A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
A film blog by Allan Berg Nielsen & Tue Steen Müller
First a copy paste from the press release of DOK Lweipzig: “A successful festival week lies behind us: This year, 53,000 visitors attended the screenings, events, and industry activities. We would like to thank everyone for their interest and for…
Not only it was a comeback for me to Ji.hlava, but it was also a return to good old times. In many ways. A quiet city (or town) with old style shops, different prices than the ones in big cities,…
The award-winning films of the 68th edition of DOK Leipzig have been announced. The seven Golden and two Silver Doves as well as various Partnership Awards were presented at the Schaubühne Lindenfels in Leipzig on Saturday. In the International Competition Documentary…
Eleven industry awards were presented today to the most promising projects participating in the Ji.hlava New Visions Forum 2025. In total, fifty-five projects from Europe, United States and East & Southeast Asia were presented at the Forum. The projects in development, production and…
Two days ago our grandchild, who is 14 years of age, came to visit. He was wearing one of the many festival t-shirts that I have passed on to him. One from the Ji.hlava FF. It said 2004 and it…
We are delighted to announce the winners of the DokuTam category at the DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival 2025! DokuTam Award Winners – DokuBaku 2025 The DokuTam section is dedicated to showcasing the most compelling feature-length documentaries from Azerbaijan and…
… at a press conference this afternoon, online, with IDFA veteran Isabel Arrate Fernandez, appointed artistic director after Orwa Nyrabia, doing the presentation together with Head of Program Joost Dammen and Head of New Media Caspar Sonnen. “As filmmakers and…
Here is a repeat of a review I wrote recently in connection with the screening of the film in Malmö at Nordisk Panorama: Sorry, dear reader, I have to go to the box with superlatives. Again. You might argue that…
… took place October 3-4 at the Filmclub Capitol Bolzano, the city where the unique Zelig-School for Documentary is to be found. I have been teaching at the school since 2007, where I had the privilege to follow students for…
Når det gælder Jørgen Leth er det altid, og i høj grad i denne meget store og aldeles vigtige film, umuligt at skille manden fra værket. Og jeg, som i min ungdom var opdraget i det autonome værks ånd, jeg…
24 documentary projects were pitched at this year’s Nordisk Panorama, edition number 32, with the participation of “Documentary Stakeholders” from 18 countries – broadcasters, sales agents, film institute consultants, and with a lot of potential co-producers, some observers with their…
Look at the photo… A douce painting by Edgar Degas, for me the first true documentarian? No, an edited still from a Danish documentary – coproduced with a Spanish company – directed by Robin Petré and with Ecuadorian cameraperson María…
… and the winner is, no objections from my side, from this year’s strong selection… Over to the jury: Motivation“We are living in a world on fire that keeps burning in front of our eyes. We use cinema for reflection…
Sorry, dear reader, I have to go to the box with superlatives. Again. You might argue that I always do so, and indeed this was what Allan Berg and I agreed upon, when we started this film blog: We don’t…
“I love hands, and I can’t wait for my hands to get old and have the veins out. I keep saying that hands are fascinating. It is something so tactile, so easy to hold someone’s hand to stroke their hand.…
They filmed at Malmberget before, more than 10 years ago, “The Home and the Cavity” was the title, and I know them from the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade from 2018, where they showed “Giants and The Morning After”, with Malla…
… started yesterday with – as usual – a rich programme, the 36th edition, wow, some of the festival participants who walk into the lobby of the Scandic Hotel, where the reception is, were not born when the festival started……
“Three cows – Joy, Crumb and Sweetie – live in the forest. Joy is grandma and Crumb is its child. They were both rescued to the forest pasture from the door of the slaughterhouse truck. Sweetie is Joy’s granddaughter, who…
This text is written by Emanuele Vernillo, who is Head of the Three – Years Training in Documentary Filmmaking at ZeLIG The words we most often use in times of change speak of necessity: the need to renew, to make…
From press release of yesterday: IDFA is proud to present Portuguese filmmaker, curator, and academic Susana de Sousa Dias as the festival’s Guest of Honor, with a Retrospective and Top 10 selection. Known for her singular approach to archival images…
There were many new talents at the Baltic Sea Docs – and there were filmmakers, who have been awarded many times for their works. Audrius Stonys is one of them. He was a new talent, when the Baltic Sea Docs…
There is hope! That was my reaction this morning at the first round of pitching at the 29th Baltic Sea Docs in Riga. I thought so when I met the Hungarian film project “Kind of Adults” by Rita Balogh and…
Text from festival directors Svetlana and Zoran Popovic, Magnificent 7 festival in Belgrade: The Magnificent Seven festival, created as a cinema holiday for numerous devotees of modern European documentary film, has successfully presented top achievements and the most significant authors…
Memories… Audrius Stonys was at the Balticum Film & TV Festival in the beginning of the 1990’es. He and Arunas Matelis were the young talents, who showed short documentaries in the Kino Gudhjem on Bornholm. Films like “Antigravitation” and “Earth…
After a long first day of the Baltic Sea Docs, the tutors were invited for dinner on top of Riga. Two of the tutors come from Georgia and Ukraine: Salomé Jashi and Darya Bassel. Both of them play an important…
I had big expectations after Olha Zhurba’s first long documentary “Outside” – https://filmkommentaren.dk/olha-zhurba-outside/ – and I was not disappointed. “Songs of Slow Burning Earth” is a film that will stay in Ukrainian documentary history. And internationally as a film that should be…
The 29th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, the long-running documentary co-production forum in Riga, is set to run from 31 August to 5 September. The forum will feature 26 documentary projects within its industry programme, alongside film screenings for audiences…
Jury Special Award at the Sarajevo FF. And a text taken from the press kit of the best publicist I know, Greek Dimitra Kouzi: “Bulgarian queer artist and songwriter Ivo Dimchev transforms personal and social hardship into provocative public and…
The winner of the Documentary Competition of the 2025 Sarajevo FF. I had not heard about this film before, even if it was at the Berlinale. And to be honest, when I read the synopsis, I thought “ok, here is…
From the documentary competition of the Sarajevo FF 2025 At numerous workshops in Eastern Europe I have told filmmakers from that part of the world that to call all characters or protagonists “heroes” is not a good idea – as…
I have several times on this site praised the film of Ketevan Vashagashvili, that I know – also as a project – for many years due to the CinéDoc Mentoring Program in Georgia. Ketevan came from journalism into documentary film…
The success is understandable for this well-funded super-professional production by Romanian company Manifest – producer Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan – with many co-producers, shot over a long period, with four editors on board, with a complicated structure as it takes place in…
Review written by Allan Berg Nielsen for DOX Magazine 2002, now available at Modern Times Review. In Anything Can Happen, Marcel Lozinski takes his six-year-old son to the park and asks him to ride around on his push scooter and occasionally…
Awards were given in Sarajevo for participants of the Rough Cut Boutique, which has Martichka Bozhilova and Rada Sesic as organisers and leading figures. At the photo (Sarajevo FF) the two are with microphone in hands, Martichka standing, Rada kneeling.…
PRESS RELEASESarajevo, August 19, 2025 DOCU TALENT AWARDS 2025 WENT TO A SONG WITHOUT HOME, FLYING COWS, AND LAND OF FIRE EMERGING PRODUCERS 2026 AND RECIPIENTS OF JI.HLAVA /JB FILMS SUPPORT WERE ANNOUNCED Seven outstanding documentaries from Central and Eastern Europe,…
Aforementioned award will be presented with the official partnership of the Azerbaijan Union of Filmmakers which will be supported by the Azad Mirzajanzadeh Development Program, the Young Filmmakers Association, and the Guild of Azerbaijani Film Critics and Scholars. The award…
Programmed for the Sarajevo FF in the documentary competition. The film won main award in the regional competition of this year’s ZagrebDox, the photo shows the director with her Big Stamp as the festival calls its award. No need for…
Producer Adnan Ćuhara. Shown, world premiere August 16 at Sarajevo Film Festival. I quote Sarajevo Times (March 2 2025), where the film crew gives this congratulatory note the 1st of March, to the independence day of Bosnia and Herzegovina: “The…
Sarajevo Film Festival reinforces its commitment to powerful documentary storytelling with a revitalized concept for its documentary strand at CineLink Industry Days. Building on its longstanding support for filmmakers across Southeast Europe and beyond, the Festival introduces a dynamic platform…
It’s really a small film festival that accompanies the Industry based Baltic Sea Docs with project development and pitching. 12 films for the audience in Riga, screenings from the 2nd till the 7th of September primarily in the Splendid Palace…
Dealing with the Past programme continues to create space for confronting traumas, untold stories, and forgotten perspectives that shape both collective and personal histories. The programme presents feature films, documentaries, and experimental works that delve into the aftermath of conflict…
Aspiring critics and writers interested in documentary cinema are invited to apply for the 4th Verzió Documentary Film Critics Workshop, held as part of the 22nd Verzió International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. The event will take place from 11–19…
He texted me yesterday, “watching?”, as he has done dozens of times, when “our” football club FCBarcelona plays. If I am not at the computer here in Denmark, he updates me on how the match goes. I am writing about…
Rada Šešić, the programmer of the Competition Programme – Documentary Film, included 20 films in the competition programme; 12 feature-length and 8 short documentary films, four of which will have a world premiere, four international, 10 films will have a…
This film totally blew my mind. Its freshness, its originality, its playfulness, giving information so it’s never dull and using the cinema language wonderfully. Archive – moving images and photos to make history alive, citizens of Rijeka today, all centered…
I had a very rich experience watching this film. I was pleasantly surprised of the way it was told. The filmmakers took me by surprise by giving me several layers to dig into.Thank you for that but before I go…
And now words about the new photos on top of this site, www.filmkommentaren.dk. I have mentioned the three by their last name. I could also have chosen to name them by first names: Alisa, Niels, Eva. That’s how I address…
There is a short text at the beginning of the film bringing us to the location: “… a network of rural communities (that) provides shelter to individuals struggling with addiction and mental health issues”. A former abuser is running the…
I took this from the website of the producer Onassis Culture to have a precise content description of the film: Filmmaker Eva Stefani follows the preparations behind Transverse Orientation and its tour across theatrical stages in Europe, observing from a close distance Dimitris…
At numerous workshops in Eastern Europe I have told filmmakers from that part of the world that to call all characters or protagonists “heroes” is not a good idea – as in English they are people, who have done something…