In 2024, Doc Around Europe launched a VOD platform designed to offer unprecedented access to over 60 new documentaries from emerging European filmmakers, expanding these works’ reach to industry professionals and general audiences. As part of a network of six major European documentary festivals, the platform aims to elevate fresh talent, foster international collaboration, and solidify the documentary community across borders. In this interview, we speak with #Adele Kohout#, Co-director of DOK.fest München, and #Johanna von Websky#, Assistant to the Managing Director, to delve deeper into the vision behind this platform and its potential to reshape the future of European documentary cinema.
What inspired the creation of the Doc Around Europe network?
In 2020, together with three other documentary film festivals (DOK.fest München/Germany, #DocsBarcelona#/Spain, #MakeDox#/North Macedonia and #Fipadoc#/France), we initiated and created the network Doc Around Europe. We believe these regions share a strong production potential and a common artistic language. Furthermore, the festivals share a common vision of the strength of documentary films as an artistic medium to transport and negotiate essential values and urgent topics of our present world and foster dialogue and discussion. Our aim is to support and promote these European cinematic voices through creative documentaries, increasing their accessibility for growing audiences as well as to the international market.
Since its start, different events focused on urgent topics within the documentary industry and the circulation of European films from the networks’ territories have been successfully held.
In the last two years, after several actions fostering the circulation of talents and films between the member festivals, even during the pandemic, we decided to set our focus on promoting emerging talents: first and second documentary filmmakers. In 2022, the network was joined by Verzió (Hungary). In mid-2024, #Biografilm#/Bologna (Italy) joined the network and will bring new regional input to it.
The newly extended network’s website and VoD platform, launched in January 2024, now offer on-demand viewing to a constantly growing selection of new talent documentaries, both to professional and general audiences and puts another focus on the works of emerging talents from our respective geographical regions.
With the rise of populist forces in various countries around the world and funding cuts in the cultural sector, emerging filmmakers are finding it increasingly difficult to pursue their profession.
What challenges do emerging European documentary filmmakers face, and how does the platform address these issues? How does the platform support filmmakers in navigating the international market and distribution channels?
With the rise of populist forces in various countries around the world and funding cuts in the cultural sector, emerging filmmakers are finding it increasingly difficult to pursue their profession. The network strengthens filmmakers’ exchange and networking with the industry and thus facilitates their entry into the documentary world.
By introducing and giving access to our respected markets and providing, for example, pitching opportunities and opportunities to meet experts, we pave the way for exchange and networking. The network will even intensify online and onsite events within the next few years, explicitly addressing its alum talents from the last years during the respective festivals and throughout the year. We are planning to double down on the opportunity to expose these talents to international audiences and professional networks by creating an Alumni programme that keeps in touch with them after they leave our festivals. Any help that we can provide to emerging filmmakers will be given.
How does the VOD platform curate its selection of documentaries, and what criteria are used to feature films?
Each festival has extensive and long-standing expertise in film selection from the respective region, knows which films have been well received by audiences, and knows the filmmakers behind them who will benefit the most from it. Therefore, each member of the Doc Around Europe network selects short and feature films by emerging filmmakers from their respective geographical regions, which have been screened at the member festivals and are aimed at a wide audience, both from the documentary industry and regular documentary lovers. More than 60 works are currently presented on the platform. The catalogue is subject to fluctuation, as new films are being added throughout the year after the organisation of the different festivals. This is how all the themes that today’s emerging talents portray in their films are depicted, and a wide range of different and rich European perspectives are shown.
More than 60 works are currently presented on the platform.
In what ways does the platform measure the success of connecting films with audiences and the international market?
We have received very positive feedback from the participants of the various Doc Around Europe programmes in the past years. Naturally, they are very glad that such opportunities exist for their benefit. As new talents and new members of the European documentary «family,» they require extra assistance and attention from the festivals and other professionals, which is, among other things, provided through the platform.
By publicizing the platform at our own festivals, via diverse marketing strategies throughout the year but also at other festivals such as the #Berlinale, we were able to significantly increase the target group in the first year and steadily increase visits and registrations to the platform, which means awareness for the films presented.
What are the plans for Doc Around Europe?
We consider the documentary film to be the art of the hour. It uses the means of cinematic narration and aesthetics to convey all relevant social values to a multi-layered audience. At the same time, documentaries are entertaining and informative and provide us with deep insights into the most diverse worlds. Following the ideals of the Age of Enlightenment, documentary film culture serves to strengthen democracy and civil society through independent information and presentation in a variety of forms. In the context of the rapidly changing media landscape and the audience’s resulting reception and usage behaviour, the documentary film is of particular importance. Therefore, we consider our work as festival makers to be given the task of creating a dialogue and understanding. We think festivals are crucial networking hubs where initial connections can grow through participation in various festivals, markets and events, evolving from one to another and even solidifying over time. We as a network want to work closer together and intensify cooperation in order to promote the circulation of emerging talents and their works. We want to build a strong alliance for the future of the documentary community.
The network has supported a considerable number of emerging talents over the years. One concrete measure is that in order to continue to support them, the network plans to establish an alumni page and offer various activities for all former and current participants to further connect and follow up.
