7 unique documentaries, 7 Doc Alliance festivals, 7th edition of Doc Alliance Selection Award. For the seventh time, documentary rivals from various corners of Europe meet in the imaginary competition ring. Their goal is clear; to become a winner of Doc Alliance Selection Award 2014.
For the seventh time, documentary rivals from various corners of Europe meet in the imaginary competition ring. Their goal is clear; to become a winner of Doc Alliance Selection Award 2014. However, the shortlisting among the nominees already is a small victory for all of them. Why? Because the journey to 7 key European documentary festivals associated within Doc Alliance has just started.
7 unique documentaries, 7 Doc Alliance festivals, 7th edition of Doc Alliance Selection Award.
The number 7 resonates within this year‘s award proceedings of Doc Alliance, which has presented the Doc Alliance Selection Award to unique creative documentaries since 2008. Each of the festivals nominates one film of their own choice from the current year. The film automatically becomes part of the Doc Alliance Selection film programme, travelling to the festival screenings of the members of Doc Alliance. The individual festivals also nominate a film expert who becomes a member of a jury which decides about the winner and presents the award during the Cannes festival.
The wide range of perspectives and the effort to look for original film approaches and themes are proved by the unique list of the previous award holders. In the past year, the award went to the demanding observational film CAPTIVITY by Portuguese director André Gil Mata. In 2012, the tragicomic Danish portrait of a complicated relationship of three brothers THE WILL became the proud holder of the award; and the preceding year was dominated by the documentary sitcom THE GOOD LIFE.
What exceptional films and directors will be conjured up by the three sevens of 2014? Copenhagen’s CPH:DOX festival sends the film debut of Swedish artist Anna Odell THE REUNION to the competitive battle. The performer, renowned for her provocative projects, stages a school reunion in front of the viewers, with emotions being no more a mere play but becoming reality. The youngest member of the Doc Alliance platform, Portuguese Doclisboa festival, has nominated the local director André Valentim Almeida, who starts searching for his family roots while following a scientific expedition in THE QUEST OF THE SCHOONER CREOULA. Germany’s DOK LEIPZIG offers the humorous film THE SPECIAL NEED directed by Carlo Zoratti to the jury. Its protagonist, 27-year-old autistic young man, tries to find the woman of his dreams. Jihlava IDFF, the Czech representative, presents the talented filmmaker Petr Hátle who lifts the shroud of night life in the city of Prague in the visually impressive THE GREAT NIGHT. FID Marseille, the French member of Doc Alliance, presents the metaphoric work BLOODY BEANS by Narimane Mari, examining the cultural foundation of war on the basis of children’s games. Warsaw’s Planete+ Doc Film Festival has selected the local director Michal Bielawski and his film MUNDIAL. THE HIGHEST STAKES, revealing the system of political pressure of the communist regime on the backdrop of the success story of the Polish football team at the 1982 World Cup. The seven nominees are wrapped up by the Italian film STRIPLIFE, nominated by the Visions du Réel festival, depicting a seemingly unexceptional day in the area of the Gaza Strip, the exceptionality of which gradually rises to the surface.
Which of these European films will become the winner of Doc Alliance Award 2014? Learn more in May in Cannes.
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