The final event of this year’s edition of Academy of Documentary Arts – the Dragon Forum pitching took place between the 29th and 3th of June 2012 during the 52nd Krakow Film Festival.



The 7th edition of Dragon Forum Pitching was all about the changes. The formula was renewed and featured the extended and differentiated program in order to increase participants’ chances to get access to the film market. It was more integrated with the Krakow Film Festival than ever and took place in a new venue – International Cultural Centre at the Main Square of Krakow where also Festival’s Industry Zone was held.



During the 3 days of pre-pitching sessions and meetings, Dragon Forum participants confronted their project’s presentations with experienced tutors:

· Marijke Rawie, expert from Holland

· Dorota Roszkowska, producer, Poland

· Jerzy Śladkowski, director, Poland/Sweden

· Ove R. Jensen from EDN, Denmark.



The days were filled with work on the projects while the evenings – with film screenings, dinners and parties in charming venues of old Krakow. The energy was saved for the final pitching that took place on the 1st of June. Participants presented 18 projects. They came from Belgium, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia and USA.



Aside from the public presentation, participants had a chance to talk directly to commissioners from the ITVS (USA), ARTE (France), HBO (Central Europe), TVP (Poland), MDR (Germany), Bulgarian National TV, Lichtpunt (Belgium) as well as guests from major European festivals, funds and documentary film organisations as DOK Leipzig, IDFA from Amsterdam, Krakow Film Commission, Polish Film Institute, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung GmbH, Institute of Documentary Film from Prague, Taskovski Films from London, Saxonia Entertainment from Berlin and others during individual meetings. The careful matching of the projects to the interested decision makers took place. Some projects found financial support from the commissioners immediately. The atmosphere of cooperation was great, some of Dragon Forum participants began also the co-production talks with each other.

The main awards were presented during the closing ceremony of the 52st Krakow Film Festival in the Kijów Cinema.

Awards:

Sponsor of Dragon Forum – HBO Central Europe awarded project „Hallelujah! And Go for It!” by Lucja Piekarska-Duraj and Aleksander Duraj, filmmakers from Krakow, with the HBO Development Award and 10 000 PLN (2 500 euro).

Awards of the Dragon Forum Organisers were given to two projects „Vistula Sunken Treasures” by Marcin Jamkowski and Konstanty Kulik (Poland/Sweden) and “Iho” by Eliza Zdru (Romania).

Dragon Forum has increased the collaboration with European partners in order to give the intensive follow-up to the best projects. The choice of representatives of IDF in Prague, DOK Leipzig and IDFA in Amsterdam will be announced soon.



Our congratulations to the awarded projects, we await the ready films.



Our sincere thanks to all the participants, who were brave enough to meet the Dragon in Krakow and to our sponsors and partners – who made this encounter possible, and the decision makers that took their time to meet.



Latest news and photos can be found on our website www.dragonforum.pl and on Facebook.



Yours,

Dragons