Sunny Side of the Doc Launching First Edition of Global Pitch

Sunny Side of the Doc is organizing Global Pitch, a two-day online event of international pitch sessions to be held on February 2 and 3.

The event will be centered around investigative and current affairs projects on topics relating to the climate crisis, health, economy or social and political issues. The deadline for submitting entries is December 10.

Global Pitch is part of an initiative to support the documentary community all year long through a series of interactive online events. Amid the current COVID-19 crisis, this new initiative offers a more global approach to the international marketplace held in La Rochelle.

For the Global Pitch, Sunny Side of the Doc is looking for investigative and current affairs projects (in development or in production) across feature films, series, short formats, multimedia concepts and immersive and XR experiences. Projects must have strong potential on the international market and be related to the themes of climate and environment, science and health, economy, or social and political issues.

The Global Pitch call for projects is open to all talent from all over the world (producers, directors, distributors and creators of linear, interactive and immersive content) looking for funding and new contacts to make their projects happen. Submitted projects that develop an impact campaign on different channels or multi-screens will be favored.

Mathieu Béjot, director of strategy and development at Sunny Side, said: “The world is experiencing many issues and challenges, and the documentary genre has now more than ever a decisive role to play when it comes to understanding the present-day world, inspiring change and shining a light on action for the future.”

During the two days of pitch sessions, a selection of 12 investigative and current affairs projects will be presented to a panel of top-level decision-makers. Each pitch will be followed by a live five-minute Q&A session and will continue via pre-arranged one-on-one meetings with buyers and commissioning editors. Each session will be held twice during the day—the morning will be for industry professionals in Asia, the Middle East and Europe and the evening will be for those in the Americas and Europe. The same applies for the Q&A sessions and one-on-one meetings.

Television channels and funders that have already confirmed their participation and interest include France Télévisions, Arte France, Knowledge Network, SVT, RTS, YLE, BBC 4, NHK, Autentic, MDR, SWR, WGBH, WNET, Terra Mater, Sandbox, Little Dot Studios, Impact Partners and International Documentary Association.

The best-pitched project will be awarded thanks to Sunny Side’s sponsors, on the selection of an independent jury. The awarded creative team will be invited to present their project in June 2021 in La Rochelle and will receive two free accreditations.

Béjot concluded: “By developing ‘Storytelling Matters’ as our editorial line throughout the year, the aim of Sunny Side of the Doc is to innovate, discover and embrace new perspectives offered to the documentary genre in every sense and form. We ought to support multi-faceted and independent productions which open up new future prospects for our industry, not only over the four-day event but also over the coming months.”