The 28th edition of the Baltic Sea Docs will take place in Riga from 1-8 September 2024. This year, the event will spotlight 26 documentary film projects. The forum, which has become a vital platform for feature-length documentaries from the Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus, will also offer screenings for local audiences across Latvia.

Of the 26 projects to be presented, 22 are at various stages of development and production, while four projects, now in post-production, are returning to Baltic Sea Docs in search of festival partnerships and sales agents. This year, half of the projects are backed by production companies from the Baltic states—Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia—while others hail from Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, and beyond. The subjects ranged from pressing geopolitical issues to cultural and societal changes.

In preparation for the 5-6 September pitching sessions, the project teams will participate in a workshop led by prominent documentary consultants Tue Steen Müller and #Mikael Opstrup#. The projects will be evaluated by an international panel of decision-makers from sales, distribution, and film festivals, including representatives from NHK, YLE, and Sheffield DocFest.

The event will also include a series of seminars on audience engagement and strategies for documentary success hosted by Creative Europe MEDIA Desks. Additionally, several industry awards will be presented, including post-production services valued at €3,000 and opportunities for further development at international film festivals such as IDFA and Sheffield DocFest.

The forum will open with the screening of Ever Since I Knew Myself by Maka Gogaladze, originally pitched at Baltic Sea Docs in 2019. Other notable titles in the film programme include Agent of Happiness by Arun Bhattarai and Dorottya Zurbó, Life is Beautiful by Mohamed Jabaly, Hollywoodgate by Ibrahim Nash’at, and Balomania by Sissel Morell Dargis.