\n<\/p>\n
\n\tJi.hlava Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety<\/em> the projects that the participants of its Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an elevator pitch for their projects.<\/p>\n \n\tSince 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming documentary producers \u2014 17 from Europe and one from outside the continent \u2014 offering them educational, networking and promotional opportunities.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Emerging Producers portal has become a valuable resource for documentary filmmakers seeking co-producers, featuring over 230 profiles of alumni from the program.<\/p>\n \n\tThe next group of Emerging Producers will be announced this Sunday at the Sarajevo Film Festival.<\/p>\n \n\tHere are the pitches from the 2025 lineup:<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA Bee in My Mouth\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cAlways Far Away\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cPatronymic\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cTracing Mother Lines\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cUnder the Dance Floor\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cFlying Cows\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cSomething Familiar\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cAm\u00edlcar\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cEveryone\u2019s Voice\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cElevated\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cNovus Mundus \u2013 Old Promises\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cStill Night, Burning House\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cA Lake Full of Stones\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cZenit: Endless Rebellion\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cEnd of Gravity\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cThe Diary of Experiences\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cVelvet Generation\u201d \n\tSynopsis: \n\tPitch: \n\t\u201cSissy\u201d \n\tIn 1898, Sissi was assassinated, giving rise to a myth. One hundred twenty-five years later, on the same quay in Geneva, a theater troupe reenacts the event every Sunday. Homosexual men over 60 reflect on their passion for Sissi, exploring love, desire, HIV and life\u2019s trials, while a \u201csissy\u201d claims her legacy.<\/p>\n \n\tPitch: Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival has revealed to Variety the projects that the participants of its Emerging Producers program are working on. The producers were asked to deliver an elevator pitch for their projects. Since 2010, the festival has selected 18 up-and-coming documentary producers \u2014 17 from Europe and one from outside the continent \u2014 offering<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[9249,9248,9250,3286,3905,1507,224],"class_list":{"0":"post-15720","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-emerging","9":"tag-ji-hlavas","10":"tag-pitches","11":"tag-producers","12":"tag-projects","13":"tag-reveal","14":"tag-upcoming"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Producer: Lor\u00e1nd Bal\u00e1zs Imre\/filmDOUGH (Germany)
Director: Lor\u00e1nd Bal\u00e1zs Imre
Genre: Creative Documentary\/Personal Essay<\/p>\n
A father films his wife and himself as they navigate the emotional impact of the stillbirth of their child while expecting another. Told through intimate moments, therapy sessions and everyday rituals, \u201cA Bee in My Mouth\u201d is a raw, non-linear exploration of grief, love, and resilience within a couple learning to live with the unimaginable.<\/p>\n
Shot almost entirely by the director during a real-time crisis, the film offers rare emotional immediacy and unfiltered intimacy. Like Tomasz Sliwinski\u2019s Oscar nominated \u201cOur Curse,\u201d it moves beyond therapy into cinematic experience. A unique co-production opportunity for partners interested in bold, honest storytelling with strong festival and streaming potential.<\/p>\n
Producers: Michal Sikora\/Lonely Production (Czech Republic) and Richard \u0160ime\u010dek\/Svjetski Films (Slovakia)
Director: Roman \u010euri\u0161
Genre: Coming-of-Age\/Long-Term Observational\/Portrait<\/p>\n
Vojta, the eldest son of a circus director, bears the weight of a seven-generation legacy as his curiosity about the outside world clashes with the traditional nomadic life he is destined to inherit.<\/p>\n
This intimate portrait offers rare access to a vanishing nomadic circus community, tracing seven years in the life of a young man caught between tradition and selfhood. Visually striking and emotionally raw, the film explores what it means to perform for applause \u2013 while the hardest act is growing up offstage.<\/p>\n
Producers: Noortje Wischut\/Family Affair Films (The Netherlands), delegate producer, and Mariia Ponomarova, executive producer
Director: Mariia Ponomarova
Genre: Hybrid experimental documentary short<\/p>\n
On the train journey home, Kyiv-born filmmaker Mariia Ponomarova searches for her patronymic \u2014 Volodymyrivna \u2014 the middle name derived from her father\u2019s name, Volodymyr, and which for years disappeared from Mariia\u2019s international documents. Pushing through patriarchal remnants, she traces their warm yet fragile bond, while Volodymyr remains in war-torn Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Can someone have a love-hate relationship with a part of their full name? Questioning post-colonial legal inertia in name politics, and exploring what lineage means in times of full-scale invasion, this feminist short film dives through archive and staged sequences into a mixed-media journey full of bittersweet humor and tenderness.<\/p>\n
Producer: Michael Kalb (Germany)
Directors: Annika Sehn and Kathrin Kn\u00f6pfle
Genre: Documentary, Biopic<\/p>\n
This documentary explores the impact of growing up in a family shaped by a forced marriage. Through a personal lens, it examines childhood, the silence surrounding family trauma, and the societal structures behind such systems. It also seeks to understand the mother\u2019s experience and the cultural context of her choices.<\/p>\n
This project sheds light on forced marriages between Filipinas and Germans from the rarely heard perspective of the second generation. By addressing migration, trauma and the female body, it gives voice to those directly affected\u2014and fills a critical gap in documentary storytelling on this underrepresented issue.<\/p>\n
Producers: Elise Hug\/Alter Ego Production (France), Krisztina Meggyes\/Little Bus Production (Hungary)
Director: S\u00e1ra Tim\u00e1r
Genre: Creative Documentary<\/p>\n
In an old Budapest villa where folk dancing was once an act of resilience and freedom, a young filmmaker discovers that her childhood home was used as a secret prison during the communist era. As she digs through archives and confronts her family\u2019s silence, the film becomes a personal and political journey into memory, trauma and identity.<\/p>\n
As the director uncovers the dark past of her family home, this deeply personal yet universally resonant story evolves into a powerful reflection on collective memory. By exploring how buried traumas and denial continue to influence the present, the film resonates far beyond Hungary\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n
Producers: Vahagn Khachatryan\/OOlik Production (Armenia), Irene Mu\u00f1oz Martin\/AKKA Films (Switzerland)
Director: Vahagn Khachatryan and Aren Malakyan
Genre: Hybrid Documentary<\/p>\n
In an unrecognized country amidst the chaos of war, a cow gives birth to a calf. As villagers pack their belongings and flee their homes, the calf is sold to cattle traders and begins a journey from Armenia through Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan, crossing ever-shifting borders and communities in flux.<\/p>\n
Told through the raw, sensory gaze of a newborn calf named Zemfo, \u201cFlying Cows\u201d reveals the absurdity of human conflict amid war and displacement. Yet beneath the chaos, it quietly celebrates friendship, love and empathy in the most fragile of circumstances.<\/p>\n
Producers: Elena Martin, Monica L\u0103zurean-Gorgan\/Manifest Film (Romania), Aleksandra Bilik\/My Accomplice (United Kingdom)
Director: Rachel Close
Genre: Documentary<\/p>\n
While helping another woman search for her birth mother, British-Romanian filmmaker Rachel reopens her own family story. In searching for her missing sisters, she unearths a legacy of abuse and exploitation, and begins to ask: can the creative power of self-authorship help her rewrite the scripts she has inherited?<\/p>\n
Winner of the Chicken & Egg Vision Award at Cannes Docs 2025, \u201cSomething Familiar\u201d blends raw verit\u00e9 scenes with constructed moments to craft a visually intimate and emotionally layered story \u2014 exploring belonging, identity, and the power of reclaiming one\u2019s own narrative.<\/p>\n
Producers: Miguel Eek\/Mosaic (Spain), LX Filmes (Portugal), Les docs du nord (France), Korikaxoru (Cape Verde) and Sysifos (Sweden)
Director: Miguel Eek
Genre: Experimental Biopic Documentary<\/p>\n
Amilcar Cabral: agronomist, poet, utopian thinker and a revolutionary\u2026 he led the anti-colonial movement against Portugal in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, until his murder in 1973. Human rights, utopias, interracial love, ambition, war and betrayal are the ingredients of this film crafted with archival images and an imaginary diary shot on 16mm film that expresses all the modernity of Cabral\u2019s vision of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cAm\u00edlcar\u201d is a lyrical, cinematic portrait of revolutionary leader Am\u00edlcar Cabral, blending unseen archives, poetic letters, and evocative 16mm footage. Spanning 10 years of work, this international co-production explores utopia, decolonization and love with a unique visual language\u2014bridging past and present in a powerful meditation on liberation and legacy.<\/p>\n
Producer: Daniel Pereira\/The Stone and the Plot (Portugal)
Director: Manuel Mozos
Genre: Documentary<\/p>\n
Jornal do Fund\u00e3o, an 80-year-old local newspaper from the small town of Fund\u00e3o, innovated from the start \u2013 fighting dictatorship, underlining the importance of arts and culture, maintaining independence and striving for equality. What it built in Fund\u00e3o is still visible today.<\/p>\n
In a world of rising authoritarian politics and policies, the filmmaker presents the story of a newspaper as a textbook for resistance, reminding us that democratic and empathic values are not negotiable. From the particular to the universal.<\/p>\n
Producers: Ashley J. Smith and Mario Adamson\/Sisyfos Film (Sweden), Clara Harris\/Sisyfos Film (Scotland), Anita Norfolk\/Folk Film (Norway)
Director: Gustav Littorin
Genre: Creative Documentary<\/p>\n
A group of outsiders on the autism spectrum find community in the most unlikely of places\u2026elevators.<\/p>\n
Through a warm and playful approach, \u201cElevated\u201d plunges viewers into the heart of the elevator enthusiast community. This journey into the unknown peels away the drab, utilitarian surface of everyday life and shows us that magic is often hidden in plain sight.<\/p>\n
Producer: Danai Anagnostou\/Kenno Filmi (Finland)
Director: Mariangela Pluchino
Genre: Hybrid Documentary<\/p>\n
In a triangle of fishing villages on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, Jes\u00fas (33), a queer fisherman, sets off on a dreamlike, surreal and contemplative journey aboard his small boat, guided by an eternal lightning storm. A group of swimming pigs watches from the water, narrating histories of dispossession, colonialism and uncertainty.<\/p>\n
Using supernatural elements, the film imagines a submerged Venezuela \u2013 trapped in a swamp of oblivion \u2013 where people choose exile in isolated aquatic villages, portrayed in Latin American postcolonial narratives as victims of external interests, false progress and unequal modernization.<\/p>\n
Producers: Audrey-Ann Dupuis-Pierre\/Portage Films (Canada), Robert Vroom and Ariel Nasr\/National Film Board of Canada
Director: Carol Nguyen
Genre: Documentary<\/p>\n
In this deeply personal documentary, a family journeys to Vietnam, where they confront long-unspoken questions about an uncle\u2019s mysterious death.<\/p>\n
A companion to the award-winning short \u201cNo Crying at the Dinner Table,\u201d \u201cStill Night, Burning House\u201d marks the feature debut of Vietnamese Canadian filmmaker Carol Nguyen. In her most personal work yet, Nguyen shows how togetherness and storytelling can transform grief into healing, hope and restored kinship.<\/p>\n
Producers: Luiza Paiva\/Mairare Ltd. (United Kingdom\/Brazil), Julia Alves\/Quarta-Feira Films (Brazil)
Director: Bruna Carvalho Almeida
Genre: Hybrid Documentary<\/p>\n
After a financial crisis, B\u00e1rbara returns home to replace her mother as a community health worker. Visiting families on S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s outskirts, she connects with women burdened by care and threatened with displacement from a waterway project, confronting her own struggles through the reflections of their shared experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Lake Full of Stones\u201d is a character-driven documentary set on the outskirts of S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil, where B\u00e1rbara\u2019s personal journey intersects with a community\u2019s fight against displacement. Blending care, resistance and expression, the film offers a powerful lens on social, political and climate crises\u2014and on the strength of collective action.<\/p>\n
Producer: Danilo Lazovi\u0107\/DOK 33 Production (Serbia)
Director: Danilo Lazovi\u0107
Genre: Creative Documentary\/Cross-Media\/Art & Politics<\/p>\n
One hundred years ago, the Yugoslav avant-garde imagined a new world. Now, we build a digital ghost of its leader. Through archives, machine learning, and embodied AI, \u201cZenit: Endless Rebellion\u201d brings Ljubomir Mici\u0107 back \u2014 asking what happens when radical ideas meet synthetic memory.<\/p>\n
More than a film, this is a resurrection: a documentary narrative fused with a bespoke AI agent built from the writings and gestures of Ljubomir Mici\u0107. Using archival depth and new technology, it challenges how we remember artistic rebellion \u2014 and confronts the political forces determined to erase it.<\/p>\n
Producer: Zoran D\u017eeverdanovi\u0107\/Blade Production (Slovenia)
Director: Igor Zupe
Genre: Future-Mentary (\u2026 based on real events yet to occur\u2026)\/Hybrid Documentary<\/p>\n
Slovenian theater director Dragan \u017divadinov has spent five decades turning his life into a single, continuous performance. His finale: to launch into space from Baikonur. \u201cEnd of Gravity\u201d follows this radical artistic mission, blending documentary and future-fiction into a portrait of a man who treats the cosmos as a stage.<\/p>\n
Rooted in real people and a real plan, \u201cEnd of Gravity\u201d merges philosophy, art, space science and geopolitics. It\u2019s a rare cinematic journey across nations and time, offering co-producers a chance to support a visually striking, internationally relevant story about the cultural conquest of space. One man. One rocket. One idea.<\/p>\n
Producer: Zofia Kujawska, Telemark (Poland)
Director: Dorota Ro\u015b
Genre: Creative Documentary<\/p>\n
After losing his voice to larynx cancer surgery, Konrad works on creating an AI-powered device to speak again. What begins as a quest to rebuild his voice evolves into a journey to truly find it\u2014through love, friendship and the rediscovery of identity, self-acceptance and happiness.<\/p>\n
An empowering portrait of a young man fighting to reclaim a connection with himself and his body in the era of technological revolution. Blending documentary observation with AI-generated inner voice from Konrad, the film allows us not only to see but also to hear his intimate world.<\/p>\n
Producers: Monika Lo\u0161\u0165\u00e1kov\u00e1, Jakub Viktor\u00edn\/nutprodukcia (Slovakia), Luk\u00e1\u0161 Koke\u0161\/nutprodukce (Czech Republic)
Director: Ivana Huc\u00edkov\u00e1
Genre: Creative Documentary<\/p>\n
Through vivid moments of everyday life and dreamlike sequences, the film follows young queer people in Eastern Europe as they navigate isolation, prejudice, and the search for belonging. Within the vibrant ballroom scene, they discover a space for self-expression, solidarity, and the courage to live authentically despite societal pressures.<\/p>\n
Marking the director\u2019s debut feature, this visually rich documentary offers unprecedented access to the ballroom culture of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Blending digital and 16mm film, it captures a world of performance, beauty, and defiance \u2013 revealing how a close-knit queer community builds sanctuary, identity, and joy in an unaccepting environment.<\/p>\n
Producers: Irene Mu\u00f1oz Mart\u00edn, Autre Terre (Switzerland), Quentin Goujout, Visage Productions (France)
Director: Quentin Goujout
Genre: Hybrid Documentary<\/p>\n
\u201cSissy\u201d revisits the iconic figure of Empress Elisabeth of Austria through the lens of LGBTQ+ history and identity. By amplifying the voices of gay men over 60, the film explores how historical figures can mirror contemporary struggles for freedom and inclusion. This unique hybrid documentary fosters intergenerational dialogue and preserves Geneva\u2019s queer memory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"