Cannes 2022

A delegation from Al Jazeera Documentary, comprising by Mehdi Bekkar (Senior Producer, pictured) and Jamel Dellali (Production Manager), is attending Cannes Docs both to search for projects in which to invest, as well as pitch two new works in the Spotlighted Projects section. Additionally Al Jazeera Documentary will hand out the AJD DOC Award, for which the company will board the winning project as a co-producer, with a minimum contribution of $15,000.

Chiledoc Director Paula Ossandón and Chief Executive Diego Pino outlined the Chilean offer at the Cannes festival and market in 2022 ahead of the May 23 Chilean Showcase. “Chile has a tradition of documentary but in the last 10 years we have had an internationalisation of Chilean films. We created Chiledoc thinking about how to support new filmmakers and [to help] experienced filmmakers be present in these kind of festivals,” says Pino.

In his film selected for Cannes Special Screenings, it is incredibly moving to see veteran filmmaker Patricio Guzmán return to a changed Chile where his old political dreams, crushed when the Pinochet coup killed Allende and democracy, are being revived by a new generation.

Jane Campion is one of the towering figures of world cinema. She was the first woman to win the Palme D’Or in Cannes and has made a string of hugely powerful and influential movies, among them An Angel At My Table, The Piano, Portrait Of A Lady and, most recently, the Oscar winning Power Of The Dog. Nonetheless, the New Zealander still doesn’t always get her due, director Julie Bertuccelli tells BDE.

Edited from countless home movies, Marusya Syroechkovskaya’s How to Save a Dead Friend not only shows her best friend Kimi’s descent into drug-induced depression and death, but indirectly portrays a whole generation growing up – but often not growing old – in Putin’s Russia.

It seems shrewdly appropriate that director Julie Bertuccelli’s documentary Jane Campion, The Cinema Woman should have its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in the Classics section. Not only does it highlight the importance the festival has played in her illustrious career, but it also reinforces the challenges women still have in terms of making films in an industry historically dominated by men.

Docudays UA in association with the Ukrainian Institute presents May 21 a showcase of four new creative documentaries at production or post-production stage. “The section we curated were all started before the current war but each of them was highly impacted by the events that are threatening the existence of our country. These 4 exceptionally cinematic projects present the reality of Ukraine before and during the war,” write the two organisations.

The May 21 Scandinavian Showcase is one of eight country/regional presentations of soon to be finalised docs-in-progress, presented at Cannes Docs. The showcases are primarily designed for decision makers looking for new titles, in particular festival programmers and sales agents. In some cases the projects are also looking for post-production funding or general gap financing, and some are still open to co-production opportunities.

A chilling and heart-wrenching portrait of wartime life in Ukraine, Mariupolis 2, added at the last minute to the Cannes programme as a Special Screening, is a posthumous but living monument to its director, who was killed in Ukraine by invading Russian forces.

Hot Docs award-winning producer Johannes Schubert (Austria) outlines to BDE his plans for the 2022 EFP programme and explains his fascination both for the doc form and its practitioners. "Documentary filmmakers are incredibly kind and open-minded people. They are ambassadors for a better world and are courageous. I am longing for collaboration with them, and together we always try to challenge the status quo."