All these wonderful things

Sheffield 2011: MeetMarket Director Charlie Phillips on the State of the Festival Pitch

[WINNEBAGO MAN director Ben Steinbauer pitches at the 2009 MeetMarket at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Photo from the Sheffield Flickr stream by Jacqui Bellamy.]

One of the things that made Sheffield stand out a few years ago was their deviation from the traditional pitching forum concept and a move toward a more personalized, one-on-one exchange between filmmakers and potential funders.  They called it the MeetMarket.

The concept was brought to Sheffield by Festival Director Heather Croall, a creation from her time at the Australian International Documentary Conference.  Since then, the MeetMarket concept - having decision makers prepare in advance by watching clips of films and reading proposals, followed by meetings with filmmakers on projects they have interest in - has begun to spread to other festivals, leading many to wonder if the days of the IDFA-style pitch forum are behind us (or should be, in any case).  Amongst the MeetMarket success stories: THE ENGLISH SURGEON, KINGS OF PASTRY, THE SOUND OF MUMBAI, ONLY WHEN I DANCE and this year's festival favorite, GIVE UP TOMORROW.

We exchanged some questions and answers with MeetMarket Director Charlie Phillips recently - talking about the current state of festival pitching concepts as well as the MeetMarket's European focus.

All these wonderful things: When you were first talking about having this kind of industry, pitching element, how important was it to you to not do a traditional pitching forum?  And how has it changed since it's inception?

Charlie Phillips: I can't take all the credit for the format of it because Heather invented it when she was at the AIDC in Australia, and then brought it to the UK in 2006 for her first Doc/Fest. But I can certainly say that since I organised my first MeetMarket in 2008, we've intensified the personal and bespoke attention we give to everyone. I know that in '06 and '07 there were a lot of educated guesses going into the matchmaking, whereas from '08 onwards, it's been more 'true' matchmaking in the sense of spending all year gathering information on the needs of buyers and documentary-makers, seeing what they're doing, and what they need, and then using that long-term intelligence as well a short-term wishes for meetings to create something that's really reacting to specific personal needs and not some general idea of what the industry needs or what will play well on a stage.

ATWT: Did you feel like the forum concept was broken?

CP: It wasn't so much that there was a feeling of the pitching forum being broken, more that every festival and its dog was hosting a public forum, and they needed to be complimented by meetings that actually got business done and allowed for candid conversations. You'll notice at any public forum how many times buyers will react to a pitch by saying "well, we're meeting later to talk about this" or "we met yesterday and we talked in detail about this" and it just seems like you might as well cut out that showcasing of stagey reactions and go straight to the personal meetings instead. That's not to say that every public pitch only has 'pretend' reactions but there is a lot of disingenuousness in reactions around the table, and that comes from a fatigue about feeling like you should be there rather than it actually being useful. I know that earlier in the decade before MeetMarket existed in its current form, that feeling was even more acute. Now that we're offering these personal matchmade meetings, I think it's actually empowered the big public forums, which now themselves feel more relaxed, smaller and more relevant.

POSITION AMONG THE STARS Takes Top Prize at IDFA, WASTE LAND Grabs Audience

The Dutch film POSITION AMONG THE STARS by filmmaker Leonard Retel Helmrich took two prizes this afternoon at IDFA in Amsterdam, including the festival's coveted top prize for Best Feature-Length Documentary.

With the win, Retel Helmrich becomes the first filmmaker ever to take IDFA's prize twice - he previously won the award in 2004 for THE SHAPE OF THE MOON.

For the past four years, the IDFA winner would move on to screen at Sundance in Park City, become one of the top films of international festival circuit and be nominated for multiple Cinema Eye Honors (THE MONASTERY in 2006, STRANDED in 2007, BURMA VJ in 2008 and LAST TRAIN HOME in 2009).

POSITION also received the Dutch Documentary prize, which was created last year. 

The Feature-Length jury said that POSITION "is a magical, patient and insightful example of free cinema... (that uses) unique cinematic sensibilities (to produce) a relevant and eternal story."

Continuing its dominance of international audience awards, Lucy Walker's WASTE LAND received the votes from the crowds.  Last year, that award went to another film that won a number of festival audience prizes - Louie Psihoyos' THE COVE.  WASTE LAND is on the Academy's 15-film shortlist and we've pegged it as a favorite for a nomination.

The runners-up for the Audience Award were Jan Tenhaven's AUTUMN GOLD (which took the Doc U Award) and Alexander Nanau's THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ION B.

Full list of winners are after the jump.  You can find our report on all of this year's finalists here.

IDFA Unveils Finalists for 2010 Fest Awards

This afternoon in Amsterdam, IDFA named the films that will move forward in competition for the fest's various awards.  From three nominees for each award, winners will be announced on Friday.

For perspective, last year's finalists for the fest's top award included eventual winner LAST TRAIN HOME (which leads nominations at this year's Cinema Eye Honors) and ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (which was just named to the Academy's feature documentary shortlist).  Both films went on to play in Park City, Full Frame and were mainstays on the fest circuit.

This year's nominees for Feature-Length Documentary are Stephen Marshall's HOLYWARS (which screened earlier this year at True/False), Gemma Atwal's MARATHON BOY (which premiered at Sheffield Doc/Fest) and Leonard Retel Helmrich's POSITION AMONG THE STARS.  STARS, which is also nominated for the Dutch Documentary prize, was IDFA's opening night film.

Aside from the Dutch, who get their own category, and the Germans, who are represented on three different films, the nominations seem almost purposefully even-handed.  No other country is represented more than twice.

Full list of announced nominees after the jump.

Oscar Grudgematch: "Lady Kanye" Elinor Burkett Takes Her Version of PRUDENCE to IDFA

IDFA, the world's largest (by sheer numbers) documentary film festival held each November in Amsterdam, announced its line-up this morning (we'll get to more of that in a bit), but one name jumped right out at us:

Competing in the First Appearance section of the fest is Elinor Burkett, with her film ITHEMBA.  You may remember Elinor Burkett as the producer who rushed the stage at the Oscars and silenced director Roger Ross Williams, not long after their film MUSIC BY PRUDENCE won the Academy Award for Documentary Short.  Well, soon after that became the talk of the Oscars (it was even spoofed on Letterman), it became clear that the split between Burkett and Williams (with HBO siding with Williams) was over the creative direction of the project.

Now it seems that ITHEMBA - which looks to premiere in Amsterdam - might be Burkett's version of the PRUDENCE story.  A quick google search shows ITHEMBA to be a working title for the film that Burkitt and Williams were making together - both are listed as attending "meet-and-greets" for ITHEMBA: THE DOCUMENTARY as part of a tour for the group Liyana, of which Prudence Mabhena is the lead singer.   The same link shows two Los Angeles tour dates designated as "filming for ITEMBA: THE DOCUMENTARY".

In any case, Burkett, who has long argued that her version was better than the one that took home the Oscar, now appears to have the chance to prove it.

 

The Monday Brief: Wrapping Sundance, Our Oscar Predictions and Can THE COVE Break the DGA Curse?

Holy cow, it's February already?  That means we are 1/120 of the way through the twenty-teens.

More the the point, with the wrap of Sundance yesterday, we now have a sense of where the year is heading and some of the films we'll still be talking about next year at this time.  Think about it, by this point last year we already had our first looks at Oscar shortlisters THE COVE, FOOD INC., THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS, BURMA VJ, VALENTINO and EVERY LITTLE STEP (the above a mix of Sundance and Toronto '08 titles).  Which films from this year's Sundance will we be still talking about in early 2011?

A word of caution to folks celebrating RESTREPO's grand jury win at Sundance - only 3 films in the past decade won the Sundance Documentary Grand Jury Prize and went on to be nominated for an Oscar.  Can you name them? (answer a little later in our broadcast)

If you were hearing the buzz out of IDFA (and from certain quarters it was deafening), one can't help but be surprised that Lixin Fan's LAST TRAIN HOME failed to pick up a single award in the World Cinema Documentary competition.  The jury for that strand (which included filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal, PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival director Asako Fujioka) seemed to value films that made them laugh - aside from editing winner A FILM UNFINISHED and special jury prize recipient ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE), they heaped prizes on three films (THE RED CHAPEL, HIS & HERS and SPACE TOURISTS) that were notable for their use of humor.

The Top 25 Film Festivals for Documentaries, 2nd Edition - #2. (tie) IDFA & Toronto

Previously: #1. Sundance Film Festival

#2. (tie) International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and Toronto International Film Festival

Why a tie at number 2?  Because it depends on what kind of film you've made.  Have you made a film with a dynamic (and possibly famous) lead character that begs for theatrical distribution?  Head to Toronto.  Is your film a natural for a 50 minute slot on European television?  Go to Amsterdam.  Below, the pros and cons of each.

First up, IDFA

Our take: The most important all-documentary festival in the world keeps its reputation primarily by continuing to bring together more buyers and industry players than any other event.  Everyone goes to IDFA and almost everyone is accessible (although you might have to get in line), with a lack of exclusive parties and more focus on festival-wide cocktail hours and mixers.  It remains the top place to introduce your film to European buyers and American TV.  The competition still means something, particularly for international titles (which may be getting their Sundance invite in the midst of the festival)...

The downside: ...but if you're not in competition, you may get lost.  A huge (huge!) slate of films means that you're competing for attention with films from around the world.  A deep divide between those who love IDFA and those who think it's best days are behind them (see comments below) Among the latter there's a sense that IDFA may be resting on it's laurels, particularly as a host of European documentary festivals have sprung up in the weeks preceding Amsterdam.  Many think the Forum needs to be re-imagined, a sign of changing thoughts on the whole pitching forum concept.  The fest's crackdown on premiere status this year struck many as a sign of panic at the festival and not helpful to filmmakers.

Important recent premieres: ROUGH AUNTIES, LAST TRAIN HOME, ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE, EPISODE 3 - "ENJOY POVERTY"

Selection of US films screened at 2009 Fest: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS, THE COVE, COLONY, WINNEBAGO MAN, THE HORSE BOY, SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION

Our coverage of IDFA here.

The Monday Brief: Sundance! Spirits! IDA! Gothams! Is This the Biggest Week of the Year?

The Monday Brief is back and just in time - as a month full of European mega-fests comes to a close (and VIDEOCRACY takes Sheffield, TRASH HUMPERS shocks Copenhagen and LAST TRAIN HOME conquers Amsterdam) and what may just be the biggest week of the year...

The Gothams kick off the award season in New York tonight as high profile docs FOOD, INC., GOOD HAIR and TYSON take on underdogs MY NEIGHBOR, MY KILLER and PARADISE.  In addition to those, festival favorite OCTOBER COUNTRY is up as the sole nonfiction title in the Films Not Yet Playing at a Theater Near You category. 

Here's a piece of trivia - in the five years that the Gothams have awarded a Best Documentary prize, the winning film has never gone on to win the Oscar, which is pretty good news if you're betting on THE COVE in March.

For the first time, the Gothams will be streaming live here, starting at 8 PM eastern tonight.

Then early tomorrow - probably before some Gotham revelers have gone to bed - Film Independent will announced nominations for its Spirit Awards.  Worth watching - will FOOD, INC. sweep the major doc award nominations prior to the Oscars?  Will the Spirits act (consciously or no) as a corrective on some of Oscar's snubs (I'm looking at you ANVIL, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and SEPTEMBER ISSUE)? 

Also worth watching are the nominations in the Truer Than Fiction category, which recognize films and filmmakers who have not yet received the attention they deserve.

Then, on Wednesday, the dam will fully break as the Sundance Film Festival announces its competition films for 2010.  Here's what we know already - after what many agreed was a lackluster 2009 festival, next year's Sundance is shaping up (on paper at least) to be a barn-burner for docs.  At least three films from Oscar nominated filmmakers are on tap, along with 2 new films from folks who took Sundance by storm with their previous features, plus a veteran Sundance filmmaker is back as producer on a debut feature.

And that's not even including LAST TRAIN HOME, the IDFA-champ that everyone and their mother expects to show in Park City (along with 2 or 3 or more titles from the just-wrapped European doc circuit).

By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, gander at the newly re-designed Sundance fest website, which leads off with a retro graphic manifesto:

"REBEL.  This is the renewed rebellion.  This is the re-charged fight against the establishment of the expected.  This is the rebirth of the battle for brave new ideas.  This is Sundance, reminded.  And this is your call to join us."

That's a whole lot of "re" words. 

And what does it say, exactly, that John Cooper's first year at the helm begins with the declaration that Sundance needed a rebirth and a re-charge?  (Although, again, after last year, you won't get much argument from these's parts.)  Slogans aside, the week's first peak at this year's line-up will give our first clues as to whether there's a true revolution (a "re" word they didn't use) afoot.

IDFA 2009: LAST TRAIN HOME Takes Top Prize, Special Jury to Oscar Shortlister DANGEROUS MAN

A few hours ago, the folks at IDFA announced this year's prize winners and the winner of the festivals top prize, Best Feature Length Documentary, went to Lixin Fan's much buzzed-about LAST TRAIN HOME.  Just a few days ago, Eugene Hernandez heralded that the film was the "one film to watch" from IDFA this year, and quoted one insider as saying the film joins "the canon of great docs".  The film is expected to be announced next week as bound for Park City in January.

As described by Hernandez, "(T)he film is an exceptional observational documentary that charts a dramatic Chinese journey affecting just one family but representing the challenges facing a changing nation and a troubled world."  Fan previously worked on the award-winning UP THE YANGTZE and that film's production team at Montreal's EyeSteelFilm came aboard LAST TRAIN HOME.

Hernandez' rave captured what had been a building groundswell of enthusiasm at the festival:

"Stunningly photographed and expertly constructed, “Last Train Home” features the work of a filmmaker who has immersed himself in the lives of his subjects - the Zhangs - to explore the story of their fractured family. Many moments in this intimate movie are incredibly striking and ultimately so symbolic of a much broader situation. The drama of the Zhang’s personal story - and their specific struggle to simply get back home for a few days in 2006 - is so poignant that at times the film feels like it must have been scripted for a group of incredibly talented unknown actors."

Other finalists for the Feature-Length award included Rob Lemkin and Thet Sambath's ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE (UK/Cambodia) and John Appel's THE TRAIN, a Dutch film that picked up the festival's first Dutch Documentary prize.

(Shorter) Monday Brief: 2009 Docs Set New Box Office Mark, IDFA Announces & Links

On location in Indiana today, so no in depth Monday Brief this week.

Meantime, check out indieWIRE's recap of this weekend at the box office.  CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY crosses the $10M mark (it's now estimated at $11.6M), making 2009 the first year ever to have 3 nonfictions grossing more than $10M.

Peter Knegt makes some Gotham predictions (nominations announced this afternoon).

Cinema Eye announced 98 eligible nonfiction features for this year's awards.

IDFA announces its 2009 lineup. 

COOKING HISTORY, RACING DREAMS and SOUNDTRACK FOR A REVOLUTION take prizes at the Chicago Film Festival, Roger Ebert reports.

Steve Pond at The Wrap looks at this year's Oscar Shorts shortlist and ponders HBO's dominance of the category.  

Amanda Hirsch surveys the cost of documentary film websites.

And finally, the directors of the new anti-Climate Change doc NOT EVIL, JUST WRONG recap their recent confrontation of Al Gore at an environment event in Madison, Wisconsin over claims that INCONVENIENT TRUTH contained factual errors. 

The Monday Brief: Post-Toronto Glow for ART & COLLAPSE, Moore Returns and Are These 5 Films Your Oscar Frontrunners?

The end of the Toronto International Film Festival means the two-month headlong rush toward IDFA is upon us, wherein there will be a major or mini-major film fest on pretty much every single weekend.  So get ready for Atlantic, New York, Camden, Woodstock, Mill Valley, Morelia, Pusan, Chicago, Hamptons, London, DocLisboa, Tokyo, Rome, Leipzig, Jihlava, Sheffield, AFI, Mar del Plata, Copenhagen, Denver, St. Louis, Gijon and, finally, yes, IDFA.  That's at least 23 fests of some import in just 10 weeks.  Hold onto your hats...

But before we plunge headlong into the future fall festival frenzy, we pause to think of this year's Toronto Fest filmmakers, battered and bruised from several days of screenings, press, parties and the roller coaster ride that is a major premiere date. 

While there has yet to be a major sale announced for docs at this year's Toronto Fest, we should remember that some of last year's major TIFF titles (IT MIGHT GET LOUD, MORE THAN A GAME) didn't sell until well after the festival and at least one, VALENTINO: THE LAST EMPEROR, made very good money going it alone.  But there are rumors of a deal pending for THE ART OF THE STEAL and lots of strong critical praise for COLLAPSE, which probably left the biggest impact of any doc in Toronto.  Check out our wrap on many of the top nonfiction titles at TIFF: COLLAPSE, ART OF THE STEAL, COLONY, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA, HOW TO FOLD A FLAG, CLEANFLIX, HUGH HEFNER: PLAYBOY, ACTIVIST AND REBEL and People's Choice Award winner THE TOPP TWINS.