Nine projects have qualified for the Progress Pitching Session organized as part of MDAG Industry. The films will be presented to an international panel of experts - below we publish the list of invited guests. The event will take place on May 10th at the State Ethnographic Museum during the 21st edition of Millennium Docs Against Gravity. Ola Salwa will moderate the pitching.

Among the selected films are new projects directed by experienced creators, such as Maciej Cuske and Alisa Kovalenko. There are also debut projects, such as "Dekonstrukt" by Mateusz Góra and Kamil Wilk, or "Bałtyk" by Iga Lis.

MDAG Industry is organized in cooperation with CANAL+ Polska.

The section is co-financed by the Polish Film Institute.

MDAG Industry partners include: Audioteka, Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich, SMAKJAM, Państwowe Muzeum Etnograficzne, Krajowa Izba Producentów Audiowizualnych, Institute of Documentary Film, CKF im. Andrzeja Wajdy, Papaya Films, Pitch The Doc, Związek Zawodowy Filmowców, Mazovia Warsaw Film Commission.

LIST OF QUALIFIED PROJECTS:

KANDYDACI ŚMIERCI, dir. Maciej Cuske

ŚWIATŁO W MROKU, dir. Alina Aleksandrova, Tadeusz Chudy

FRONTLINE, dir. Alisa Kovalenko

MY SUNNYSIDE, dir. Matylda Kawka

MY FATHER, THE ICEMAN, dir. Łukasz Kowalski

SUGARLAND, dir. Julia Groszek

DEKONSTRUKT, dir. Mateusz Góra, Kamil Wilk

LEONARD COHEN: ZA ŻELAZNĄ KURTYNĄ, dir. Eric Bednarski

BAŁTYK, dir. Iga Lis

The tenth project will be selected from the presentations at the East Doc Forum, where Millennium Docs Against Gravity will award the prize next Thursday.

SMAKJAM, a post-production studio operating for 14 years with offices in Warsaw and London, has joined the prize sponsors. It specializes in image and sound post-production for television, film, and advertising productions.

The prizes in the pitching session are sponsored by event partners:

CANAL+ Polska - a cash prize of 3000 euros

Stowarzyszenie Filmowców Polskich - a cash prize of 10,000 PLN

SMAKJAM - color correction service worth 15,000 PLN

Qualified participants are offered training sessions with recognized industry specialists who will help prepare presentations to appeal to international decision-makers.

Tutors:

Kim Christiansen - executive producer. He deals with documentary films and co-productions at DR Sales. He has been involved in the documentary film industry for over 20 years (sales and purchase of rights, commissioning, co-production). He was the sales director at TV 2 WORLD and head of the Industry department at CPH:DOX (in 2012 and 2013).

Martijn te Pas - Film programmer & Festival advisor. Martijn te Pas studied psychology, English literature, and film and television studies at the University of Amsterdam. From 2000 to 2019, he was part of the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (IDFA) as a senior programmer. He was an advisor to IDFA Bertha Fund and IDFA Forum.

Projects will be featured on a specially created page on Pitch the Doc, a platform focused on promoting selected documentary film projects tailored to the needs of MDAG Industry. It functions as an online hub that connects all stakeholders: filmmakers, tutors, producers, and decision-makers.

Progress Pitching Session is one of four pitching sessions that will take place within MDAG Industry this year. The other pitching sessions are:

Pole Position - pitching of Polish films that are already completed and included in the 21st Millennium Docs Against Gravity program

Short Pitch Program - Pitching of five short documentary films from the Central and Eastern European region, selected by the Czech Institute of Documentary Film

5th Documentary Film Forum for Young Audience - presentations of 8 film projects for young viewers from the fourth edition of the program Skok w Doc

Decision makers: 

Bérénice Hahn - Square Eyes Film

Georg Gruber - Magnet Film

Jaie Laplante - DOC NYC

Ania Trzebiatowska - Sundance F.F. 

Eric Hynes - Museum of Moving Image

Heidi KIm Andersen - Danish Film Institute

Yorgos Krassakopoulos - Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

Veronika Dvorackova - Institute of Documentary Film

Heino Deckert - Deckert Distribution

Annika Hamngren - SVT

Christina Ramsø Thomsen - Danish Film Institute

Esther Van Messel - First Hand Films 

Nathalie Windhorst - VPRO

Qila Gill London Short Film Festival 

Thom Powers - Toronto F.F.

Rada Sesic - Sarajevo F.F.

Chiara Liberti - Biografilm Festival 

Andy Norton - Raina Sales

Adam Thorsmark  - CPH:DOX 

James Webber - Dogwoof

Anna Grabo  - Short Film Festival Hamburg

Cecilia Björk - Tempo Documentary Film Festival

Gudrun Sommer - Director of the DOXS RUHR 

Lennart Ström - M:brane 

Dimitra Kauzi  - Kouzi Productions

Kristof Bilsen - Ket&Doc

Niki Padidar - IDFA 

Markéta Stinglová - Czech Television

Kim Christiansen - DR Sales

Frederic Ulferts - ZDF

Síle Culley - International Screen Institute

Mourad Moussa - Visions du Réel