‘Navarra Documentary Films’ presents its projects at the Sunny Side of the Doc

A total of 15 filmmakers from Navarre have travelled to La Rochelle in France, where one of the most important events on the calendar for documentary content producers takes place, the Sunny Side of the Doc market.

The delegation, led by representatives of the Audiovisual Cluster of Navarre, Arturo Cisneros and Amaia Galar, was supported by the industry team behind Doklab Navarra, with Beatriz Setuáin accompanying the group.

In more than 120 appointments, Navarre producers and directors have had the opportunity to present their projects to the international market.

‘Navarra Documentary Film’ attended the fair with its own stand that attracted the attention of producers, distributors and sales agents from all over the world who were visiting La Rochelle.

Navarra Film Industry launched its new brand ‘Navarra Documentary Film’ in this market, highlighting the trajectory of Navarra film producers focused on the production of this type of content.

The opening ceremony took place at the cocktail offered at the market where professionals from the audiovisual market had the opportunity to taste Mantecados Salinas, as well as Navarro wines and cheeses.

Among the 15 filmmakers relocated to La Rochelle, experienced producers such as Kanaki films, 601 or Thinklab combined, who shared travel and experience with new filmmakers such as Estudio Kentaro, Kontuka or Esther Vital.

Navarra Film Industry activated an acceleration programme to prepare the Navarra projects presented at Sunny Side of the Doc with the advice of the Doklab Navarra team.

In addition to holding an information session on the market open to Navarre producers, the projects selected to attend within the delegation had mentoring sessions with prominent executives of the documentary industry, such as Carlos Sevillano, of the international sales agency Artico Comunicación. Thanks to meetings with important players in the industry, Navarre projects have accelerated their process.

Amaia Remirez, winner of this year’s Goya for Best Short Documentary, noted from her visit to Sunny Side of the Doc that “I had the opportunity to present our new projects to a good number of contacts in France, the United Kingdom and Eastern Europe. Now it’s time to follow up, and turn the talks into financing agreements. ”

For Lucía Ezker of Sagone Films, the commercial mission has been “very productive both for the meetings with channels and sales agents and for the opportunities discovered in the informal meetings. We have enjoyed and learned a lot and this experience has also allowed us to establish collaborative networks among Navarre industry. ”

Esther Vital, an award-winning short filmmaker who was launching her first documentary film project in Sunny Side, thanked the initiative and noted “my project has grown, I have brought it out to the world. It was in my head, but thanks to the mentoring I’ve been able to focus on it. In the market, my focus was on obtaining financing from Spain, Brazil and Chile, and in addition to having obtained the interest of producers from these countries, I have also managed to start talks with companies from the Netherlands and Germany. A ten for the program. ”

In this edition, Sunny Side of the Doc has welcomed more than 2,000 executives from the main channels and platforms. Major providers of subscription content such as Netflix, Amazon or HBO, the most active television stations in the production and distribution of documentaries such as RTVE in Spain, the Francesas Arte, TF1 France TV, the British BBC, the Japanese NHK, Al-Jazeera and the Chinese giant Bilibili have travelled to La Rochelle to hear the new proposals.