02/03/2017 - Like every year, the market of Visions du Réel in Nyon will be rich in top-class activities aiming to develop new and fruitful synergies

The DOC Outlook International Market of Visions du Réel (21-29 April) is this year introducing a new prize for the Pitching session: the Audience Engagement Award, which will be awarded to a project “whose themes, protagonists and other artistic elements present great potential for audience participation through various online activities”. The winning project will benefit from a six-month-long promotional campaign directed by Alphapanda, an agency specialising in social media.

Among the many activities proposed are informal meetings (Magic Hours, and the highly entertaining DOCM Get Together: funny pictures!), more targeted events (Market Consultancy, Docm rendez-vous), discussions and exchanges with the directors of big international festivals (Festivals in The Spotlight and Festival’s Connection), and of course the rich Focus South Africa, which will showcase the high quality of productions from this country, the cradle of eclectic and impassioned film; then there are the  unmissable Pitching du Réel: Co-production Forum, Rough Cut Lab and Docs in Progress events. 

The fifteen directors selected this year for Pitching du Réel, which aims to support and help develop projects which combine artistic ambition with international potential, are for the most part women who turn their gaze onto other women, their condition, their struggles and their everyday life. Among them are Switzerland-based Paraguayan director Arami Ullón (I Left Without a Closer Look), who returns to her homeland to investigate an almost unknown world home to an entire culture of its own: Paraguayan culture: Chaco Province. Another Swiss director who has been selected is Eva Zornio with her film My Father, Tinder and I, a road movie undertaken with her father in search of love. There are also a lot of French projects in the mix (five between productions and co-productions), including Freight Train Freedom by Arno Bitchy and Girls of Tomorrow by Nora Philippe, who both left for the United States to make films about unique and symbolic worlds.

The Rough Cut Lab is instead aimed at debutante production teams (on their first or second films), and aims to support directors as best as possible in the final stages of production. Four projects have been selected this year, including Portuguese film Upstream by Leonor Teles, the portrayal of a man who lives a solitary life by choice on the banks of the river Tagus. Then there are six documentary projects (in their final stages of production) that have been chosen to participate in Docs in Progress. They will have the privilege of presenting a trailer and a clip from the projects they are wrapping up to representatives of festivals and TV networks, distributors and producers. There are two European films in the mix this year: A Family Quartet by Dutch director Simonka de Jong and White Cube by Wojtek Pustola. Docs in Progress will award a prize of subtitling for the winning film by Raggio Verde.

All in all the festival will present several occasions for filmmakers to discuss their projects in their various stages of development, with the aim of creating new stimulating synergies, finding potential (co-production) partners, or simply sharing their experiences to find solutions in harmony with the current film market together.

(Translated from Italian)