Sunny Side of the Doc, the industry's leading international event for docs and factual, both finished programs, formats and co-productions, is evolving well in its 35th edition at Espace Encan in La Rochelle, Spain. Yesterday, usually an entrance journey, important buyers already attended generating good traffic of networking and meetings. Today, head conferences are talking place for the main market. About 2000 delegates from 70 countries are expected the whole week, from Monday to Thursday, including 400 buyers.

The attending community at the market include content creators (producers and directors), decision makers (broadcasters, streamers, foundations, museums, social networks, sales agents) and industry professionals related to content creation (archives, music, etc.) to sell or buy projects and programs, and find the right business partners.

The 35th edition invites to think about the future of the docs ecosystem, about the future of the documentary genre itself, trying to map it as a whole. There are 42 projects from 21 countries to compete for the Best Pitch Award. The selected projects are presented in seven thematic sessions, all supported by key industry partners. Winners in the categories “science”, “nature and conservation”, “global issues”, “history”, “art and culture”, receive a cash prize of €3,000. Winners in the “new voices” and “impact campaigns” categories, receive a cash prize of €2,000 each. Also, there are five specialized factual sessions, as every year.

But this year in particular, Sunny Side of the Doc provides a program entirely dedicated to Australia, co-produced with French and Australian institutions and organizations. The event introduces for the first time an Australian pavilion, matchmaking sessions with producers from the country and welcomes Australian industry professionals from their First Nation association.

About promoting product development and especially innovation, for the first time the event selects five creative teams as part of the ‘Innovation WIP call’ for entries, providing them with personalized support by segment experts, to develop their projects better and with enhanced awareness. Also, Doc Services, the organizing company behind Sunny Side of the Doc, joined the 1% for the Planet network, whereby each year 1% of its commercial turnover will be donated to associations working to protect the environment and biodiversity.

Today main events and conferences? At 9am, there are the Awards Café Ceremony for Science and New Voices pitches, including lucky contestants that have the chance to raise the trophy in the two categories. Then, the 2nd Keynote of the market: ‘What next for Americas’s public service broadcaster PBS’, with Diana El-Osta; and ‘The China Hour’, ‘RMC Storgy & RMC’, and the Canal+ Group Line up events. Also, the pitch sessions about ‘Global Issues’ and ‘Arts & Culture’. Since midday and the afternoon, the ‘Meet the executives’ sessions with big players as National Geographic, STV Sweden and BBC UK.

Also, ‘Industry Talks’: among others, with actors and actresses of different productions, ‘Documentaries by Mediawan’, ‘The Business of Accesibility’, ‘Coproducing with INA: a revamped proposal’, ‘Meet the Nigerian Delegation’, ‘Vivante (s) case study’ and ‘Afrikan Suns’. And ‘Innovation talks’: ‘AI in docs’, ‘Innovation WIP 1, 2 & 3’, ‘Archives, AI & Ethics’. In networking, ‘food for thought x Blutopia’ and ‘Happy Hour by ORF’.

Mariano Gutiérrez, from La Rochelle

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