 2015 and is stepping up to the CEO post with “an extremely good understanding of the industry and Flx in particular,” said Iréne Lindblat, CEO off Sf Studios and Chair of the Flx board. Flx’s behind series such as Sunny Side, Love & Anarchy and Quicksand, feature films such as The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared and Comedy Queen,...

Exclusive: Newen Connect is jumping on the Cleopatra bandwagon by leading its Sunny Side of the Doc slate with a documentary about the last queen of Egypt.

Cleopatra: Cracking the Enigma helms an eight-strong slate being shopped this week at the La Rochelle confab, as Newen attempts to exert dominance in the international doc market.

The four-part show for French network Rmc Découverte, which is produced by Label News, is based on unprecedented excavations and shows never-before-seen footage of attempts to lift the veil on the mysterious life of the iconic Egyptian ruler.

Cracking the Enigma comes fresh off the back of Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra docudrama, which generated headlines due to controversies surrounding the ethnicity of the lead, Adele James.

Speaking to Deadline, Newen Head of Factual Distribution Chloé Persyn said the distributor is not trying to ride the wave of the Netflix show’s controversy but instead take...

“Fitness advice, gig economy, binge watching Danish crime series, sustainability, sex when the kids watch cartoons, mobile bank ID, personal development 5:2 diet, anti-aging cream, Adobe updates, climate friendly travel, body activism,” Anders rants quietly to the camera, as he walks from his car to home in the equivalent of white picket fence Sweden at the beginning of Swedish Discovery Plus Original “Gotebia,” a half-hour dramedic psychological thriller.

“Exterior renovations, Roblox, mini Rodini hats, dinners from Fedora. Shared family calendar. Find us-time, life with kids, drainage pipes, hot yoga, performance review, changing the plumbing, pub crawls, doggy day care,” he goes on.

43, Anders is out of his depth at work where his company’s motivational speakers are no longer found in the newspaper or on TV but on YouTube, TikTok, Snap and Instagram. And suffering to keep up with the Joneses – in this case tennis player and neighbor Martin’s...

The Hot Docs Forum, the festival’s two-day international co-financing market event, wrapped Wednesday after 20 teams, representing 16 countries, pitched their projects to a virtual roundtable of more than 50 top documentary funders and decision makers from around the globe.

The Canadian Forum Pitch Prize was awarded to director Lisa Jackson’s “Wilfred Buck” (pictured above), which tells the story of a man who is called the Indiana Jones of Indigenous star knowledge while exploring colonization’s impact on Indigenous ways of knowing. The film is produced by Jackson and Alicia Smith for Door Number 3 Productions and by the National Film Board of Canada.

The $10,000 Cad cash prize is awarded to the best Canadian pitch at the Forum as voted on by attending international buyers, and is this year presented in partnership with Directors Guild of Canada National and Dgc Ontario.

The Canadian Forum Pitch Prize jury gave an honourable mention, which...

Respected documentary and factual content industry event runs online June 22-25.

Sunny Side of the Doc, which usually takes place against the backdrop of the historic French port of La Rochelle, sets sail on unchartered waters on Monday (June 22) with an exceptional online iteration, following the cancellation of its physical edition due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Another major change at the 31st edition of the documentary and factual content industry event, which runs June 22-25, will be the absence of its trailblazing CEO Yves Jeanneau.

Sunny Side’s much-loved co-founder died in November at the age of 69, just as preparation...

French documentary event creates director of strategy and development role.

France’s Sunny Side of the Doc has appointed Mathieu Béjot to the newly-created role of director of strategy and development.

He has been hired ahead of the 31st edition of the documentary and factual content-focused industry event.

Béjot will support Doc Services CEO Roman Jeanneau, who took over the company behind Sunny Side of the Doc and Asian Side of the Doc following the death of CEO and co-founder Yves Jeanneau (his father) in November.

Béjot began his career in 1988 as an audiovisual attaché for the French Embassy in Canada,...

French documentary producer died in La Rochelle.

Yves Jeanneau, co-founder and CEO of France’s Sunny Side of the Doc, has died aged 69.

In a statement, Sunny Side of the Doc said Jeanneau died yesterday (November 14) in La Rochelle, surrounded by his loved ones.

He had recently celebrated the 30th edition of the event in June with an anniversary party in La Rochelle on the French Atlantic coast

Jeanneau originally launched Sunny Side in the southern port city of Marseille alongside his late collaborator Olivier Masson in 1989. It now ranks as one of Europe’s oldest documentary and factual content-focused industry meetings.

Temperatures are expected to hit a record-breaking 40C at the La Rochelle festival later this week.

Sunny Side of the Doc kicked off today (June 24) with a rallying cry from Off The Fence founder Ellen Windemuth for documentary makers to be part of the solution in tackling the environmental crisis.

Windemuth is honorary president of the 2019 Sunny Side documentary market, which this year has a theme of ’Stand up for Science’ – and is calling on the documentary community to produce strong films to “counterbalance the communications methods that many governments and pressure groups use to achieve economic growth without compassion for humans,...