Visions du Réel World Premiere ‘Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege’ Acquired by Lightdox (EXCLUSIVE)

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no clear front-runner for best leading lady with nominees neck-and-neck. Unlike “Nomadland,” which has been winning best picture awards all season, the starlets have each scooped up accolades along the way.

Tatiana Huezo has quickly emerged in the world of documentary as one of its most talented and thought-provoking directors of her generation.As she finally jumps from documentary to fiction with the upcoming “Noche de Fuego,” a strong big fest candidate, the director delivered a three-hour masterclass at this week’s Swiss doc fest Visions de Réel.Drilling down on her award-winning features and short films, the director expounded on her own understanding of filmmaking as a personal journey in a

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentGermany’s Deckert Distribution, a world sales agent on two-time Oscar nominee “Honeyland,” has confirmed first deals on “The Bubble,” “Bellum – Daemon of War” and “Les Enfants terribles,” three world premiere standouts in International Competition at Nyon Switzerland’s Visions du Réel.“Les Enfants terribles” shared the prestige Swiss doc fest’s Special Jury Prize, announced at a prize ceremony on Saturday night.The deals, with more in negotiation,

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentJessica Beshir’s mesmeric Sundance hit “Faya Dayi” won big at Visions du Réel on Saturday, scooping both its top Grand Jury Prize as well as a Fipresci International Critics Award.Tomasz Wolski’s “1970” and Ahmet Necdet Cupur’s “Les Enfants terribles” shared the prestige Swiss doc fest’s Special Jury Prize, an effective runner’s up plaudit.All three films expand on traditional doc formats.Described by Variety as a “stylish documentary” which

JD Linville Set on a forgotten Russian island in the Caspian Sea and playing out like a window to another world, doc feature “Ostrov – Lost Island” has been acquired for world sales by London-based Taskovski Films.Premiering at Swiss doc fest Visions du Reél in its main International Feature Film Competition, the documentary chronicles a community forced to fish illegally to feed their families, and the traditions which endure.In “Ostrov” directors Svetlana Rodina and Laurent Stoop are expertly

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Lise Pedersen Multi-award winning Swedish director Anna Eborn has presented her fifth feature-length project at the Visions du Réel’s Pitching forum, one of the key industry sections at the documentary film fest in Nyon, Switzerland.The two-time Dragon Award-winner for Best Nordic Documentary at Sweden’s Göteborg Fest (for “Transnistria” in 2019 and “Pine Ridge” in 2014) was brought onboard by Stockholm-based production company Film and Tell.A coming-of-age doc about the effects of childhood

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDuring lockdown multi-prized film director and historian Mark Cousins found out he had a problem with his eyesight. He decided to turn it into a film in which he imagines “the momentous role that looking has played in his own life and the history of humanity,” as the logline reads.Cousins’ latest film, which is based on his book “The Story of Looking,” is being presented as a work-in-progress at Switzerland’s Visions du Réel festival.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentAt Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel with Cannes ACID premiere “Coalesce,” Torino-based The Open Reel has closed a raft of deals on its current sales titles, led by Chilean Alberto Fuguet’s “Everything at Once: Paco and Manolo’s Gaze.”“Being specific titles, and referring to a specific audience, even if in constant expansion, LGBT titles – not only feature films but also documentaries and short films – respond to the constant demand of a slice of the

Jamie Lang 15 years after moving away from his home in Serbia, director Nikola Ilić settled down and found a girl in Switzerland, eventually marrying his wife and filmmaking partner Corina Schwingruber Ilić. Since then his life has been divided between two countries and three women, his wife, his mother Anđica (“Dida”) and grandmother Dobrila Spasić (“Baba”).

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“The Vanishing,” “Yoga Village,” “Science Fiction” and “Transfariana” took top Visions du Réel industry awards at an online ceremony webcast from Switzerland on Tuesday night.Seventeen awards went in all to a total 16 recipients with major winners addressing some of the most relevant issues of the current times — gender abuse and plurality, lockdown, China — filtered through often highly personal prisms.Such is the case of “The Vanishing,” from

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival is launching a new industry event focusing on Africa. The Southern Africa-Locarno Industry Academy, hosted in collaboration with the Realness Institute of Africa, will take place online from 26 September to 2 October 2021 and will welcome 10-12 participants from all over the African continent.

Emiliano Granada Swiss doc fest Visions du Réel’s second virtual edition frames multiple titles – “The Bubble, “My Old Man” and “The Home” portraying an ever growing and aging demographic and the conditions in which its members live the final stage of their lives.The debut feature documentary of Chase Musslewhite and Jesse Zinn, the later also VdR with short film “Wavelengths,” “The Home,” like “The Bubble,”  plumbs the world of residential homes with an empathetic eye.Having passed through IFP

European super producer Banijay has acquired French animation studio Monello Productions for an undisclosed fee.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentNo section at Visions du Réel is as fresh as its VdR-Pitching, which frames doc projects from both new and multi-prized filmmakers that hit the Swiss doc fest with very little or no media coverage at all.Variety has just published articles on five of its titles: “Facing Darkness,” “King Coal,” “Life After Siham,” “The Vanishing” and “The Wolves Always Come at Night.” Following, profiles of the other 11 projects teased online by their makers over

Georges St-Pierre is revealing what it was like to go fist-to-fist with Anthony Mackie while filming “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier”.