The Global Pitch comes at a time when our planet, our daily lives and our industry are being turned upside down. Society is faced with increasingly complex issues and challenges, and the documentary genre has now more than ever a decisive role to play when it comes to understanding the world around us, inspiring change and shining a light on action for the future.
There is a flat-rate fee of €90 (excl. tax) for taking part in Sunny Side of the Doc 2021 Global Pitch (non refundable). This allows you to submit one project and attend the online pitches even if not selected.
#Storytelling Matters This conviction will be the central theme to all Sunny Side of the Doc events in 2021, helping bring to light stories which question, engage and impact. Sunny Side of the Doc will reinvent itself for a hybrid 32nd edition, which will take place in person in La Rochelle from 21st to 24th June 2021, as well as digitally online.
Alongside this, Sunny Side will also continue to support the international documentary community all year long with a series of targeted and interactive online events, kicking off with Global Pitch.
In a world of 24-hour news and the immediacy of social media, investigative documentary champions slowing down, allowing stories to mature and the chance to provide yourself with the means to dig deeper into a topic, without considering the pressure exerted to stop investigations going ahead.
If you are a decision maker, buyer, commissioning editors and want to be present in the Global Pitch online and actively participate in Q&A and one-to-one meetings with the pitching teams, please let the Sunny Side of the Doc staff know by emailing international2@sunnysideofthedoc.com.
Those already confirmed their participation or who have shown an interest: France Télévisions, Arte France, Knowledge Network, SVT, YLE, BBC 4, NHK, Autentic, MDR, SWR, WGBH, WNET, Terra Mater, Sandbox, Little Dot Studios, Impact Partners, International Documentary Association…
We are looking for investigative and current affairs projects which are feature length documentaries, one-offs, series, short films, multi-media concepts or XR. They must have strong potential on the international market, and more importantly, offer a brand new vision and a revealing insight into complex topics related to the themes and challenges affecting the world today:
There will be winners and losers of the new economic order brought about by the health crisis. Is a thorough overhaul of the world’s economies truly possible? What’s the best way of interpreting each country’s different response? How do debt mechanisms work?
The coronavirus pandemic is much more than just a health crisis. Its unprecedented impact is putting pressure on all those countries affected. What solutions can we provide today to heal the deep scars of tomorrow?
What are the current social, economic and political tensions and issues, the powers and lobbies involved, the prospect of change for a new climate order?
Progressives and conservatives polarized politics, social and digital divides, unemployment, growing inequality, exclusion, discrimination…. Society is becoming increasingly fragile. Can we avoid such division? How do we come up with new ways of living together?
Submitted projects which develop simultaneously an impact campaign on different channels/multi screens will be heavily favoured.
In 2020, our highly curated online pitch sessions provided access to decision-makers and generated real opportunities. Building on this, the international marketplace for documentary and narrative experiences will be a hybrid experience in 2021, making the most of both worlds, online and face-to-face.
This ensures that Sunny Side of the Doc Global Pitch is a unique opportunity to:
An independent jury will chose the best pitched project for a prize backed by our sponsors. The winning creative team will automatically be invited to present their project in La Rochelle in June 2021 (two accreditations offered).
During two days of pitch sessions (2nd – 3rd February), a selection of 12 investigative and current affairs projects which help us understand the present-day world will be presented to a panel of top-level decision-makers. Each pitch will be followed by a live five-minute Q&A session, and will continue via pre-arranged one-to-one meetings with specific buyers and commissioning editors for initiating concrete creative and financial discussions.
Each session will be held twice during the day so as to reach decision-makers in all time zones: the morning (UTC+1/CET) will be for industry professionals in Asia, Middle East and Europe, and the evening (UTC+1/CET) will be for industry professionals in the Americas and Europe. The same applies for the Q&A sessions and one-to-one meetings.
You are required to prepare and provide the following information in the entry form:
PLEASE NOTE: Any information submitted is likely to appear in the Global Pitch Digital Resources. Please check to ensure your application does not contain any spelling or typing mistakes or any other errors.
THE EXTRA: Once your project is completed, we request that you mention your selection for Sunny Side of the Doc Global Pitch in your credits. Our teams will provide you with the specific logo.
For any questions concerning project eligibility, please contact international@sunnysideofthedoc.com before submitting your project.
Projects in development or in production shall be assessed and selected according to the following criteria:
Deadline for Global Pitch submissions.
The 12 projects selected by a jury of independent experts will be announced.
Mentoring and coaching week. During an online working session, our experts and mentors will help project managers transform and prepare their seven-minute pre-recorded pitch videos for Global Pitch.
Deadline for submitting seven-minute pre-recorded pitch videos.Formats accepted: MOV, AVI, MP4, MPEG-2, 3GP, AAC, FLV.
Live Global Pitch and pre-arranged one-on-one meetings.
Announcement of the Global Pitch winning project.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.