These festivals also share a common interest in nurturing up-and-coming European talents, with a specific focus on female filmmakers. They have also put in place a program to enhance the visibility of their supported projects.
The timing of the festivals - Verzió takes place in November, Fipadoc in January, and Biografilm in June - offers the opportunity for greater cooperation, and will allow film talents, who can develop their projects with the support of festival-run workshops, to present their works throughout the year.
Places to B is designed as a forthright platform for festival teams to discuss festival planning, joint awards, and outreach strategies. Christine Camdessus (festival director/Fipadoc), Leena Pasanen (artistic director/Biografilm) and Stefano Tealdi (pitching expert, head of studies/Biografilm) are supporting Verzió’s DocLab and pitching workshop by participating in the selection process, tutoring projects, and moderating the public pitching session. The winning Verzio DocLab project will be invited to pitch at Bio to B – Industry Days during Biografilm festival in June. Furthermore, one of the projects pitched at Bio to B – Industry Days will be awarded with travel, accommodation and free access to Fipadoc’s Industry Days.
Verzió DocLaB is the first of the network’s joint activities, and will be followed by a pitching forum, which will take place during the Verzió IHRDFF, with tutors from partner festivals. Thanks to this collaboration, internationally-renowned experts will be in Budapest to extend their support to documentary filmmakers at the most critical juncture in post-production— before their films are released to the festival circuit and beyond.
Oksana Sarkisova, director of Verzió, emphasizes that the network serves multiple communities: «We are starting the new network to exchange our know-how and best practices which will benefit not only the participating festivals, but also emerging documentary talents and our audiences. By running eco-conscious and gender-balanced events, we create platforms where filmmakers and audiences can interact in an open, safe, and creative environment.»
The festivals will also cooperate on further developing already established good practices, such as creating an eco-friendly event, ensuring a gender balance, developing transparent selection mechanisms, and building engaging educational programs.
«To have a female director and to be based in a city with a name starting with B is not compulsory,” – Leena Pasanen, director of Biografilm festival, explains - Despite of our playful name, we welcome other medium-size festivals to our network, as long as they share our goals and commitments.»
Places to B is an open network that invites other festivals willing to commit to transparency and cooperation for producing vivid, diverse and eco-friendly cultural activities.
Italian Press Office - PUNTOeVIRGOLA
Flavia Schiavi / Olivia Alighiero
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bologna ed Emilia-Romagna Press Office - Laboratorio delle Parole di Francesca Rossini
Francesca Rossini / Carolina Altilia
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Hungarian Press Office
Zsuzsa Kövér
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.fipadoc.com
Head of Communication for Fipadoc - Ophelie Surelle
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
