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Sundance winners Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard announced June 20 the imminent completion (July 2024) of their hybrid feature The Extraordinary Miss Flower, which tells the remarkable story of producer Zoe Flower's mother Geraldine and the discovery of a suitcase of letters from the 60s and 70s that inspired acclaimed Icelandic singer/songwriter Emilíana Torrini to return to the studio to record a new album. The directors describe their work as “part film, part theatre, part fever dream with strong documentary elements.”

Yance Ford’s new feature doc Power, screening on Netflix, looks at the origins of police power in the US and asks why American citizens have allowed cops to hold so much sway over their lives for so long. “I've been thinking about police since that moment in Strong Island [winner of the 2017 Sundance U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award] when there were detectives in my parents' house explaining to them why the young man who shot and killed my brother wasn't going to be charged with a crime,” he tells producer Joslyn Barnes. Click on video in link.

Grand Jury Award for International Competition goes to At the Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking by Maja Novaković. The Grand Jury Award for the International First Feature Competition is won by The Boy and the Suit of Lights by Inma de Reyes. The Tim Hetherington Award was picked up by No Other Land by Basel Adri, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Soar, Hamdan Ballal (Palestine, Norway, 2024). All festival and Industry awards…

The Best Documentary Feature prize went to Hacking Hate by Simon Klose (Sweden, Denmark, Norway) while the Documentary Feature Best Cinematography and Best Editing Awards went to Ezra Wolfinger for Shelf Life (United States) and Rupert Houseman for Antidote (United Kingdom) respectively. The Albert Maysles Award for Best New Doc went to Debra Aroko and Nicole Gormley for their Searching for Amani (Kenya).

Relentless Memory, a film about indigenous peoples and human rights, world premieres in International Competition. Piropolis, telling the story of a firefighting company fighting simultaneous devastating fires in Chile, has its European premiere. Meanwhile in MeetMarket, A Troop of Bears is presented. The doc project tells the story of the encounter between the son of a disappeared detainee and the man who betrayed him during the Chilean military dictatorship.

The documentary pitching has finalized the project selection for its 28th edition, scheduled to take place in Riga 1-6 September 2024. The selection includes 22 projects currently in development and production, as well as four projects at post-production stage within the forum's Coming Soon session.

50 films make up the competition sections (International, French, First Film, Flash and Cine+) of the 35th edition of FIDMarseille. Of these, 42 are World Premieres, 5 are International Premieres and 3 are French Premieres. The festival opens June 25 with Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes and closes June 30 with Alain Guiraudie’s Miséricorde.

The winners of the Doc Alliance Awards 2024 were announced June 6 at the award ceremony of Docudays UA in Kyiv. The prize for the Best Feature Film, endowed with 5,000 euros, went to The Landscape and the Fury by Nicole Vögele. Crushed by Camille Vigny received the Doc Alliance Award for Best Short Film, endowed with 3,000 EUR. Both awarded films were the nominations of Visions du Réel.

The feature doc, directed by Jayson McNamara and Andrea Tortonese, concerns the life of the esteemed Argentinian activist and feminist icon Norita Cortiñas. Fonda joins fellow executive producers, Oscar® winner Gustavo Santaolalla and author/activist Naomi Klein. “It is an honour to have Jane’s support and backing,” says director Jayson McNamara. “As a respected artist across generations, she is the ideal person to be bringing light to the story of an activist such as Norita.”

Documentary Competition presents a dozen US and international doc features while the Docs In Spotlight section presents a further 26 non-fiction features. “Storytelling possesses a remarkable ability to bring us together, offering hope in these challenging times. We eagerly anticipate engaging with audiences on difficult yet timely subjects,” says co-founder and CEO Jane Rosenthal. The New York celebration of film runs to June 16.