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Writing Hawa by Afghan filmmaker Najiba Noori and co-directed by Rasul Noori is set to world premiere in the international competition at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) on Nov. 17. Now, a first trailer reveals a first look at the documentary about a 52-year-old woman in Afghanistan who, after her arranged marriage, is looking to emancipate herself.

“Filmed over five years, Writing Hawa is the story of three generations of Hazara women from the same family in Afghanistan,” says a description of the doc. The Hazaras are an ethnic group in the country.

“With unique access and empathy, director Najiba Noori films her mother Hawa and her niece Zahra in their aspirations to emancipate themselves from patriarchal traditions,” the synopsis explains. “Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa is 52 years old when she can truly start learning to read and write. With the support of her daughter, she opens...

Switzerland-based First Hand Films has boarded international sales on Najiba Noori’s documentary Writing Hawa.

The film will have its world premiere in the International Competition at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) next month.

Filmed over five years, Writing Hawa tells the story of three generations of Hazara women from the same family in Afghanistan, including those forced into child marriage, suffering abuse from men and learning to read, write and start businesses.

It is produced by Christian Popp of France’s Tag Film, co-produced by Hasse van Nunen and Renko Douze for the Netherlands’ Een van de jongens. The...

Als 24-teilige Mediatheks-Weekly ist das neue Zdf-Format „Crystal Wall“ mit Anna Bardavelidze in der Hauptrolle als Mixed-Martial-Arts-Bodyguard angelegt. Creative Producerin ist Birgit Maiwald.

Gustav Schmidt (l.) Anna Bardavelidze (Credit: Zdf/Reza Rasouli)

In der New-Adult-Serie „Crystal Wall“ (At), die derzeit in Berlin und Wien für das Zdf entsteht, rettet Mixed-Martial-Arts-Kämpferin Louna Lloris (Anna Bardavelidze) dem Millionenerben Nicolas Dardenne (Gustav Schmidt) das Leben und wird fortan als sein neuer Bodyguard engagiert. Die Dreharbeiten laufen noch bis in den November.

Die 24-teilige Mediatheks-Weekly wird nach den Drehbüchern von Creative Producerin und Headautorin Birgit Maiwald sowie den Autorinnen und Autoren Florian Vey, Silva Raddatz, Aglef Püschel, Burkhardt Wunderlich und Katja Grübel gedreht. Regie führen Tarek Roehlinger (Folge 1‒12) und Greta Benkelmann (Folge 13‒24). „Crystal Wall“ (At) wird im Auftrag des Zdf von Producers at Work Film (Produzenten: Christian Popp und Stefan Sporbert) produziert. Die Redaktion im Zdf haben Elisabeth Müller und Jasmin Verkoyen. Theresa Schreiber...

Eleven documentary projects from 11 countries have been selected for the Intl. Documentary Assn.’s annual Enterprise Documentary Fund Production Grant.

Selected from 371 applicants, the 15 directors behind the 11 docus will receive a total of $435,000 in production grants.

Established in 2017, the IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund supports in-depth explorations of original, contemporary stories that integrate journalistic practice into the filmmaking process. The fund is financially supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, with additional support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. In its seven-year history, the fund has given over $5 million in grant money to nonfiction filmmakers.

The selected projects are currently in production in 11 countries including the U.S., Philippines, Brazil, France, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Italy and Afghanistan. Of the 15 directors behind the docs, 46% are filmmakers of color, 69% are women or gender-non-conforming filmmakers, 12% identify as members of the Lgbtqia+ community, and 8% identify as a D/deaf or disabled person or have long-term health conditions.

Iryna Tsilyk’s documentary offers a female perspective on the war in Ukraine.

Iryna Tsilyk’s Red Zone received a special €20,000 Eurimages development award at Cph:dox, as part of the Cph:Forum industry winners on March 23.

The first-time award was given in support of and solidarity with the Ukrainian film industry, to the best pitch by a Ukrainian film.

It was selected by jurors Emma Scott, head of distribution and short film production at Screen Ireland, plus producers Rikke Tambo Andersen of Tambo Film and Heino Deckert Makri of ma.je.de.

The jurors praised an “innovative look at the inner...

Three projects pitched at Cph:forum – the industry program of Cph:dox, the Copenhagen-based documentary festival – have been awarded cash prizes. They are Robin Petré’s “Only on Earth,” Iryna Tsilyk’s “Red Zone” and Yegor Troyanovsky’s “Cuba & Alaska.” The filmmakers were awarded at a ceremony in the Danish capital on Thursday.

Petré’s “Only on Earth” garnered the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award worth €20,000 for best pitch. The docu, produced by Signe Skov Thomsen, and Malene Flindt Pedersen, depicts a journey deep into one of Europe’s hottest fire zones, Galicia, where wild horses roam the mountains under the watch of local cowboys. These horses are excellent at fire prevention, but now they are vanishing in the clash between humans and nature.

Emma Scott, Rikke Tambo Andersen (producer at Tambo Film) and Heino Deckert Makri (producer at ma.ja.de.) made up the team of jurors for the Eurimages Co-Production Development Award.

Cph:forum, the financing and co-production event held during Cph:dox documentary film festival in Copenhagen, will introduce new projects by filmmakers such as Ljubomir Stefanov (“Honeyland”), Jessica Kingdon (“Ascension”), Finlay Pretsell (“Time Trial”), Ousmane Samassekou (“The Last Shelter”), Mila Turajlić (“The Other Side of Everything”), Tonislav Hristov (“The Good Postman”), Iryna Tsilyk (“The Earth Is Blue as an Orange”) and Brett Story (“The Hottest August”), among others.

Stefanov, who was nominated for an Oscar for “Honeyland,” will be pitching “House of Earth.” He teams with producer Maya E. Rudolph, who produced Emmy-nominated “The Andy Warhol Diaries,” and Sarah D’hanens. The film centers on transgender sex worker Pinky, who returns to her Roma community after 30 years, and finds two families in need of a matriarch. Torn between her biological kin and chosen queer family, Pinky attempts to build a future that feels like home.

Kingdon, who was Oscar nominated for “Ascension,” arrives with “Untitled Animal Project,...

Cph:dox also sets work-in-progress, Change co-production selections.

New feature documentaries from Honeyland director Ljubomir Stefanov and Ascension filmmaker Jessica Kingdon are among the 33 projects selected for Cph:Forum, the financing and co-production market of Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival.

Macedonian filmmaker Stefanov is presenting House of Earth, about a transgender sex worker who returns to her Roma community after 30 years on the run, only to be torn between her biological kin and her chosen queer family. The Macedonian-us co-production is produced by Maya E. Rudolph and Sarah D’hanens, and is looking for €405,000 funding to supplement its €45,000 in place from Louverture Films and private equity.

German festival held awards ceremony on Friday (October 7)

Slovak director Michal Blasko’s debut feature Victim has won the Hamburg Producers Prize for International Cinema Co-Productions at Filmfest Hamburg.

The €25,000 prize sponsored by Hamburg’s Senate for Culture and Media was presented to the film’s German co-producers, Michael Reuter and Yogev Saar of Berlin-based Electric Sheep.

Victim debuted in Horizons at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, going on to play in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

The film follows a Ukrainian immigrant living with her son in a small Czech border town. She is devastated when he is...

German festival held awards ceremony on Friday (October 7)

Slovak director Michal Blasko’s debut feature Victim has won the Hamburg Producers Prize for International Cinema Co-Productions at Filmfest Hamburg.

The €25,000 prize sponsored by Hamburg’s Senate for Culture and Media was presented to the film’s German co-producers, Michael Reuter and Yogev Saar of Berlin-based Electric Sheep.

Victim debuted in Horizons at Venice Film Festival earlier this month, going on to play in Contemporary World Cinema at Toronto.

The film follows a Ukrainian immigrant living with her son in a small Czech border town. She is devastated when he is...

20 feature films, 17 documentaries and 20 TV dramas set for pitching forum.

A slate of 20 feature films, 17 documentaries and 20 TV dramas have been selected for the pitching session at the fourth edition of the Mia Market in Rome (October 17-21).

Feature Film

This year’s feature film projects, which come from 16 different countries, were selected by Jason Ishikawa (international sales at Cinetic Media), Anne Lai (cirector of creative producing and artist support for the feature film program at the Sundance Institute) and Sophie Mas (producer at Rt Features). Half the projects are directed by women.

Among these are productions that passed through the Sundance Screenwriting lab,...

Hot projects at Paris-based crossmedia market and conference included Game Fever, Shiva Destroys Sex and Wei or Die.

The fifth edition of the Paris-based transmedia event Cross Video Days unfolded in a refurbished warehouse on the edge of the French capital last week (June 19-20).

Founded in 2010, the same year as Apple launched the first iPad, the event has grown in sync with the transmedia scene as the film, television, press and advertising worlds increasingly embrace a cross-media approach.

Some 1,000 people from 29 countries attended its cross-media content market and conference programme this year, including 60 commissioners and decision-makers.

“Nobody in the audio-visual world can ignore the digital question anymore – whether they’re working in documentary, fiction, cinema or education – a crossmedia approach is increasingly relevant,” said the event’s founder Bruno Smadja.

In a panel looking at how traditional broadcasters were increasingly embracing the web, Amanda Farnworth talked about her work as the head of the broadcaster’s visual...

Downtown Abey producer Carnival Films and Big Light Productions are developing a crime series about Sigmund Freud created by X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz.

Set in early 20th Century Vienna, Freud: The Secret Casebook will see psychoanalyst Freud turn his skills to criminal profiling and crime-solving.

According to Downton Abbey-producer Carnival, the series will “blend episodic murder mysteries with the on-going story of Freud’s tangled and provocative personal life”.

Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant for Carnival are exec producing, along with Alan Gasmer and Matt Baer and producing duo Christian Popp and Alexander Keil of Germany’s Producers at Work.

The project is currently casting and directors.

Freud is being written by and writer-director Nicholas Meyer, best known for features Somersby and three of the films in the Star Trek franchise. Most recently he wrote A&E TV movie Houdini.

‎Writer/producer Frank Spotnitz ("The X-Files") and writer/director Nicholas Meyer ("Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan") have teamed to develop a crime series centering on psychologist Sigmund Freud.

Carnival Films ("Downton Abbey") will produce "Freud: The Secret Casebook" which follows the father of psychoanalysis as he becomes history's first criminal profiler in early 20th century Vienna.

The series is said to blend "episodic murder mysteries with the on-going story of Freud’s tangled and provocative personal life." Big Light Productions ("Transporter: The Series") is also developing the project which has yet to be ordered by a network.

Gareth Neame ("Downton Abbey"), Alan Gasmer ("Vikings") and Matt Baer ("Unbroken"), Nigel Marchant, Christian Popp and Alexander Keil will produce.

Source: THR...

X Files veteran Frank Spotnitz moved to London for Cinemax/BBC series Hunted a few years back, and in 2013 launched London-based Big Light Productions. Now, he’s digging even further into the UK TV scene. Spotnitz and Nicholas Meyer (Houdini) have created crime series Freud: The Secret Casebook. NBC Universal-owned Downton Abbey producer Carnival Films will produce with Big Light. The period drama will see Sigmund Freud become the world’s first criminal profiler. Set in early 20th century Vienna, the series will focus on Freud as he uses his startling new theories about psychology to help solve crimes, and will blend episodic murder mysteries with the on-going tale of the psychoanalyst-cum-detective’s tangled and provocative personal life. The project is out to cast and directors. Downton‘s Gareth Neame is exec producing with Nigel Marchant for Carnival; Alan Gasmer (Vikings), Matt Baer (Unbroken) and Christian Popp and Alexander Keil...

BERLIN -- Christian Popp, the producer behind hit German-language soap opera That's Life, has set up a new production house with commercial broadcaster ProSiebenSat.1, the parties said Thursday. That's Life, which is based on the hit Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty la Fea (I Am Ugly Betty), has been a major success for ProSiebenSat.1's Berlin-based channel Sat.1, regularly grabbing a 20% market share and upwards of 4 million viewers daily.