The 28th edition of Baltic Sea Docs documentary pitching forum is set to take place in Riga, 1-8 September. This year, the forum will feature the presentation of 26 film projects, alongside screenings for local audiences in Riga and various regional towns across Latvia.
Baltic Sea Docs is dedicated to showcasing feature-length creative documentary projects that originate from or focus on the wider Baltic Sea region, Eastern Europe and Caucasus. 22 new projects at various stages of development and production will be presented at the forum, with an additional four projects in post-production returning to the Baltic Sea Docs as they seek festival partnerships and sales agents.
This year, half of the projects are represented by production companies from Baltic countries – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia – while others are produced in Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, Hungary, Sweden, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and beyond. The topics covered are as diverse as they are timely, ranging from films addressing urgent geopolitical events and pressing environmental issues to poetic explorations of societal shifts and popular culture.
The new project teams will refine their pitch presentations in a training workshop preceding the pitching sessions led by renowned documentary film consultants Tue Steen Müller and Mikael Opstrup from Denmark. The workshop will be facilitated by a team of international industry experts: film editor Phil Jandaly (Sweden), directors Giedrė Beinoriūtė (Lithuania) and Kumjana Novakova (North Macedonia / Bosnia & Herzegovina), marketing strategist Paul Rieth (Germany), and producer Simon Kilmurry (USA).
The pitching sessions will take place on 5-6 September with the projects being presented to an international panel of decision makers: representatives of sales and distribution companies (e.g. Lightdox, filmdelights, CAT&docs, Rise and Shine), production companies, TV channels (NHK, YLE, Current Time TV), and film festivals (Tallinn Black Nights, FIPADOC, Sheffield DocFest, Thessaloniki IDFF), among others, followed by one-to-one meetings.
The forum will continue collaboration with several industry partners presenting a number of prizes for the participants. East Doc Platform Award will grant accreditation and access to one-on-one meetings for one team at the next edition of the East Doc Platform in Prague, while IDFA and Baltic Sea Docs Collaboration Award for Baltic filmmakers will provide accreditation and guidance for a director and a producer at the next edition of IDFA in Amsterdam. BBposthouse, an end to end digital post production company that provides personalised services across the entire film post production process, will offer an award of post-production services in the value of 3,000 Euro. This year Baltic Sea Docs has also initiated collaboration with Movies That Matter and Sheffield DocFest that will contribute awards including accreditation and access to the respective industry events. Finally, the Baltic Sea Docs will offer an award consisting of a consultancy session with an industry expert in the field of the project's choice.
Alongside pitching sessions, on 4 September, the Creative Europe MEDIA Desks of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania will host two seminars: the first will feature audience developer Paul Rieth (Germany) in conversation with marketing specialist Sergejs Timoņins (Latvia) on 'Tools for Documentary Audience Reach: AI and Beyond,' offering insights into better connecting with audiences. The second seminar will feature Basil Tsiokos, a senior non-fiction programmer at the Sundance Film Institute, in conversation with film producer Uldis Cekulis (VFS Films, Latvia) sharing tips on how to maximize documentary's chances at the Sundance Film Festival.
In parallel with the industry events, the Baltic Sea Docs film programme will kick off on 3 September at Splendid Palace cinema with Maka Gogaladze's Ever Since I Knew Myself (2024), which was originally pitched at the 2019 edition of Baltic Sea Docs. The film programme will also include screenings of Agent of Happiness (dir. Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó), Life is Beautiful (dir. Mohamed Jabaly), Hollywoodgate (dir. Ibrahim Nash'at), Balomania (dir. Sissel Morell Dargis), among other notable titles, and have filmmakers present meeting with the audiences.
More information about the participating film projects and the full programme is available on the Baltic Sea Docs website: http://balticseadocs.lv/.
Baltic Sea Docs is organized by the National Film Centre of Latvia, with support from the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, and Cēsis municipality.
Ieva Lange
Baltic Sea Docs media coordinator
+371 22189061
ieva.lange@nkc.gov.lv