Sheffield DocFest: Moving to Mars

This year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest opens on 4th November with the World Premiere of Moving to Mars: A Million Miles from Burma. The documentary follows two Burmese refugee families who are relocated to Sheffield, depicting their moving and sometimes humorous struggles in 21st Century Britain. The documentary will be shown on More4 later this year. The [...]

Westdoc Twitter

If you weren’t able to make it to Santa Monica to attend the Westdoc conference, you can keep up with what’s going on in real time – who’s commissioning what, and how to pitch -  via twitter. Just follow the #westdoc thread.

SXSW Interactive Festival Early Bird Deadline 25th September

SXSW Interactive Festival is gearing up for more than 200 panel sessions, presentations and networking events for anyone interested in new media and technology. The festival runs from 12-16 March, 2010 (alongside the film festival 12-20th March and music festival 17-21st March). Book before 25th September, 2009 for an early bird discount and pay $395 (instead of the normal price of $450-$550, depending on when you book).

Visit SXSW for more details.

(Photo by David Berkowitz CC BY 2.0)

Edinburgh International Television Festival – The Evidence

As Peter Andre said, “you can ignore the headlines as you know they’re probably not true, but you can’t ignore the photographs…” All photos by Rob McDougall 2009 1) TV’s Got Talent winner Carolyn Philpot 2) Five’s channel controller Richard Woolfe 3) Director of BBC Vision Jana Bennett and Dragon’s Den series producer Sam Lewins 4) Peter Andre [...]

Edinburgh International Television Festival 2009

Click through for information on sessions, commissioning briefs and industry gossip (with a development spin) from this year’s Edinburgh International Television Festival. (Photo by Lord Biro CC BY-SA 2.0)

Wellcome Trust Pitch Competition – Call for Entries

If you have an idea for a science documentary that you are trying to get off the ground, apply for a chance to pitch it to the Wellcome Trust for a development award of up to £10,000. Your proposal must be for a project on health, medicine or biology and be able to engage a large audience; it can be a documentary film, game or online proposal.

If you are selected you will pitch your idea to a panel at Sheffield’s Doc/Fest on 7th November, 2009.

For more information visit Wellcome’s Broadcast Development Awards.

The closing date for applications is 9th October, 2009.

(photo by Foxtongue CC BY 2.0)

NATPE LA TV Festival 09 – On Now!

The LA TV Festival is currently running a series of sessions with TV industry executives today and tomorrow (8th & 9th July 2009, PST), for example: 8th July – 4:15 to 5:15 PM Westside Room Main Session: Secrets of the Reality Heavyweights 8th July – 5:30 to 6:15 PM Olympic Ballroom 2 Clinics: Pitch Clinic [...]

Intelligent Factual Festival, London, 30th June -1st July 2010

The fifth Intelligent Factual Festival is a great place to gather intelligence, find alternative ways of funding your programme and network with 700 colleagues in the beautiful Baroque surroundings of Gibson Hall in the City of London.

This year you’ll be able to:

1. Meet the Commissioners: hear the commissioning wish lists of Steve Gowans (Five), Kim Shilllinglaw (BBC Science and History), Richard Watsham (Bravo), Jo Clinton-Davis (ITV), Simon Dickson (Ch4), Nick Fraser (BBC Storyville) and another ELEVEN commissioners.
2. Meet the Controllers: find out what makes Jay Hunt (BBC1), Danny Cohen (BBC3) and Richard Klein (BBC4) tick.
3. Pitch Smarter: four top industry insiders reveal the secrets to successfully developing, protecting and pitching your ideas (or at least how not to screw up your chances of a commission).
4. Find Funding: whether you need co-production funding, deficit financing or fancy dipping a toe into brand funded content, there is a session that makes sense of it all for you.

Click through for more information.

Sheffield Doc/Fest MeetMarket Open for Submissions

Do you have a documentary film or series that you’d like to pitch to 100+ interested international buyers? Sheffield Doc/Fest’s MeetMarket is your chance. You can submit your project online up until 4th September 2009 and it’s free to apply. Click through to find out how. (Photo courtesy of Sheffield Doc/Fest)

NYC Food Film Festival 2009

The NYC Food Film Festival – “a multi-sensory experience where film-goers are able to watch food films then sample the food portrayed in those films” – kicks off on 13th June with a screening of Ron Mann’s Know Your Mushrooms, accompanied by a wild mushroom tasting menu. Other films include: 24 Hours, 24 Million Meals: [...]