Europe's got talent

Turning diversity into talent

While Sunny Side of the Doc is a truly international event, Europe is a core component of the market, making up about 80% of all participants and of the projects presented and pitched.

With the ongoing support from the Creative Europe’s MEDIA programme, our aim is to encourage countries who are less represented on the international market to take part, as well as to build new creative and business relationships, and help drive diversity in the stories and narratives.
In order to achieve this, Sunny Side of the Doc has joined forces with key European partners active in the sector, to help identify these new voices in emerging European markets: Al Jazeera Balkans, East Doc Platform, HBO Europe, Pitch The Doc, Film Center Serbia, Baltic Sea Docs, Balkan Documentary Center, Croatian Audiovisual Fund, Film Centre of Montenegro, DocuDays UA, Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, Slovak Film Institute, Lithuanian Film Center, MADOKE, Audiovisual Producers’ Association, KFF Sales & Promotion, Georgian National Film Center, DokuBaku.

A stronger European Commitment

In order to ensure more presence and better visibility for CEE professionals and works, Sunny Side of the Doc has built a strong network of partners, pro-actively focused on CEE countries and provided incentives. Since 2018, we have stepped up our commitment to the region in order to get a better understanding of the production and co-production landscape, to introduce the activities ofSunny Side of the Doc in the region, to meet with potential partners and to source new talents and projects to be invited to Sunny Side of the Doc.

Through a number of targeted initiatives, emerging producers from Europe have been highlighted, supported and rewarded at the international marketplace in 2022.

Among these initiatives we can mention:

The partnership with Pitch the Doc to set up a showcase of all submitted projects in the New Voices category on their platform;
A dedicated Ukrainian Talent Hub highlighting 6 documentary projects in front of key international Decision makers;
The first Ex Oriente Film session hosted by Sunny Side of the Doc in partnership with Institute of Documentary Film (Czech Republic), to promote, help and bring expertise to 12 documentary projects coming from the CEE region;
Matchmaking East Doc Series: Producers from Central and Eastern Europe could meet international producers during one-to-one meetings at #SSD22.
Producers from Italy and Spain (European countries in focus this year) could benefit from matchmaking sessions at #SSD22
The third PiXii Co-creation workshop (European Incubator) followed by a pitching session at Sunny Side of the Doc. In partnership with Creatis Brussels and 2K Films.

2021 Award Winners

BEST WORK IN PROGRESS: CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

72 HOURS

Produced by: Playtime Films (Belgium)
Directed by: Anna Savchenko

An award sponsored by Al Jazeera Balkans Documentary Film Festival
Prize: 2,000 euros in cash

BEST TALENT HUB CENTRAL & EASTERN EUROPE

CINEMA UNDER SIEGE

Produced by: Novi Film (Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovia)
Directed by: Srđan Šarenac

An award sponsored by Institute of Documentary Film
Prize: 2,000 euros in cash

Jury's word
"Cinema under siege: from the strong title to the trailer, to the presentation, to the importance, to the strong archive, animation and stories from the protagonist, convinced us that this will turn out to be a film that tells the history of a war from an unique angle; that should not be forgotten and has to be remembered today."