Cannes Docs

Original Title: Olanakwe Sa Ba’alako

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: March 2027

Production Stage: Shooting

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Financing, Cinematic, Theatrical Release Partners, Festivals

Synopsis:

In a remote Tanzanian valley, three friends come of age in one of the world’s last hunter-gatherer Communities. As the precious honey they depend on becomes harder to find, will they be the last generation to hold on to the ancient wisdom? Created through shared authorship, this documentary film aims to transform how we see our relationship to one another and to nature.

Director’s Profile:

Jigar Ganatra is an award-winning Tanzanian filmmaker recognized for his ability to authentically connect with his collaborators, capturing nuanced narratives alongside stunning visuals. Since 2016, he has made films in 29 countries as Director, DoP, Producer, creating films in diverse locations, from the East African savannah to the Amazon Rainforest and the Himalayan peaks. His work includes international productions for Netflix, Disney+, National Geographic, Arte. His focus on non-extractive filmmaking highlights humanity’s bond with nature while preserving cultural and ecological diversity. As founder of the African School of Storytelling (AFRISOS), Jigar mentors emerging African filmmakers, empowering them to share their unique stories with the world. Children of Honey is Jigar’s first feature documentary and is made in collaboration with the Hadza Indigenous Community.

Co-Director’s Profile:

Emmanuel Musa Marco is one of the few Hadza hunter-gatherers who left to attain a university degree (a Bachelors in Geography in the Kilimanjaro region) to then return to his home in the Yaeda Valley to work on protecting his Community’s land rights. He is now a Community welfare leader and passionate filmmaker. For Emmanuel the Children of Honey film project is deeply personal. He lost both of his parents to alcohol-related violence, and that lived experience shapes the film from the inside, giving it emotional truth, care, and accountability.

Producer’s Profile:

Natalie Humphreys – Multi-award-winning producer, writer, executive producer and one of a small number of Producers in Scotland who deliver across the spectrum from independent documentary cinema to high-rating television series to digital-first content, including being a specialist in international co-production, often with multiple funders, sensitive access, complex compliance and talent collaborations. Natalie is a Zoology PhD holder and previously led the BBC £100M+ unscripted network, encompassing renowned Natural History, Science and Documentary programming. As a highly trusted producer she handled major brands like ‘Planet Earth’ and ‘Horizon’ and with nearly 30 years in film making and co-production she has a well-established network in the UK and internationally.

Original Title: Flotsam

Runtime: 80'

Expected Release: November 2027

Production Stage: Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Co-Production Partners, Financing Opportunities, Sales Agents / Distributors, Festivals, Broadcasters

Synopsis:

Set in Astana, Kazakhstan, Flotsam is a cinematic, director-led documentary following the parallel lives of an ageing fisherman and a fish beneath the frozen surface of a polluted river. Separated by ice yet bound by the same forces of threat, instinct and endurance, their journeys unfold as a poetic and unexpected reflection on how closely human life mirrors the fragile cycles below the water.

Director’s Profile:

Isa Rao is a Glasgow-based documentary filmmaker and cognitive neuroscientist. Born in Germany, she completed a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience in Scotland, where her research sparked a lasting interest in human and animal consciousness. A self-shooting director working across observational documentary television and creative cinema, her work focuses on ethical storytelling and interspecies relationships. Her credits include Hear Me Out (2023), The Animal Healer (BBC Three, 2019) and Crannog (2018). Crannog was funded through Bridging the Gap at Scottish Documentary Institute and screened at BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying festivals. Recognised as an Emerging Director by BBC Scotland and Screen Scotland, she is now developing Flotsam, her debut feature-length creative documentary.

Producer’s Profile:

Nadira Murray is an award-winning independent producer based in Scotland and founder of Sylph Productions. She was named Rising Star Scotland (2024) and a BIFA Breakthrough Producer (2023). A current participant in EAVE Producers Workshop, her work includes Winners (dir. Hassan Nazer), the UK’s Official Entry for Best International Feature at the 2023 Academy Awards; and a winner of BAFTA Scotland Best Feature. Recent and current productions include The Education of Jane Cumming (dir. Sophie Heldman), a Germany/Swiss/UK co-production under the European Convention; River Dreams (dir. Kristina Mikhailova), a Kazakhstan/Swiss/UK co-production; and Flotsam (dir. Isa Rao), a debut creative documentary being developed with Hopscotch Films, supported by Screen Scotland and BFI Doc Society.

Original Title: The Undermine

Runtime: 70'

Expected Release: June 2028

Production Stage: Production

1st Feature: Yes

Looking for: Sales Agents / Distributors

Synopsis:

The Undermine straddles the real and the inner world of four generations of the director’s family – a dreamlike juxtaposition stitching together a version of the past, and a possible map for the future. Themes of trauma and neurodiversity mirror the worldwide explosion of diagnoses, an increasing understanding of how different brains work and how traditional western systems have failed them.

Director’s Profile:

Alice Nelson is an award-winning Irish documentary director, based in Scotland. Alice specialises in creative, personal storytelling. Alice’s approach, using a range of tools like archive, animation, old audio recordings, motion graphics, reconstruction, paper dioramas and immersive sound design, brings a multi-layered storytelling style to her documentaries. The Undermine is her first feature with long-time collaborator, producer Lili Sandelin.
Alice’s films include War Letters, a multi-screen adaptation of Kamila Shamsie’s story for Edinburgh international Book Festival (Edinburgh Fringe First Award), the Right to Privacy (Jury Award: Dokumentart) and Channel4 commissioned Losing Myself: Annie which won a Scottish BAFTA. A Map With Gaps, screened at Documentary Fortnight MoMA and over 40 other film festivals, winning 10 awards including Best Short Doc at Slamdance Festival.

Producer’s Profile:

Lili Sandelin has run North Isle Productions since 2007, producing and exec producing documentary and fiction for UK and international funders. With Alice Nelson War Letters (Grid Iron Theatre, Edinburgh International Book Festival), Ron and Linda (Glasgow Film), Workers Union (Red Note Ensemble / Lammermuir Festival). Other films include Marram (in Gaelic, BBC Alba), Family Portrait (Arts Premiers, France 3, at 50+ festivals), Hula (Bafta Scotland New Talent Award), Finding Josefine (Steps / Why Poverty). Science doc topics include stem cells, Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s. She also PMs feature doc and drama including Orain, the Search For Beethoven’s Gaelic Songs (Media Co-op, BBC Alba, Screen Scotland), Dark Sense (Encaptivate, Amazon Prime), The List (Stellar Quines), Stem Cell Revolutions (SDI, Screen Scotland).

Original Title: Untitled Horse Woman Project

Runtime: 90'

Expected Release: January 2027

Production Stage: Post-Production

1st Feature: No

Looking for: Gap Financing, Private Investors, Sales Agents/Distributors, Buyers, Festivals, Strategic Guidance

Synopsis:

A fiercely independent 80-year-old scientist has spent her life observing wild horses from the edges of human society. Now, as their ecosystem — and ours — faces collapse, she discovers, in their freedom, a path back to a world we’ve all left behind.

Director’s Profile:

Lizzie MacKenzie is a self-shooting Director from the Scottish Highlands with a sensitive and playful approach to exploring human and non-human existence at the edges of (human) society. Her debut feature film, The Hermit of Treig, has won numerous awards both in the UK and internationally, including a Scottish BAFTA in November 2022. Lizzie’s work has been showcased as part of the BFI’s The Camera Is Ours: Britain’s Pioneering Women Documentary Makers strand.

Producer’s Profile:

Emily Copley is an independent producer and a 2025 Sundance Institute Grantee, currently producing her debut feature documentary. She was until recently the Joint Acting CEO of the Documentary Film Council (DFC), the UK’s first democratically run national body for independent documentary, and is also Programmer and Senior Producer of Talks & Sessions at Sheffield DocFest. She works regularly as a consultant and pre-selector for international festivals, markets and funds.