The DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (Festival Director Chang Hae Rang, hereinafter DMZ Docs) aims to promote the values of “Peace, Life, and Communication” through documentaries, and it announces 24 DMZ Docs Pitch projects to participate in the documentary market, held from September 15 to September 19, 2023.
DMZ Docs Industry discovers, supports, and fosters outstanding documentary projects from Korea and Asia, and it organizes a documentary market during the festival so that global documentary industry professionals and filmmakers can meet and interact with each other actively.
DMZ Docs Pitch is a program that discovers documentary projects in production and introduces them to people engaged in the global documentary industry. For Korean and Asian documentary filmmakers who are producing meaningful documentaries in tough environments, the DMZ Docs Pitch provides invaluable opportunity to receive feedback on documentary production from experts. It also identifies the industrial demands to help the Korean and Asian documentary filmmakers secure funding. The DMZ Docs Pitch offers prize money to award winners and arranges meetings and individual consultations with broadcasting commissioners, funders, film festival staff, and sales and distribution companies for the pitch participants.
A total of 123 entries from 37 countries were submitted for The DMZ Docs Pitch Program this year. The selection committees were composed of documentary experts from diverse fields and countries. The selection committee members include Korean members such as Filmmaker July JUNG, Moyoung Jin, Producer Gary Byungseok Kam, Editor Yeon Jung Lee, Muju Film Festival Programmer JO Ji Hoon, International members such as Producer Karim AITOUNA, Consultant Patrizia MANCINI, Producer Uldis CEKULIS, and DMZ Docs members such as Deputy Director OH Jung Hoon, Head of Programmer JANG Byungwon, and Industry Producer Sunah KIM.
This year’s Global Pitch entries cover diverse topics, including women, poverty, adoption, disability, death, labor, environment, migration, gender, youth, elderly, and family issues. A member of the selection committee who reviewed the Korean entries said, “I could feel each project’s efforts to cover a wide range of topics and view diverse and sharp issues in Korean society from their own point of view and each producer’s struggles to complete the works even in tough conditions.” A member of the selection committee who reviewed Rough Cut Pitch said, “I selected the works by considering different aspects, such as novelty of topic, appealing power, expectation for completeness, and need for assistance.”
The DMZ Docs Pitch entries are projects under production process or editing process, and all of them are granted 2 million won as a cash grant. They will be also participating in the Public Pitching during the DMZ Docs Documentary Market period and will be having one-to-one business meetings with global documentary industry professionals. After Public Pitching, the best project will be granted a total of 220 million won in cash and in kind as additional funds for completing the project.
The 15th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival will be held from September 14 to September 21, 2023 and 2023 DMZ Docs Documentary Market will be held from September 15 to September 19, 2023, at Paju-si and Goyang Special city, Gyeonggi-do.
