Through this section, potential co-producers and funding / creative partners are invited to identify & connect with top-quality international creative documentary from various origins. These projects come from different collaborations – some having received a Cannes Docs award on several markets or events over the past few months, and others having been curated and suggested by a number of partnering organizations worldwide.
Cannes Docs
Spotlighted projects
A selection of projects at various stages of advancement, looking for partners and decisive support.
Projects
My Mother & I
Original title: أنا و أمي
Directed by: Dilpak Majeed
Produced by: Marwa Tammam (Patchwork, Egypt)
Country of production: Egypt, Iraq, Qatar
Runtime: 90'
Expected release: December, 2025
Production stage: In Production
Budget: $215 000 (35% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Co-producers, Gap financing, Sales agents, Distributors, Buyers, Strategic guidance
Synopsis:
A woman in her seventies lives in solitude since childhood, accompanied by her mother and her sheep, with whom she shares an exceptional bond. With her mother’s death, she has to face the outside world and embarks on a journey of self-discovery amidst the challenges of loss and the pursuit of a new beginning.
Director’s profile:
Dilpak Majeed was born in Duhok, Iraq in 1994. She completed her studies at the University of Duhok in the Department of Chemistry. Dilpak has experience working as a journalist, director, camera operator, and editor on over ten reports and features created for television and websites. She has also collaborated with journalism websites focusing on Yazidi cases and life. Additionally, Dilpak has worked on costume design for two feature films and a TV series, and has participated in various filmmaking workshops. She is the Writer and Director of the short film “, and she also the head of International Marketing for the Kurdistan Film Commission.
Producer’s profile:
Marwa Tammam, an Egyptian Producer and Director, pursued her passion for filmmaking after earning her degree from the Faculty of Pharmacy and completing an MBA in marketing. She is the founder of Patchwork Productions, a Cairo-based company. Marwa has produced and co-produced several short films, with her most recent work, “Objects Are Closer Than They Appear”” being screened at the 45th Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. She is currently involved in developing new feature film projects.
Bitter Sugar
Original title: mtsare shaqari
Directed by: Ana Barjadze
Produced by: Irina Gelashvili (Radium Films, Georgia)
Country of production: Georgia
Runtime: 70' | 52'
Expected release: January, 2025
Production stage: Editing
Budget: €220 000 (60% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Sales, Festival distributors, Impact producers
Synopsis:
In a small Georgian town, three brothers gather around a video call to their mother. Their faces light up with joy as they see and hear her. She is in Italy, looking after an old lady. Their father is also a labor immigrant in Germany. For the boys, the only connection to the parents is through these distant phone calls and online parenthood. The boys mature as they come to terms with their parents’ absence for the sake of their own well-being. They are stuck in an endless “Waiting for Godot” cycle as they wait for the phone to ring.
Director’s profile:
Ana Barjadze was born in 1998. Studied at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgia State University at the documentary-film directing faculty, now she’s studying at the DOC NOMADS Joint Master. She was at Jihlava Academy in 2020. She has shot seven short documentary films, which have been shown at several short film festivals. She made short documentaries for Georgian public broadcasts. She’s doing her first full-length project, “Bitter Sugar,” which was participated different developing programs, such as the Producers Connection at IDFA, Doclisboa, Doc Fest Munich. East Doc Platform, and EuroDoc, Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival and at Al Jazeera Documentary Industry Days was Awarded as work in progres project , Cannes Doc, Sunny Side of the Doc, and Movies That Matter Impact Awards. The project is also the winner of the Adami Media Prize.
Producer’s profile:
Irina Gelashvili is the founder and producer of Radium Films (2022), a production company uniting a group of talented individuals from Georgia. Based in Tbilisi, she is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Georgian Theater and Film University while actively engaging in multiple projects. Her journey has taken her to acclaimed markets and festivals like IDFA, CPH: DOX, Doc Lisboa, BelDocs, AJB, and more, where she pitched projects. Irina is dedicated to professional growth, participating in programs such as the B2B program, the Cinedoc mentorship program, the Eave Change program in 2023, and EuroDoc 2023. With her vast experience and unwavering dedication, Irina Gelashvili continues to leave a significant mark in the world of Georgian filmmaking.
Searching For The Other
Original title: La Búsqueda del Otro
Directed by: Cons Gallardo
Produced by: Esteban Sandoval (Pejeperro Films, Chile)
Country of production: Chile
Runtime: 75'
Expected release: October, 2024
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €221 000 (68% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: We are seeking support, partners, sales agents, festivals, buyers and distributors who can help us create a path and accompany us to generate visibility, expectations, and bridge and dialogue with audiences and territories around the world.
Synopsis:
In southern Chile, Machi Marcelina (68) lives, an indigenous authority who in 1995 was unjustly accused of murder through witchcraft and imprisoned in a men’s prison. Years later, Cons (33) delves into her forgotten story, reflecting on it, and finding her own identity within it.
Director’s profile:
Cons Gallardo V (1990, Chile). Filmmaker from Mayor university and Master in Documentary Film at University of Chile. In 2017 she released his debut feature “In Transit”. He is currently editing “Searching for the Other”. (2024) and developing “IT`S COOK” about the case of “Anna cook”
Producer’s profile:
Esteban Sandoval C. Filmmaker at University of Chile. Executive Director at Pejeperro Films, internalizing his work from socio-cultural and exploratory motivations such as “On Suspicion: Zokunentu” (2022) and “PERRO BOMBA” (2019). He is currently finishing “KAYE” and “Searching for the Other”.
Women Walk Home
Original title: Women Walk Home
Directed by: Stephanie Andreou
Produced by: Adrián Gutiérrez (Past Tense Films, Mexico)
Country of production: Cyprus, Mexico, France
Runtime: 80'
Expected release: January, 2026
Production stage: Development
Budget: €683 232 (7% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Co-producers, Funding, Buyers, Distributors
Synopsis:
Women Walk Home follows the filmmaker’s pilgrimage home to unearth a forgotten anti-occupation movement in her homeland of Cyprus. Using rescued archives of the refugees’ fight to return home after they were forcibly displaced, she reconnects with her home, exploring the beauty of resistance and the necessity of coming back.
Director’s profile:
Stephanie is a filmmaker currently based in Los Angeles and Cyprus. Her films often explore anti-imperialism, survival and zombie late capitalism. She has worked as an editor for eleven years on documentaries that have screened at Sundance, True/False, Tribeca and New York Film Festival as well as Academy Award nominated for Best Feature Documentary – TIME. She has been a fellow with Karen Schmeer Film Editing, Sundance and the True/False Film Festival and Catapult Film Fund Rough Cut Retreat. She’s received support from The Gotham, New York State Council for the Arts and Sundance for her film Freedom is a Place. Her debut feature documentary, WOMEN WALK HOME, has been pitched at Ji.hlava International Documentary Festival’s New Vision Forum, AGORA – Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, and as part of NBC’s Original Voices Program at DOCNYC and has received three awards.
Producer’s profile:
Mexican documentary filmmaker and archival producer working in international co-productions with USA, Canada, and Europe. Some of his credits include Co-Producer and Archival Producer for FRIDA (Amazon), Archival Producer for CHAVELA (Netflix), Emmy-winning THE LAST OUT (POV), Associate Producer for SIQUEIROS: WALLS OF PASSION (PBS), and Field Producer for ENEMIES OF THE STATE (IFC Films) and Emmy-nominated KINGDOM OF SHADOWS (POV). In 2022, he created Past Tense, a documentary production company, film archive, and research agency. In 2023, he was one of DOCNYC’s 40 Under 40 honorees.
Co-Producer’s profile:
Rémi Grellety is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy, Peabody, César, and BAFTA winner film producer. For 15 years he produced Raoul Peck’s films at Velvet Film (Paris, New York), including I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2016, Toronto and Berlin), the HBO miniseries, EXTERMINATE ALL THE BRUTES (2021) as well as SILVER DOLLAR ROAD (2023, TIFF) for Amazon Studios. He has then founded Warboys Films. His last production, SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT by Johan Grimonprez, won a Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at Sundance 2024. Rémi Grellety is an Oscar-nominated, Emmy, Peabody, César, and BAFTA winner film producer. His credits include Raoul Peck’s I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2016), SILVER DOLLAR ROAD (2023, Amazon Studios); Vincent Kelner’s A TASTE OF WHALE (2022), Johan Grimonprez’s SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT (Special Jury Award at Sundance 2024).
Sara Skrodzka is a Paris-based producer. She is a partner at Warboys Films, founded by Oscar-nominee Rémi Grellety. Among the company’s films are A TASTE OF WHALE by Vincent Kelner (CPH:DOX, 2022) and Johan Grimonprez’s feature documentary, SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2024 and won World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award, Best documentary at Sofia International Film Festival 2024 and Audience Award at Thessaloniki International Film Festival 2024.
Foreigner
Original title: Lonan Tché
Directed by: Joël Akafou
Produced by: Laurent Bitty (Les Films du Continent, Côte d'Ivoire)
Country of production: Côte d'Ivoire
Runtime: 75-90'
Expected release: January, 2025
Production stage: Production
Budget: €334 280 (41% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Sales Agents, Distributors, Festivals, Financing
Synopsis:
Bourgeois, who was a scammer in Côte d’Ivoire and dreamed of living rich, arrived illegally in Europe ten years ago at the risk of his life. Bourgeois finally settles down in France: he marries, has children, and obtains papers.He will now have the choice between two countries, and two identities, but realizes that his life is in France. In Côte d’Ivoire, he will be an immigrant. In his own country, as in France, he has become a foreigner, a “lonan tché”.
Director’s profile:
Joel Akafou is an Ivorian filmmaker who makes films to heal the inner wounds caused by events both in his own world and in the world at large. Joel Akafou holds a master’s degree in dramatic art and a professional master’s degree in film directing, and has chosen the African oral tradition he acquired as a child as the basis for his cinematographic creation.
Producer’s profile:
Founded in 2017, the company has already produced several short films and is currently developing film projects for cinema and television. Les Films du Continent is also a co-production partner on a number of foreign films and is an executive producer for films, series and corporate videos. Refusing to be pigeonholed by others, in judgments often stigmatised by a stereotyped and simplistic representation. Learning to look at the significant and the insignificant, to link one to the other, to put them into perspective, to be able to tell stories differently and make the facts resonate differently. This is the goal that Les Films du Continent has set itself.
Florent is the founder, executive producer and manager of VraiVrai Films created in 2011. He has produced around thirty documentary films that have been selected and awarded in numerous festivals around the world – Berlinale Forum, Visions du réel, Entrevues de Belfort, Hot Docs Toronto… Among them two theatrical releases in France, TRAIT DE VIE by Sophie Arlot and Fabien Rabin in 2018 and AFTER THE CROSSING by Joël Akafou in 2022. The editorial line that he has instilled in VraiVrai Films bears witness to his roots in Saintonge, a mainly rural territory where he grew up, and to his experience in Cameroon and Syria for several years. This experience led him to question the stakes of the relations between the North and the South, still deeply marked by the history of slavery and colonization, and the evolutions of the rural world.
Souleymane Kébé is a producer based in Saint-Louis and Dakar. With Sunuy Films and Astou productions, he has been producing documentaries, series and dramas since 2012, notably “Sira” by Apolline Traoré, Audience Award at Berlin, Silver Stallion at Fespaco and “Banel & Adama” by Ramatoulaye Sy in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival… For the past two years, he has been involved in workshops such as Up courts métrages Dakar, Yaoundé film Lab, Impala Abidjan… Since 2015, he has co-organized the Saint-Louis “Stlouis’Docs” international documentary film festival.
Notes From The Underground
Original title: Notes From The Underground
Directed by: Chris Kets, Adrian Van Wyk
Produced by: Kurt Orderson (Azania Rizing Productions), Adrian Van Wyk (Azania Rizing Productions), Chris Kets
Country of production: South Africa
Runtime: 90'
Expected release: April, 2025
Production stage: Post-production
Budget: €100 000 (62.5% in place)
1st feature: Yes
Looking for: Notes seeks collaborators and mentors for technical support, film mentors for story confirmation, sales agents for distribution deals, finishing funds for post-production and buyers. We are also seeking festivals to stage the film's premiere.
Synopsis:
A journey into Cape Town’s unique take on Hip Hop as told through artists from the city’s periphery. A diverse collage of language, dance, art and ultimately the manifestation of the culture’s 5th element: “Knowledge of Self” within Post-Apartheid South Africa.
Directors’ profile:
Chris Kets, a South African director, specialising in documentary editing and cinematography. He’s passionate about innovative storytelling and has worked on various projects exploring music, culture, and identity. Currently directing “Notes from the Underground” and developing “Global Bass,” showcasing African music subcultures. Recent works include multimedia series “Third Space” and Spotify documentary “Freedom Sounds.”
Adrian Van Wyk is a filmmaker/creative producer and cultural historian from Cape Town, South Africa. His MA dissertation has laid foundation for the feature documentary he is currently directing titled, “Notes From The Underground”. In 2023 he produced a short documentary titled “What The Soil Remembers” which premiered at IFFRotterdam where it was awarded the Ammodo Tiger Short Award.
Producer’s profile:
Kurt Orderson, an award-winning filmmaker from Cape Town, creates films using historical, political, and transnational solidarity traditions, exploring untold stories and crafting new narratives. He founded Azania Rizing Productions in 2009, producing documentaries across continents and short films for NGOs. His recent film, “Not in My Neighborhood,” garnered multiple awards and screened at numerous festivals worldwide. He was also honored with the Arrighi Center for Global Studies Fellowship at Johns Hopkins.
3000km by bike
Original title: 3000km en bicicleta
Directed by: Ivan Vescovo
Produced by: Martín Loewenthal (Africa, Argentina)
Country of production: Argentina
Runtime: 88'
Expected release: September, 2024
Production stage: Distribution
Budget: €200 000 (100% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Sales agents, distributors, festivals
Synopsis:
Iñaki Mazza is an Olympic BMX champion who won his first medal at the age of eighteen, however he retires at twenty one in crisis with the world of sport and with himself. Without a clear direction, his life takes a turn when his partner Abyss sends him a message from a rehabilitation center in Ushuaia; Iñaki decides to get back on his bike and cross the Argentinean Patagonia to meet again with her, with the hostile and wonderful of his vast country and, towards the end of the world, with the person he really is.
Director’s profile:
Ivan Vescovo was born in 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied film at the Universidad del Cine (FUC). In 2014 he premiered ERRATA, his first feature film at the Mar del Plata Film Festival and later obtaining the FIPRESCI recognition for best film. Resaca sangrienta is his latest short film premiered in the Nocturnas section of BAFICI. In 2023, he directed the fictional part of the documentary series “ARGENTINA 78” for STARPLUS/NATGEO, produced by PAMPA FILMS, set to premiere in 2024. A lover of film and genre cinema, he is currently developing his second fiction feature, this time within the pure SCI-FI genre titled BIKERS NIGHT.
Producer’s profile:
Martín Loewenthal is a founding partner of the production company AFRICA. His first film was “Poner al rock de moda”, 2015, by Santiago Charriere, winner of BAFICI audience award; In 2021 he premieres “Vida comienza, vida termina”, by Rafael Palacio Illingworth, which participated in FID Marseille 32 – Official selection / VIENNALE – Official Selection and MOMA doc Fortnight – Official Selection. The last feature film premiered was “La práctica”, by Martin Rejtman, a co-production with Un Puma. Its world premiere was in the official competition of the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival and continues on the festival circuit.
Jerónimo Quevedo and Victoria Marotta are founding partners of Un Puma, an independent film production company based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since 2015 their short and feature films have been awarded and screened at various festivals, platforms and exhibitions, museums and universities around the world. Some of his films are: “La práctica” (Martín Rejtman, 2023) World premiere in Official Competition at the 71st San Sebastian International Film Festival. “Arturo a los 30” (Martín Shanly, 2023) World Premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale Forum. “El auge del humano” (Eduardo Williams, 2016) – World Premiere at 69th Locarno Film Festival in Cineasti del presente – Winner of the *Pardo d’oro* Best Film Award. “Un movimiento extraño” (Francisco Lezama, 2024) – World premiere in Berlinale Short’s official competition of Berlinale, Golden Bear Winner.
Karatara – ‘Place of Deep Shadows’
Original title: Karatara – ‘Place of Deep Shadows’
Directed by: Teboho Edkins
Produced by: Carine Chichkowsky (Survivance, France), Jia Zhao (Muyi Films, Netherlands), Don Edkins (Day Zero Films, South Africa)
Country of production: South Africa
Runtime: 80'
Expected release: May, 2025
Production stage: Late Development
Budget: €300 000 (33% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Festivals, Sales Agents, Distributors, Gap Financing
Synopsis:
Karatara – ‘Place of Deep Shadows’, is a film about ghosts, in which the ghosts, both real and imagined, haunt the lives of a mixed-race community in a small town in post-apartheid South Africa. It is a film about memory, land and identity, an encounter with a South African society where the violence of the past shades and literally haunts the present. By searching for ghosts, and portraying the people haunted by them I understand what is happening in Karatara as the slow, inevitable process of decolonization up close.
Director’s profile:
Teboho Edkins (*1980 in Tennessee, USA) grew up in Southern Africa and lives and works in Cape Town and Berlin. He studied at the Michaelis School of Fine Art, (South Africa) and at Le Fresnoy Studio National des Arts Contemporains (France) followed by a degree in directing at the Deutsche Film und Fernseh-akademie in Berlin. Teboho Edkins’s films have shown at many festivals, group and solo exhibitions, including at the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London. Some of the over 500 film festivals his films have screened at include the Berlinale (Panorama); the IFFRotterdam; New Directors, New Films in NYC. Notable prizes include the Inter. Jury Prize of the Oberhausen FF, the Golden Tanit at the JCC in Tunis, the El Guna Golden Star, Egypt. Several festivals have screened a curated selection of his work, most recently a retrospective at the International Short FF, Oberhausen in 2023.
Producer’s profile:
Carine Chichkowsky founded Survivance with Guillaum Morel in 2010. The two were bound by a common desire for «another» cinema, one that does not respond in an overwhelming way to what the market would like to sell to us, but that speaks to those who wish to see it. Survivance produces, distributes and publishes art house films of all genres. We have produced over 20 films, which have been screened at the Berlinale, Locarno, Toronto, Rotterdam, and key documentary festivals and coproduced by HBO Europe, Arte, Al Jazeera and France televisions. Through its various distribution activities, Survivance showcases great names & young talents of documentary and fiction cinema, releasing films by Apitchatpong Weerasethakul, Tsai Ming-Liang, Pedro Costa, Koji Fukada, Kleber Mendoça Filho, Mila Turajlić, Leonardo di Costanzo and Lea Glob.
Jia Zhao is a Chinese-Dutch film producer based in Amsterdam. In 2012, she founded MUYI FILM and co-founded “Silk Road Film Salon” with Aboozar Amini. In 2021, “A Marble Travelogue” was selected for IDFA Frontlight and “I’m So Sorry” for the Cannes film festival. From 2015 to 2019 her works have been shortlisted for the IDFA Competition section in a row, with “Kabul, City in the Wind” being the opening film for the IDFA 2018 and awarded Jury Award for First Appearance Competition. Since 2022 Jia is also the artistic director of Cinemasia film festival in Amsterdam.
The Blue Sweater With a Yellow Hole
Original title: Блакитний светр із жовтою діркою
Directed by: Tetiana Khodakivska
Produced by: Elena Saulich, Maxim Asadchiy (Pronto Film,Ukraine), Martin Vandas (MAUR Film, Czech Republic), Johann Chapelan (Girelle, France)
Country of production: Ukraine, France
Runtime: 90'
Expected release: January, 2026
Production stage: Development
Budget: €911 185 (20% in place)
1st feature: No
Looking for: Gap Financing, Impact Partners, Co-Producers, Good people
Synopsis:
Contouring propaganda manipulation in the modern world, the story follows Ukrainian children Kira (10), Taisa (14), and Artem (15) and 50 supporting children characters as they paint memories of their time in Russian ‘re-education’ camps. The animated scenes immerse the viewers into the children’s shifting identity experiences. What seems at first like a thrilling time without parents shifts to evoking memories about propaganda events, mental torment, punishments, isolation and military training.
Director’s profile:
Tetiana Khodakivska is an award-winning Ukrainian filmmaker who challenges pressing social issues by daring mix-media projects. Her bonticing, Sugary Boundless or Song and Dance about Death (2018) that was premiered at the Ji.hlava Film Festival, won two special mentions at Docudays UA, and nominated as best documentary at the Ukrainian Film Academy Awards. Particularly, Tetiana is interested in examining society from children’s perspective. Among her other awards, is Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival for the period mini-series Angels of War (2013), which follows the stories of siblings during the Second World War; and Ukrainian Film Academy Award for Best Editing for an adventure feature film for children Foxter and Max (2020).
Producer’s profile:
Elena Saulich (Pronto film, Ukraine) is a Ukrainian producer and member of Babylon’13 – a Ukrainian collective of independent filmmakers, who share common values of promoting positive change in society. Among Elena’s films: A Poen for Little People, directed by Ivan Sautkin – feature documentary (premiered at CPH:dox 2024, national premiere at Molodist IFF 2023), Ukraine, Lithuania, UK, 2023. Supported by: Esfuf, Lithuanian Film Centre, Prime Choice Award at EBS Commissioning Pitch, CinéDOC-Tbilisi Film Support Award; Defiant, directed by Karim Amer – feature documentary (premiered at Toronto IFF 2023), UK, USA, Ukraine, 2023; Petrol Statiom, directed by Yuliia Hontaruk – fiction drama (development) supported by Goteborg Film Fund, Ukrainian Culture Fund; The Bobot, directed by Maxym Ksjonda – feature sci-fi for children, Ukraine, 2018; Supported by Ukrainian State Film Agency.
Martin Vandas (MAUR Film, Czech Republic). MAUR Film was a founding member of the Association of Czech Animation Film (ASAF) and since 2007 is a member of the Audiovisual Producers‘ Association. Martin Vandas is an Oscar® nominated Producer of Daughter by Daria Kashcheeva, 8 feature animated films, several short animated films, documentaries and TV review programs with hundreds of awards incl. student Oscar, Crystal of Annecy and others. A member of The European Film Academy, an expert for the Czech Film Fund and the Slovak Audiovisual Fund and a lecturer at FAMU in Prague. He also takes part in the activities of the international platform CEE Animation to support the animated film industry in Central and Eastern Europe.
Johann Chapelan (Girelle Production, France). Incepted in 2006 and based in Orleans, Paris and Nice, Girelle is producing documentary, animation and multimedia, with more than 80 creative documentaries on arts, drawing, music, painting, architecture, and social and environmental issues. It started Asian feature coproductions with Rehana (2021) which was the first Bangladeshi film selected in the Cannes official selection, and I, The Song by Dechen Roder (Bhutan). Other co-productions involve Taiwan, Georgia, Lebanon, Kirghizstan, Philippines and Vietnam, mostly about memory, popular history, minority issues, and social and women’s rights.