News

“I hope in the future we will be seen as a kind of destination festival,” Paul Ridd tells us of his long-term goal for the Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff), as he pulls away from his work desk for a short break. He’s speaking to us from his home in the Scottish capital and we’re just a few days out from his inaugural edition as festival director.

Central to his plan is a rejig of the festival’s competition strands, which now carry the names of local and global screen icons and strictly debut world premiere titles. There’s also a hefty cash prize.

“You will come here because of the strength of our curation and competitions,” Ridd says.

Another key piece of his puzzle is the festival’s engagement with the industry through its dedicated industry sidebar, set to relaunch this year across the festival’s first weekend,...

Civil War filmmaker Alex Garland and Trainspotting producer Andrew Macdonald will deliver keynote speeches as part of the industry programme at this year’s Edinburgh Film Festival.

Garland and Macdonald will deliver their keynote on August 18 at the Tollcross Central Hall after a networking brunch hosted by the festival at the city’s Summerhall Library Gallery. Macdonald, best known as the producer of titles like Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, and The Beach, is also the chair of the Edinburgh Film Festival.

The Scottish festival’s industry schedule will also feature an onstage in conversation session with filmmaker Gaspar Noe on August 17, where Noe will discuss his work and career. Other headline industry sessions include Scrapper To Screen, a case study talk on the development and distribution of the hit 2023 feature Scrapper. The session will be moderated by Melanie Iredale (Reclaim the Frame) with panelists including the film’s director Charlotte Regan,...

Speakers include BFI London Film Festival director Kristy Matheson, Film4’s Farhana Bhula and The British Blacklist’s Akua Gyamfi.

US producer Anthony Bregman, incoming BFI London Film Festival director Kristy Matheson and leading UK execs are among the speakers confirmed for the second edition of the Sundance Film Festival: London industry programme.

The Sundance Institute will once again be partnering with Picturehouse for this year’s event, which takes place at London’s Picturehouse Central from July 6-9.

Bregman will deliver the keynote talk. He premiered three features at the Sundance Film Festival in January: Flora And Son, Eileen and You Hurt My Feelings,...

Advisors and guests include ’Succession’ writer Susan Soon He Stanton and ’Call My Agent!’ star Camille Cottin.

The Writers Lab, the development and marketplace programme devoted to script development for women and nonbinary screenwriters over 40, is opening its first combined UK and European edition.

Julia Berg of UK production outfit Untamed Stories will again partner with the co-founders of The Writers Lab US, Elizabeth Kaiden and Nitza Wilon, to launch a combined UK and European Lab this year. The US programme, produced with New York Women in Film and Television (Nywift), is supported by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Last...

Screen Star of Tomorrow 2021 Sorcha Bacon and ’Martyrs Lane’ director Ruth Platt are taking part.

The UK’s Birds’ Eye View – an organisation that campaigns for gender equality in all film spaces – has named the participants taking part in the seventh edition of the Filmonomics professional development programme.

Filmonomics is aimed at up-and-coming feature writers, directors and producers of marginalised genders from across the UK. The five-day programme takes place this month and is led by Birds’ Eye View director Melanie Iredale, training manager Simone Glover and Tolu Stedford, who is part of the Birds’ Eye View advisory committee.

The...

Council approves one-year grant extension as interim measure.

Sheffield DocFest is to receive a reduced one-year grant from Sheffield City Council, while the latter determines the level of its long-term commitment to the event.

Today (November 7), the council’s finance committee will approve a one-year grant extension to provide £100,000 to help support the festival as it celebrates its 30th edition in 2023. The grant is £50,000 less than the festival has received in previous years.

The one year grant has been made to ensure the factual festival’s “stability and viability” according to a report by the council.

The report read: “Providing...

The first group of confirmed judges also includes actor/producer Ray Panthaki and execs from BFI and Vue.

The first group of judges for The Big Screen Awards 2022, the relaunched version of the Screen Awards, has been announced ahead of the extended entry deadline on September 23.

Click here to enter

Now in their 11th year, the industry awards celebrate the ingenuity, skills and achievements of the people, teams and companies that connect films with the UK’s cinemagoing audiences.

Among the first group of judges confirmed for this year’s awards are Film4 chairman Daniel Battsek, Boiling Point actor/producer Ray Panthaki,...

Gil will be replaced by interim director Sylvia Bednarz.

Sheffield DocFest director Cintia Gil has left her position over “artistic differences”, according to a statement from the festival.

After two editions in charge, Gil is departing “as a result of artistic differences over the present and future direction of the Festival with the Board of Trustees”, the statement read.

Director of partnerships Sylvia Bednarz is taking over as interim managing director with immediate effect. Bednarz joined DocFest in 2013, having previously worked in production, commissioning and for festivals in the documentary sector.

“The Trustees are extremely grateful for Cíntia’s significant...

Replacing Mia Bays, who is taking over at the BFI Film Fund.

The UK-based female-focused film organisation Birds’ Eye View has appointed Sheffield DocFest deputy director Melanie Iredale as its new director.

Iredale will start in September, based between London and Sheffield. Her role fills the vacancy left by Mia Bays, who will leave her role as Birds’ Eye View’s director-at-large in October to become director of the BFI Film Fund.

Iredale has been deputy director at DocFest for seven years, having previously served as a programmer on the international film programme.

She was interim director of the festival...

Documentary centres on a gang of activist lesbians in 1980s London.

Bohemia Media has secured UK and Ireland rights to Rebel Dykes, a documentary set to receive its world premiere at BFI Flare: London Lgbtiq+ Film Festival (March 17-28).

The London-based outfit, launched last year by Phil Hunt and Lucy Fenton, struck the deal with Riot Productions and plan to release the film in virtual cinemas this June.

The documentary marks the feature directorial debut of Harri Shanahan and Sian Williams, and centres on a gang of lesbians in 1980s London that aimed to unite Lgbtiq+ communities against hostility and homophobia.

Festival director Cíntia Gil leads the team.

UK non-fiction event Sheffield Doc/Fest has appointed the artistic team that will curate its 2021 hybrid event, including a five-person film programming team.

The 28th edition of the event will run from June 4-13 both online and in Sheffield, providing Covid-19 distancing measures allow at that date.

Former selection committee member Rabz Lansiquot joins associate film programmer Agnès Wildenstein, festival director Cíntia Gil and deputy director Melanie Iredale on the film programming team, with Jamie Allan also joining up as Exchange programmer.

Lansiquot has been a leading member of arts collective sorryyoufeeluncomfortable since...

In today’s Global Bulletin, Starzplay secures financing in UAE; shooting kicks off on “Frayed” Season 2; Sheffield Doc/Fest picks its curation teams; “Operation Buffalo” lands on Netflix in Apac; National Geographic acquires Sundance hit “Playing With Sharks”; and Movistar Plus deals with Universal to bring Universal Plus to subscribers.

Financing

Mena streamer Starzplay Arabia has secured debt financing of $25 million from Abu Dhabi-based independent investment firm Ruya Partners. The funding will be used to reinforce Starzplay’s geographic and customer reach as well as the acquisition and production of new original content. According to the announcement, the influx of capital, building on $125 million in funding secured since the company’s 2015 launch, will also support Starzplay’s future ambitions through a potential IPO.

Starzplay was the first SVOD platform to acquire a license in the UAE, giving it an early boost over competitors and spurring significant year-on-year growth that has...

Speakers, mentors include Creative England’s Caroline Norbury, the British Council’s Briony Hanson.

Eight senior festival and exhibition managers have been selected for the second round of the Women’s Leadership programme run by the UK’s Independent Cinema Office.

The participants in the four-month development initiative run by the cinema training body include Melanie Iredale, deputy director at Sheffield Doc/Fest and interim director for the 2019 edition; Jen Skinner, founder and director of Scottish film promotion body Screen Argyll; and Juliet Tweedie, head of development at Edinburgh’s Centre for Moving Image.

The programme of talks and mentorship...

Speakers, mentors include Creative England’s Caroline Norbury, the British Council’s Briony Hanson.

Eight senior festival and exhibition managers have been selected for the third round of the Women’s Leadership programme run by the UK’s Independent Cinema Office.

The participants in the four-month development initiative run by the cinema training body include Melanie Iredale, deputy director at Sheffield Doc/Fest and interim director for the 2019 edition; Jen Skinner, founder and director of Scottish film promotion body Screen Argyll; and Juliet Tweedie, head of development at Edinburgh’s Centre for Moving Image.

The programme of talks and mentorship...

New international appointments include a selection committee and programme consultants.

UK documentary festival Sheffield Doc/Fest has completed its international artistic team for the 2020 edition, with a senior programmer, selection committee and programme consultants among the new staff.

The they will report to incoming festival director Cíntia Gil, who was appointed in July after seven years as festival director of DocLisboa in Portugal.

Adam Cook will lead the film programming for Doc/Fest as senior programmer. His most recent role was as founding curator of Canadian independent cinema strand Future//Present at Vancouver International Film Festival, while his previous jobs...

Sheffield Doc/Fest director Cíntia Gil, who joined the UK doc event this year after a stint running Portugal’s Doclisboa, has rounded out her selection team. In total, 60% of the team are women.

Adam Cook will lead the film programming team and will be joined by Agnès Wildenstein who is associate programmer. On the selection committee are: Christopher Small, who will also curate Doc/Fest’s 2020 retrospective, Onyeka Igwe, Qila Gill, Rabz Lansiquot, Melanie Iredale (who is also the event’s deputy director and was interim director for the 2019 edition before Gil joined), Patrick Hurley (who has been the Director of Marketplace & Talent at Sheffield Doc/Fest since 2017), and Mita Suri, who is the film programme coordinator. Joining them are consultants from Brazil (Juliano Gomes), the Middle East (Danielle Arbid), Russia (Boris Nelepo), Southeast Asia (Kong Rithdee) and Japan (Yu Shimizu).

Elsewhere, Joe Cutts will lead the festival’s Alternate Realities programmes,...

Luke Moody said ‘dinosaurs’ of UK TV had narrowed focus of the festival programme.

Luke Moody, director of programming at the UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest’s has left the festival, blasting the ‘factual TV dinosaurs’ for restricting plurality and ‘putting forward a colonial focus’ on international issues. His departure comes as DocLisboa co-director Cíntia Gil prepares to take on the role of director, succeeding Liz McIntyre.

Moody left the festival team last week, telling the BFI’s Sight & Sound magazine he quit after this year’s festival, blaming the UK factual TV departments’ dominance of the Doc/Fest board,...

Sheffield Doc/Fest, one of Europe’s leading documentary festivals, has named Cíntia Gil as its new festival director.

Gil will join from Portuguese event DocLisboa, which she has co-run with Davide Oberto who himself will be leaving to focus on work at the Torino Film Festival. Gil will join the UK fest in November so as to oversee her last DocLisboa in October.

At Sheffield, she will replace Melanie Iredale who stepped up as interim director for the 2019 edition. Iredale will return to her post as deputy director, which she has held since 2014.

Gil has previously served on juries at the Berlinale, Mar del Plata and FIDMarseille. A search is under way to find Gil’s successor at DocLisboa.

This year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest saw Luke Lorentzen’s Midnight Family take home the grand jury award.

Former DocLisboa festival director to replace interim director Melanie Iredale at documentary festival.

The UK’s Sheffield Doc/Fest has named Cíntia Gil as its new festival director, replacing Melanie Iredale who stepped up as interim director for the 2019 edition.

Gil joins from DocLisboa in Portgual where she has served as festival director since 2012. She will take up the Doc/Fest position in November after the October edition of DocLisboa (Oct 17-27).

Following Gil’s appointment, Iredale will return to her post of deputy director, which she has held since 2014.

Gil has been a member of the executive board of...

”We are gravely concerned for his health and fear for his life.”

More than 450 film professionals have signed a letter supporting Myanmar filmmaker and festival director Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, who was detained earlier this month in what Amnesty International called a “politically motivated” arrest.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) have released a letter calling for his release on humanitarian grounds, as he was recently treated for liver cancer. The letter is co-signed by Idfa and Iffr chiefs Orwa Nyrabia and Bero Beyer.

Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi was arrested...

Guests at the event include Clare Binns of Picturehouse Cinemas.

UK exhibitors’ conference This Way Up has announced speakers for its fifth edition, which will take place in Liverpool on December 5-6 2018.

Speakers will include Clare Binns, joint managaing director of Picturehouse Cinemas, who will take part in an ‘in conversation with’ event analysing her career and insights on leadership.

A segment examining the story of ‘From distributor to screen’ will involve a discussion between Mia Bays, producer and director-at-large of Birds’ Eye View, director Deborah Haywood and actor Joanna Scanlan. It will be hosted by Annabel Grundy, major programmes...