The 13th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival (DMZ Docs / Organizing Committee Chairman: Lee Jae-myung, Festival Director: Jung Sang-jin) unveiled the DMZ Industry 2021 Official Projects.
DMZ Industry is Asia’s largest documentary support platform that is part of the DMZ Docs. DMZ Docs launched DMZ Industry in 2019 in hopes of systemizing the production support programs during film festivals and to build a comprehensive documentary industry platform for both domestic and international creators.
DMZ Industry aims to discover promising documentary projects that are in the development, production and rought cut stages, and to provide support for completing their works and to present them to the public. There are plans to increase the value of production support to around 500 million Korean won and to provide customized support by dividing up the fields of application. As a result numbers of documentary projects from 38 countries were submitted this year, which has further strengthened DMZ Industry’s position as the leading documentary industry platform beyond Korea, but the Asian region.
After many screenings and much deliberation by the selection committee since May, a total of 33 projects across 19 countries were selected. It is worth noting that 21 projects out of the 33 selected were from up-and-coming directors, whilst over half were works by female directors. This has highlighted the strengths of up-and-coming and female directors. It has also been noted that diversity was secured with projects from various countries, such as Korean projects co-produced with other countries such as Romania and Ukraine, and projects from West Asia such as Jordan and Iraq, were also selected.
Production support will be provided for the selected projects to complete their work, and the directors will be given the opportunity to participate in pitching and business meetings for industry officials at the main DMZ Industry event.
"DMZ Docs considers the role of an industrial platform as important as screening new works," said Jung Sang-jin, the Festival Director for DMZ Docs. "We once again congratulate the directors and staffs of the selected projects and promise to help create good documentaries to reach more audiences."
The 13th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival will be held in Goyang and Paju City, Gyeonggi Province, for 8 days between 9th to 16th of September 2021. DMZ Industry, an industry program, will run alongside the festival for 4 days from 13th to 16th of September 2021.
| 
